Transcription
Tolken told us that Morgoth had a ring of sorts, like Sauron had a Ring of Power. It was clearly very important in Tolkin's world, but what was Morgoth's Ring?
Hi everyone, this is Robert. Welcome to Inep Geek. On this channel, we dive deep into Tolkin's legendarium as well as other great fantasy worlds like A Song of Ice and Fire and The Witcher. If you like the sound of that, there's a subscribe button in the bottom right of the screen.
There are many important rings throughout Tolkin's legendarium, most notably the One Ring and the Rings of Power, of course. But what about Morgoth's Ring? Morgoth, or Melkor, was the original big baddy in Tolkin's legendarium, and one of the volumes of Christopher Tolkin's epic history of Middle Earth series was called Morgoth's Ring. So what was it, and what relation did it have to Sauron's Ring?
Well, when you dig into it, you'll find that Morgoth's Ring is actually one of the foundational ideas or concepts in Tolkin's whole creation. To understand it, it's perhaps best to start with this quote from one of Tolkin's essays: "Just as Sauron concentrated his power in the One Ring, Morgoth dispersed his power into the very matter of Arda. Thus, the whole of Middle Earth was Morgoth's Ring."
So Tolkin wants us to link the two: Morgoth's Ring and Sauron's Ring. Let's start with Sauron, as we already have an instinctive understanding of what he did there in creating the One Ring. He poured much of his will and power into it, concentrating it into that one Ring, so it contained in concentrated form his essence, his life strength.
There's a lot of different words we could use to describe it, but as we know, the impact was that when he wore it, he became that much stronger. When he didn't have it, he was weaker, and when it was destroyed, then so would he be, or at least he would lose his ability to have a physical form.
Now, Sauron doesn't seem to have come up with this idea all by himself. For thousands of years, he had been the chief lieutenant of Morgoth and undoubtedly learned much from him. In particular, he seemingly learned about what we might think of as ring magic, but it was probably more accurately magic in which you put a part of yourself, your power, or soul, as it were, into something inanimate.
So what did Morgoth put a part of his power into? Well, to go back to that quote from Tolkin, the whole of Middle Earth was Morgoth's Ring. Impressive, but what does that mean? Tolkin went on to explain what Morgoth had done like this: "A vaster, more perilous procedure, though of similar sort to the operation of Sauron with the Rings. Thus, outside of the Blessed Realm, all matter was likely to have a Melkor ingredient, as it were, a tendency, small or great, towards Melkor. They were none of them wholly free of him in their incarnate form, and their bodies had an effect upon their spirits."
So Melkor, Morgoth, thus put a part of himself into everything—not just Middle Earth, incidentally, but all of creation. As with Sauron and his Ring, this therefore tied his fate to that of creation and made creation at least partly reflective of him. It was no longer this perfect creation brought forth by Eru Ilúvatar and sung forth by the Ainur. It all had this tendency, in Tolkin's language, towards him and his rebellion.
In typical Tolkin fashion, he had a name for this idea: Arda Marred. This is the in-universe term for the Fallen World. Morgoth is, in many ways, an analog for Satan in Christian theology—the great enemy who rebelled, and his fall caused others to fall, and ultimately the whole world fell.
We see this symbolically as well as practically at the start of The Silmarillion when Morgoth, or Melkor as he was then known, sings notes of discord during the music of the Ainulindalë. This tarnished Eru's original design, which then fed into the actual creation. Eru honored the music the Ainur created, imperfections and all, and Arda was marred from the start.
But even then, it might not have been as marred as it later became. Other beings joined Melkor in his rebellion inside this new creation, many like Sauron and the Balrogs at first, and later much of mankind. Even if Melkor were reformed or cast out of Arda entirely, these other creatures could continue to perpetuate evil.
With Morgoth pouring the greater part of his primeval spiritual potential into all the matter of the world, Arda was well and truly marred. Morgoth's discordant notes may have been the catalyst for all of this, but the Fallen World would remain Fallen even without him. As Finrod says, "Even if Melkor could in any way be thrown down or cast from Arda, still his shadow would remain, and the evil that he has wrought and sown as a seed would wax and multiply."
The comparison between Sauron's Ring and what Morgoth accomplished was not merely analogous; it was the same process, albeit on different scales. Because Melkor was, in his beginning, far more powerful. But there was a crucial difference.
Tolkin writes that Sauron's relatively smaller power was concentrated; Morgoth's vast power was disseminated. The whole of Middle Earth was Morgoth's Ring. Sauron's power was not, for example, in gold as such, but in a particular form or shape of a particular portion of total gold. Morgoth's power was disseminated throughout gold, if nowhere absolute, for he did not create gold; it was nowhere absent.
Sauron was less powerful but pushed his power into just one small thing. Morgoth was infinitely more powerful but pushed his power everywhere, which actually helped Sauron because he could use what Morgoth had already done.
