Beren and the One That Got Away

[Inziladun]

A while back, there was a thread that questioned whether Fingolfin could have potentially killed Morgoth's physical form when the two of them fought. My thought at the time was that he couldn't have, due to the physical superiority of Morgoth, and possibly the Curse of Mandos. However, some one other than Fingolfin had the opportunity to destroy Morgoth's physical body. Lúthien put Morgoth into a trance when she and Beren entered Angband, and

Suddenly [Morgoth] fell, as a hill sliding in avalanche, and hurled like thunder from his throne lay prone upon the floors of hell. The iron crown rolled echoing from his head. All things were still....Then Beren drew forth the knife Angrist; and from the iron claws that held it he cut a Silmaril.

The Silmarillion Of Beren and Lúthien


Beren got greedy, however.

It came then into Beren's mind that he would....bear out of Angband all three of the jewels of Fëanor.....The knife Angrist snapped, and a shard of the blade flying smote the cheek of Morgoth.

There Beren was, Morgoth helpless in front of him, nothing stopping him from dealing a serious, or even fatal wound to Morgoth with the knife.
Could Beren have killed Morgoth?
If so, I would expect Morgoth could have re-bodied, just as Sauron did. Like Sauron however, it might have taken a long time; time for the Eldar and Edain to gather their strength and devise new strategies against Angband, maybe. At the least it would have changed the history of Beleriand.
Did Beren allow a once-in-a-lifetime chance to slip away?

[Erendis]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Could Beren have killed Morgoth?
If so, I would expect Morgoth could have re-bodied, just as Sauron did. Like Sauron however, it might have taken a long time; time for the Eldar and Edain to gather their strength and devise new strategies against Angband, maybe. At the least it would have changed the history of Beleriand.

I don't think so.Persuming Beren achieved a fatal wound to Morgoth's hroa,he and Luthien would flee Angband easily,because,like with Sauron in Dargolad,all the beings under his will would have paniced and Carcharoth wouldn't wait for them at the Gates,nor had a sacred gem burning his stomach and might even not reached Doriath.

So,no fearsome couple returning from Mandos having the Silmaril.And there are still the offended Celegrom and Curufin.

In short,I believe that having Morgrth temporarily out of order would have just left the Eldar and the Edain to fight over for the Silmarill without Morgoth to their backs.

Watch the "third Age Model" too.Did the free people of Middle-Earth prospered and made sure their defences were strong?Somehow they ended up on the verge of distruction when Sauron returned,and he even had not regained all his formaer power.

[Pitchwife]

Nice question. I think Morgoth could have been physically killed - after all, Myths Transformed tells us that the Valar did exactly that to him after the War of Wrath; now Beren wasn't a Vala, of course, but he was in the perfect position to at least try it. So why indeed didn't he just slit Morgoth's throat instead of fiddling around with the Silmarils?

I have a hunch that the crucial point wasn't ability, but ethics - as in, the Eldar (and the Edain by extension) probably didn't consider it right to kill a helpless foe under any circumstances except in lawful execution of a condemned criminal (like when Eöl was taught bungee-jumping without a rubber band). Impractical to the point of foolishness when applied to someone like Morgoth, maybe, but that's just how I'd expect these people to tick.

Beren may also have felt something like Frodo did when he said about Saruman:

'No, Sam!'[...]'Do not kill him even now. Fo he has not hurt me. And in any case I do not wish him to be slain in this evil mood. He was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare to raise our hand against. He is fallen, and his cure is beyond us; but I would still spare him, in the hope that he may find it.'

(Emphasis mine)
If there was little chance of repentance and cure in Saruman's case, it was converging on zero in Morgoth's; but the chief point of comparison for me is a mortal's reluctance to kill an Ainu, due to the feeling that a being of higher order should be dealt with by their peers (or in Saruman's case, superiors) - i.e. the Valar; and note that the host of Aman didn't kill Morgoth on the spot either when he was taken captive, but brought him before the Valar to be tried for his crimes, condemned and executed.

[Galadriel55]

I agree with Pitch, but I want to add that maybe Beren was in kind of a stupor from all of the things that just happened to him, and from feeling Morgoth's power and majesty. He must have been overwhemed, and the only thing in his ind would be to get Silmarils. If Beren would have had some time to recover, aybe he would kill Morgoth.
Also, it's easy to say "kill Morgoth", but its hard to make yourself do it. It's not only killing a superior, as Pitch said, but doing in the mightiest, ost powerful being. Wouldn't that fill you with, well, awe?
So there are two possible versions - that Beren willingly let Morgoth live, due to ethics, honour, mercy, or whatever other reason, and that he just didn't consider doing it for reasons mentioned above. It could be both - at first he was too shocked, and when he recovered his wits he decided to spare him...

[Puddleglum]

There may be a couple of more considerations here.

1) While it may be possible to unbody a Vala, it may not be so simple as it seems - even when he is asleep. Consider the following (humerous) sequence:

• Beren: I'll get rid of Morgoth once and for all. <Stabs Angrist to the hilt into Morgoth's chest>
• Morgoth: <suddenly waking and reaching out to clutch Beren's throat>: Silly boy. That's not where I keep my heart.

It's not even clear the knife was long enough to deal a death blow to an enbodied Vala.

2) The workings of Fate.

Fate prevented even so simple a thing as cutting a second Silmaril from the crown (causing the knife to snap). Most likely, Fate would have similarly (in some fashion) prevented the unbodying of Morgoth at that time - even had Beren thought to try.

[Blind Guardian]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

• Beren: I'll get rid of Morgoth once and for all. <Stabs Angrist to the hilt into Morgoth's chest>
• Morgoth: <suddenly waking and reaching out to clutch Beren's throat>: Silly boy. That's not where I keep my heart.

.

And he was wearing armour, wasn't he? Probably would have woken up all of Angband getting to his heart!