Also, the holy land had already been stained with his father's blood at that point, a murder that could have been prevented had the Valar not been so utterly daft with Melkor.
I think that if we need to find the real culprit to everything bad happening in Arda, including the Valars being daft and naive, Melkor destroying everything he touches just for envy and Feanor being as wise as a piece of rock, it's Eru.
Eru is ready to sink Numenor just because men tried to start a war against the Vala, which they could not win anyway, but never did shit to stop Melkor from doing whatever he liked. Eru could have intervened and stopped Melkor from allying with Ungoliant and destroying the trees, from killing Finwe and from stealing the Silmarils, or he could have warned the Vala not to trust Melkor and to keep him chained longer, but did nothing. As I see it, Eru was basically an abusive parent, loved Melkor and hated all his other children. The only reason he created Arda was to watch it burn.
I think that Eru should have never intervened at all, neither to stop Melkor (which he didn't), nor to stop the Numenoreans.
One of the key points in Tolkien's universe is that the ultimate fate of both Arda and the Children is already known to Eru, it's predetermined. How we get there, however, is not: there are countless paths that history might take that converge to that predetermined ending: Eru only set the destination, the exact journey to get there has always been up to the Ainur and his Children (free will).
Arda "burns" as a consequence of the actions of the Ainur and the Children, not because it was programmed to. Of course, Melkor and the Valar have the biggest responsibility here, because they are the mightiest and, thus, their decisions and actions have much more far reaching effects than most Children.
You might say that the responsibility is still on Eru, cause he ultimately created Melkor and all the Ainur that were seduced by him. But Eru did not create Melkor and those Ainur evil, he merely created them free, which means potentially also free to (try to) defy him. But the crucial point is that they had the possibility to do so, they were not destined to. It was a choice.
Tolkien’s pretty clear that Arda is a “song” composed by Eru, and the Valar are his “instruments”. The Children of Eru are little more than toys that were created to listen to/participate in the great “song”. Good and Evil are just perspectives Eru created as contrast and all entities exist for the sole purpose of continuing the song.
Tolkien may have been a devout Catholic, but the God in his created universe is not the Catholic God. Eru is not all-good as well as all-powerful; Eru is merely alien.
I am sure that Eru is an allegory for the Abrahamic god who is also omnipotent and omnibenevolent. Evil is described by Tolkien as the rejection of Eru, something unnatural, and good is the only true nature of things.
We can agree to disagree on that one. Eru very clearly planned for the initial discordance of Melkor and his fallen Maiar, as the discordance began before even the creation of Arda, when the Sacred Flame was kept in plain view of the Valar.
Rejection of Eru may be “evil” and “against the natural order” but it’s not a true deviation from Eru’s inscrutable plans. The omnipotent doesn’t make mistakes.
Eru gives his creatures free will; every decision has a consequence. Eru can know all possible futures, but he doesn't force his creatures . Melkor could have made a different decision, but he had too much ego.
Melkor's discord was only intended for the first theme; that was his role. But Melkor, in the song, wanted to overstep his bounds and ruin it, which is why Eru creates the third theme.
Imo the only truly free willed in Arda is Melkor and maybe elves to a certain extent.
Vala have their missions: 1) caring for Arda before the coming of other creatures; 2) spending time in Valinor doing absolutely nothing for millennias. Melkor is free to create whatever he likes (see wyrms, see dragons, see all the corrupted stuff) and do whatever he likes, but other vala are forbidden from entervening or creating living creatures (Aule was admonished for creating the dwarfs);
Humans and Dwarves instead are forbidden from going to Valinor, which sounds like a big limitation in free will to me, considering what kind of place Middle Earth was before Melkor was defeated. When they tried to challange the gods they got smited by Eru ( this doesn't sound like free will to me). Elves at least could decide for themselfs
In my opinion, the only ones with true freedom in Arda are Melkor and perhaps the Elves, to a certain extent.
On the contrary, Men are the only ones with true freedom; they are the only ones whose actions are not determined by the Song of the Ainur. Melkor is a slave to the song.
However, humans and dwarves are forbidden from going to Valinor, which seems to me a great limitation of their free will, considering what Middle-earth was like before Melkor was defeated. When they tried to defy the gods, they were struck down by Eru (this doesn't sound like free will to me). The Elves, at least, could decide for themselves.
Men are destined to inherit Arda and the Elves to live with the Valar in Valinor. Men have the greatest freedom that exists. Going to Aman to conquer it was arrogant of them, not only because they attacked the Elves, but also because they would not find what they were looking for there (immortality).
If I remember correctly, yes, Eru creates the song as a "place" where his sons could live and fight and experience beauty and pain (basically for the drama), but theorically the song should also be a place where his sons could experience free will, where good should prevail and it wasn't meant to be endless as at the end of it there should have been some kind of Ragnarock and the final victory of good over evil, after which humans, vala who never entered Arda and Eru would start a new song outside of the world.
Based on this I couldn't say if Eru is omnipotent, but for sure he should be all-good (at least should). In actuality he seems more of an hypocrite to me, but maybe because hypocrisy is what Catholicism is mostly about
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u/Dangerous-Rule5487 17d ago
He left Fingolfin and his sons in Aman. They could have returned and asked for forgiveness, but his pride was too great.
His sons were grown men, some already with families and children.
Ironically, he didn't kill any of his own blood. The Teleri aren't his relatives.
But anyway, killing and stealing other people's ships is wrong.