We read Sauron, however, inherited the corruption of Arda and only spent his much more limited power on the Rings. It was this Morgoth element in matter, indeed, which was a prerequisite for such magic and other evils as Sauron practiced with it and upon it. Because of what Morgoth did, all of Arda, Middle Earth, was marred or Fallen. That empowered Sauron to do what he did.
As an aside, if you've ever read Tales of the First Age of Middle Earth and wondered how Morgoth, in his physical form, was capable of being matched sometimes in combat with much lesser beings, it's because of this dissemination of his power. He wasn't the being he once was. Indeed, it's likely that Sauron, with all his power concentrated in that One Ring, was eventually mightier than Morgoth, with all his power spread out across the entire world.
And there is one more crucial implication of the difference in scale of Morgoth and Sauron's Rings. Though Frodo might disagree, destroying Sauron's Ring was actually relatively straightforward—just dropping it into the cracks of Doom. I said relatively straightforward, though, because consider what it would take to destroy Morgoth's Ring.
Tolkin put it quite bluntly: "The final eradication of Sauron was achievable by the destruction of the Ring. No such eradication of Morgoth was possible, since this required the complete disintegration of the matter of Arda." Morgoth could only ultimately be defeated by destroying the whole world. Obviously, this was not an option for the Valar. Perhaps it could have been before the Elves awoke, but not after, unless you wanted to kill them too.
Now, I've talked so far about Morgoth pouring his power into everything, and all of Arda was marred by the creation of his Ring. But that isn't to say that it was spread evenly. Some parts of creation were more deeply affected than others.
For example, gold in Middle Earth seems to always have a more evil tendency than other precious metals, or more accurately, it seems to readily prompt greed and other undesirable traits. Dragon sickness, an obsession with and love for gold, was a real thing in Middle Earth.
On the other hand, the Undying Lands were much less affected by Morgoth's Ring than other parts of the world, which is as you'd expect. But this isn't to say that they were not affected at all. When Miriel gave birth to Fëanor, Fëanor's life force was so strong that Miriel never recovered and voluntarily died, going to the Halls of Mandos.
This was not just a tragedy for the Elves but against the very nature of how a man should work because a small bit of Arda Mar had crept in. What hope is there then if nowhere in Arda, not even the Blessed Realm, is wholly free of Morgoth, even long after he was thrust out into the abyss?
When Finrod realized this, he was initially dismayed. Finrod, however, sees now that as things were, no created thing or being in Arda or in all Eru was powerful enough to counteract or heal evil—that is, to subdue Melkor in his present person, reduced though that was, and the evil that he had dissipated and sent out from himself into the very structure of the world.
It is for this reason that the Elves concluded that the end of Arda would have to be catastrophic, as the only solution would be to destroy Morgoth's Ring even more totally than Sauron's—melting down all the atoms and elements everywhere. That would be necessary to achieve Arda healed, a world like Arda unmarred, in that it would not be stained with the shadow of Melkor.
But better, the Elves weren't sure whether this new world at the end of time would be the same world put back together but cleared of Morgoth's influence or a completely new world. But it didn't really matter. What matters is that this is when they would see creation as Eru Ilúvatar intended: perfect and unmarred.
Despite being the big baddy of Tolkin's legendarium, the narrative does not always convey to the casual reader the extent of Morgoth's threat because we see him mostly after he has created his Ring and disseminated his power into the world. We see Morgoth wrestled by Tulkas, crippled by Fingolfin, lulled by Lúthien, and defeated not by Manwë but merely his Herald, Eönwë.
In that light, he seems of a kind with other big baddies, but he isn't—not by a long way. Morgoth is not merely different in degree but in kind. He is not just more evil than another baddy; he is the originator of evil. Moreover, every subsequent evil is not simply a consequence of his original sin but actively the result of his spirit still poisoning everything and everyone everywhere.
Even Sauron's One Ring is simply part of Morgoth's Ring—it's Morgoth's magic working because Melkor's spirit made such sorcery possible. Years after Sauron was defeated, other dark lords would rise because all of Middle Earth was marred. Every time Frodo contended with the temptation to wear the One Ring, he was contending with Morgoth no less than Sauron—Morgoth who marred Arda, making the dark magic of the Ring work.
Which is all a bit depressing, really. Evil may be defeated, but it will always spring back somewhere else. Where is the hope that Tolkin always brings us? It's in the hope that the Elves had of Arda healed. When Morgoth is finally defeated, that defeat will bring the world as it should have been.
This adds another layer to the story that we know in The Lord of the Rings. Destroying Sauron's Ring and ending his rule is not merely a short-term defeat for evil, only for it to rise again elsewhere. It is foreshadowing of that greater victory at the end of time when Morgoth's Ring shall be destroyed at the end of all things.
Sam asked, "Is every sad going to come untrue?" No, it wasn't—not then. But it will when Morgoth's Ring is destroyed. Tolkin paints a picture of Arda healed in which everything sad really does come untrue. That is the true end of Tolkin's legendarium—the ultimate downfall of the Lord of the Rings, Morgoth's Ring, and the Return of the King, of which the other was but a glimpse.
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