Welcome!

Welcome to Melkor’s Letters, where I discuss Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s Legendarium in Melkor’s perspective.

 I decided to write Melkor’s Letters in the spirit of CS Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters (which just so happens to have been dedicated to Tolkien himself). My purpose is to highlight the good and evil that many fans don’t realize is prevalent in Middle-earth and Tolkien’s Legendarium.

I decided to use textual evidence in works from Tolkien’s Middle-earth Legendarium such as from The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, the Silmarillion and the like – to view the events in Melkor’s perspective addressing the messages to Sauron – as Sauron’s motives are primarily driven by Melkor his master. After being asked and convinced by Melkor to intervene in the ways opposite of Eru, Sauron will take after him to seek his power through the tactics described, such as the dissociation of fellowship and seizing of power, especially when it concerns The One Ring which he forged.

Much like how readers are advised that the devil is a liar in the Screwtape Letters, we are advised that Melkor is a liar, deceiver, and schemer especially through his tactics. While Melkor may not be an entirely direct translation or allegory of Satan (and quite possibly not what Tolkien intended), it is not impossible to see the parallels of Eru and Melkor being the Lord and Satan, respectively.

As Tolkien states in his letter that the Legendarium “is involved in, and explicitly contains the Christian religion” involving such themes.^[1] The Lateran Council IV (1215)^[2] stated, “The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.” However, anyone of any religious belief, or no belief at all, will be able to see the parallels of good vs evil in Melkor being behind Sauron’s deeds such as the War of the Elves, Downfall of Númenor and Frodo’s Quest, as the devil, the fallen character, the rebel Vala and the first Dark Lord while Sauron follows Melkor as the Maia Dark Lord.

^[1] Letters, “Letter 131”

^[2] Lateran Council IV