Here is a paper done by my buddy, Alex:
If you've read the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, you know that Sauron is similar to Satan in many ways. So I'm here to tell you about Sauronism, or the worship of Sauron. Sauronism is rooted in Melkorism and Black Numenorean Witchcraft. Sauron is Melkor's servant, and we are Sauron's. Melkor is the Master of the Void, and dwells beyond the Gates of Night. Sauron is the Dying and Resurrected God, that aspect of Melkor that has its manifestation upon Middle-earth (the physical plane) during every Age. Now, in the Fourth Age, Sauron is taking shape and growing again. Soon he will gather an army to plunge all the world into darkness. Then he and his sorcerors will summon Melkor from beyond the Gates of Night and he will transform the world in accordance with his Theme.
Now, on a more serious note, I'm a pagan who practices Witchcraft. I'm not a Wiccan or a Neo-pagan. I follow my own path. Nor am I a believer in anything, but rather seek Knowledge, and therefore I am strongly influenced by Gnosticism and daemonology. I consider myself a religious existentialist. I am religious because I am aware of another dimension to the world and to myself that is not explained by science, and because I view as divine the Universe of which I am a part. But I have an open mind because I form opinions, but do not hold beliefs. Opinions may be altered when evidence or logic proves them to be false. But beliefs in my opinion can often blind believers to the Truth, especially when they take the place of Knowledge. Also, I am an existentialist in the sense that I do not seek comfort in a cozy little explanation of what the Universe is, why it is here, and why we are here in it, or a fairy-tale heavenly reward.
Here is another taken from http://www.lugburz.com/files/encyclopaedia.html:
Melkorism
The true religion which is the knowledge of Darkness. It was founded by the followers of Melkor, the Spirit of Darkness who opposes the Demiurge (which the deluded name Eru and Iluvatar, the One God). Melkorism teaches us that Arda is a False Creation, an illusion perpetuated by the Demiurge and his servants the Valar. It exists solely to entrap the Children of Darkness within the confines of matter so that the Demiurge might rule over us. The High Priest of Melkorism is Sauron, the faithful servant of Melkor on earth. Those who profess the religion of Melkorism seek the eventual destruction of the False Creation and a return to the unbounded freedom and bliss of the Darkness from whence we all came. For this reason we follow Sauron, who has been entrusted with the sublime task of preparing the way for Melkor's eventual return at the end of days. After the Last Battle, Arda will be unmade, and the Children of Darkness will be liberated.
I agree with ArPharazon and others who think the two accounts are of the same event, but I also recognize like Eluchil the interpretational difficulties in such a view. The answer I think lies in remembering that Tolkien was writing historical myth.
The Christian perspective is that the events of early history recorded in the Bible (Creation, fall of Satan, fall of man, etc.) actually happened. Consequently, the record of these things would have been passed on both verbally and through written stories and histories to successive generations. As man spread out over the globe (particularly after the Flood and Tower of Babel) these stories would have begun to follow the natural progression of history to legend to myth. Except in the case of Divine intervention which preserved the accurate accounts in the Bible (the Christian doctrine of Biblical inspiration and inerrancy), the accounts would have gradually been embellished, minimized and altered according to the interests and influences of the different groups. Some stories would be very similar to Biblical account while others would bear little resemblance (Interestingly, this has actually been observed in different "primitive"cultures that had legends similar to early Genesis long before any Christian missionaries reached them). Besides the natural evolution of historical myth, from a Christian perspective, there is also another force at work deliberately attempting to pervert the true story. In the Sil, we see this when Sauron deceives the people of Numenor into believing Melchor to be the hero and Iluvatar the villain in the original story. At any rate, the myths of the Simarilion are specifically from the perspective of the Elves ( a special created race apparently unique to Middle Earth) thus they would naturally be fascinated with the Melchor story while the other more human related stories would have held little interest or even perhaps been little known to them.
So to sum up my theory, the fall of Satan and the fall of Melchor are describing the same event. The Scripture is the inspired accurate account while the Sil is the poetic, mythical account from an Elvish perspective. In this way, Tolkien could be true to basic theological principles of the fall (i.e. the existence of evil as Elendil36 so eloquently explained) without being bound by the specific details of the Biblical account. This seems to reconcile the interpretational difficulties while being true to Tolkien's Catholic beliefs. Of course it's only my theory, and I'm open to others thoughts.
