Melkor's Appearance

[Inderjit Sanghera]

.K, I’ve got a important question here. In The Silmarillion, it is said that Melkor after the slaying of the trees couldn’t or wouldn’t change his form, which was the one that he had worn as the tyrant of Utumno, dark and terrible.

Yet, in Morgoth’s ring, or more specifically in Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, Andreth is talking about the first fall of man, in which a great being, most probably Melkor came to them in a ‘fair semblance.’

So ,what is going on? How can Melkor, who couldn’t change his terrible form again come back in a fair semblance? There are several possibilities. One that it is Sauron, not Melkor who went to woo men, yet it is written that it was Melkor himself who went to woo men, not Sauron, who commanded the War for him, for a brief time.

Or maybe, due to the inherent weakness of the fea of men, or their innocence, Melkor was able to trick them? Or is it possible that men woke before the rising of the sun? I know Tolkien one intended this to be so, or at least contemplated the notion of it happening, they awoke during the great march of the elves, but were rooted on an island and when the Sun came it dried up the water. So could the round earth theory be worked into the Revised Silmarillion, as the Athrabeth seems to be in Lindil’s list.

Though, Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth is littered with mistakes such as Andreth’s presumption that Turin will come back to slay Ancalagon and Tolkien’s BIG mistake in Finrod talking about the death of Fingolfin years before it happened, I don’t think he would make a mistake this big. Or are the folk of Hador (Who the story comes from) just trying to lessen their shame by saying that men were tricked by Melkor and initially they saw him as a evil character and chose to worship him?

[tangerine]

After he had slain the trees he lost the ability to change his form, or walk invisible again, for his power and spirit had been spent in his hatred and the mockery of the works and creatures of Arda. The fair semblance sounds like what Sauron did to the smiths of Eregion and the kings of men in the second Age, and Morgoth did something similar when he was released from his prison in Aman, making himself appear fair and wise (before he could no longer do so) to the Noldor so they would be trusting as he sowed the seeds of doubt and unrest among them.
I don't think the men went that way in the first Age. I think that a good chunk of them were heavily influeced by fear, and didn't want to get clobbered by the biggest bully in the playground.
Also, the men in Tuor's time were promised alot of things that they never got, which would have made them bitter, and even more opressive about the few things they were able to control.

[Inderjit Sanghera]

Tangerine-the discontnet of the men of Tuor's time is diffrent form the original fall of man. They were already 'evil Men'-Men were not in their beggining 'Evil'.

Though they were 'tarnished' as were all things in M-E, due to Melkor's dispersion of power throughout the land.

[ January 17, 2003: Message edited by: Inderjit Sanghera ]