Just a reminder that in Zoroastrianism (predating Christianity), Ahriman (aka Arimanius or Angra Mainya) was the devil figure ......a dualist religion and echoing much of the symbolism of light and darkness present in LOTD.
I've read a lot on some Zoroastrian ideas as well, really interesting stuff.
The Islamic story of the fall of Azazel (Lucifer) is a little different. When God created Adam he commanded all of the angels to prostrate before him, but only Azazel refused, and becomes Iblis, the proud spirit of fire (Satan).
Peter Lamborn Wilson says that one might easily surmise a hidden story: "somehow God wanted Iblis to become Satan, and wanted Adam and Eve to fall, so that the full drama of creation and the manifestation of all the Names might be played out unto redemption. Satan and Adam both have "free will," yet everything is written, foreordained, and known."
Kind of reminiscent of Melkor/Morgoth's relationship to Illuvatar, no?
But back to the allegorical question, sure Melkor/Morgoth runs parallel to the christian story of Lucifer, and because of Tolkien's religion, it is probably what he took it from, but that doesn't mean Melkor=Lucifer. The reader can compare any of these characters to many different ideas, why limit yourself and box everything in and pin it down?
While at first glance this parallel is present, on closer scrutiny the analogy falls down. Tolkien's cosmology is NOT dualistic (ie Melkor and Ilúvatar are not equal and opposite). So while the symbolic opposition between light and darkness is present in Tolkien's writings, the theological underpinnings are markedly different: Melkor (like Satan) is a rebellious subordinate of the Creator God, not his equal adversary.
Indeed. Melkor is a created being, co-eval with Manwe and not the equal of Iluvatar. Christian doctrine insists that only God can create ex nihilo and Tolkien did not deviate from this in his legendarium.
[Melkor] had gone often alone into the void places seeking the Imperishable Flame; for desire grew hot within him to bring into Being things of his own, and it seemed to him that Iluvatar took no thought for the Void, and he was impatient of its emptiness. Yet he found not the Fire, for it is with Iluvatar.
The point of the post was simply to indicate that the idea of the adversary, the fallen angel or oppositional evil is not unique to the Christian doctrin. There is a similarity to motifs in LOTR, not an analogy, which is highly dualistic in its philosophy if not in its theology.
The joy that I take form Tolkien is that he has stripped away overt religious references and and left a core of moral decisions and lessons. Lesson's in devotion, love, sacrifice and perserverance which are common themes to all spritual lives and the exclusive preserve of no individual religion.
To tap into the universal mythic is at the heart of LOTR's power, endurance and especially it cross cultural/religious appeal.
True! But why is there a universal mythic? Tolkien believed the basis for all myth was the "real" and "true" stories of the Bible. Because God created a good world which evil marred, man has an innate longing for redemption and restoration. The parallels and similarities are exactly what a Christian historian/anthropologist would expect to find since man originally shared the same basic religious beliefs. The Biblical worldview also expects to find corruptions (e.g. dualism) of the original. Tolkien understood the power of myth as man's attempt to rediscover the original story. It was this line of thinking influenced by Tolkien that played a key role in C.S. Lewis coversion from atheism. Of course the proof that Tolkien created believable historical myth is that his legends sound so much like real historical myth and legend that we already have! That and the universal truths portrayed is what gives it reality and appeal!
am not sure what Tolkien believed on myth...havn't read those sources, but would be surprised if he really did espouse the belief that all myth originated in the stories of the bible. Given that many of the bible stories (especially old testiment) have provable roots that go back to Egypt, Babylon and beyond. The statement also seems to assume that myth could not exist before the writing of the bible which is clearly wrong.
I talked about the universal mythic as the common "lesson stories" that are common to all societies. They usually start as oral traditions for dealing with commonly encountered problems in life with reference to the past. Often originating in tribal societies (where they are commonly conceived as ancestral wisdom) and based on real events, they become generalised as they are told, retold and eventually written down. This is why these elements cause deep emotional responses when used in films and books.....
KMC Community Forums
Jul 9th, 2004 03:59 AM
like - me 
but Im not to be taken serious 
and now you live in Maeglin's mines in Gondolin? 
