Mystic Muse reads The Silmarillion.

[Mystic Muse]

Alright, so before I begin, let me go over my background.

My introduction to the world of Tolkien was the Peter Jackson film trilogy. I was 8 when Fellowship came out. I did not like it at the time, and I don't think you can blame me. I of course really did not want to see The Two Towers, and ended up really enjoying it. I was ecstatic to see The Return of the King.

Since then, I've seen each of the movies at least ten times. I did not care as much for the Hobbit trilogy, unsurprisingly.

In terms of actually reading Tolkien, I haven't done much. I've read The Hobbit, and Fellowship. I ultimately don't think Tolkien's writing style is right for me, and I've tried reading the Silmarillion before. I did not succeed. I really want to get through this book.

There are 309 pages. I aim to get through about 20 a week, but I'm studying for certification exams so we'll see.

I will be writing down my thoughts as I go through each set of pages.

Stand by the rules. No real world religious discussion please.

Without further ado, let's start in on the Silmarillion.

Prior to any actual content, we get a foreword from Christopher Tolkien, telling us that the Silmarillion has functionally been crafted from 1917 all the way up until his father's death. This is his best attempt at piecing together what his father intended, but there is no way to ever do a true full and complete version.

Spoiler: Ainulindale, the Music of the Ainur

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There was Eru, the one who in Arda is called Illuvatar. He exists prior to anything else, and from how it's presented, he is always just there.

He makes first the Ainur, the first of his offpsring. They all make their own music, but avoid each other. There are some who band together, but overall the ranks of the Ainur are quite dispersed.

Eru does not care for this, and brings them together before belting out a mighty theme of his own, awing all of the Ainur. Eru declares that each of the Ainur should adorn this theme with music of their own, for Eru has kindled in them the flame imperishable, and can add to its beauty in whatever way they desire.

As the theme progresses, an Ainur known as Melkor began adding things that were not in accord with the theme of Illuvatar. He wished to increase the power and glory of his own part. It's noted that there's a great void that Illuvatar has paid no attention to, and Melkor has spent much time there, seeking the imperishable flame. Melkor would like to take the void and shape a creation of his own.

Eru and Melkor begin to have a rock-off. The theme Melkor creates is like that of a dark storm, so Eru smiles, raises his left hand and creates another theme. The Discord of Melkor arose with this new theme, and the battle caused the rest of the Ainur to go silent. Eru arises again and his countenance goes stern as he lifts his right hand, and a new theme joins the fray. However, based on what I'm reading next, Melkor's own theme grows in intensity, attempting to drown out Eru. Eru's countenance grows terrible to behold, he claps, and the music ends.

Eru tells them that their music has crafted a creation, and that despite Melkor being the mightiest of the Ainur, all of their music is still sourced from him. They can change the theme, but they cannot overpower it. He shows them what their music has created, and from the third theme comes men and elves, the children of Illuvatar. The Ainur adore the children of Illuvatar, for they are like them but not of them. And Melkor sees this beauty and seeks to control it, growing jealous of the gifts promised to men and elves. He wishes to have servants and be called Lord.

The Ainur Ulmo is responsible for the creation of water. Melkor tried to corrupt this creation with bitter cold and scorching heat. Instead it was folded into the theme and made to create snow, rain, clouds and mist, and Ulmo is delighted at these things he had not imagined. These different elements meeting also brings him much closer to his friend Manwe, the most noble of the Ainur. It is said that water has the most of the Ainur's music still in it, and when the children of Illuvatar listen to the sounds of the sea, they're truly trying to listen to that music.

Eru reveals this is all just a vision. The Ainur still have to actually help make this creation. Those who help create The World That Is, Ea, become known as the Valar. Chief among them are Aule (The Ainur of stone, earth, ETC), Ulmo, Manwe, and of course Melkor. The Valar can, if they so choose, dress themselves in raiment and reveal themselves to the Children of Illuvatar. When doing so, they appear as men or women, seemingly according to their individual temperaments. Alternatively, they can be quite invisible to mortals, or show what is essentially a true form. Melkor chooses to do this and is described thus

A mountain that wades in the sea and has its head above the cloudws and is clad in ice and crowned with smoke and fire; and the light of the eyes of Melkor was like a flame that withers with heat and pierces with a deadly cold

Kind of a sweet description, honestly. Melkor, kind of predictably, goes out of his way to grief the other Valar. They make mountains, he flattens them. They create valleys, he raises them back up. As surely as a Valar began a labour, Melkor began to undo or corrupt it. However, not all their works are in vain, though none are as their creators initially intended.

Of course, this is all what the Valar have told the elves.

For various reasons, this is as far in as I can get tonight. This is off to an interesting start. I recall there being a post in the Hobbit thread about how somebody most sympathized with Morgoth, and I'm curious if I'll feel the same way.

I find this to be a pretty cool creation story, and I'm curious where it'll go from here. There are bits where I sympathize with Melkor, and can feel myself feeling quite resentful of Eru already. We will see if that remains, but I do not expect it to.

[Corvus]

So, this is my favourite book ever. Has been for a very long time. It is just so epic. But I can understand why other may struggle with it. It isn't a traditional story, more like a historical epic.

Poseidon, er Ulmo, rocks (though technically it should be Aule who rocks). He's my favourite of the Ainur. More on that later though.

As for sympathising with Melkor - dude was given more power and gifts than any of the others but instead of being happy with that wanted even more. Little bit greedy there fella.

[Mystic Muse]

As for sympathising with Melkor - dude was given more power and gifts than any of the others but instead of being happy with that wanted even more. Little bit greedy there fella.

Absolutely, but I can understand the thought process of wanting to stand on your own, and feeling like the person in charge could be doing a heeeeeelll of a lot more than they are.

[PontificatusRex]

Hard to talk about without getting into real world religion. Hopefully if discussed only in the context of how said religious ideas influenced Tolkien's creation it won't go over the line.

{scrubbed}

I do not understand why anyone is sympathetic towards Melkor. Yes, he's a rebel, some people immediately sympathize with that. Lot's of real life rebels were absolute monsters and their motivations for their resistance to whatever authority were abominable. Melkor is in that category.

[Fyraltari]

Oooh, a read-through of the Silmarillion, that ought to be interesting!

While I love that book to bits, it was definitely an acquired taste, so I wonder what you'll make of it. Your copy should have in the back a few genealogy trees, a graph of the various divisions of the Elves and other readers' help, that are probably going to be useful on a first read.

Little correction: "Ainur" is the plural of "Ainu", you'll meet that plural form a few times in this book: Vala/Valar, Maia/Maiar, Sinda/Sindar, Noldo/Noldor, Melko/Melkor... (That last one is a joke).

As for people defending Morgoth, yeah, that happens. There's a even a(n illegally) published Russian fanfic called The Black Book that telles the story from his point of view. I think almost every character has their share of irrational haters and/or defenders.

There's a new translation to French that's just been published, by the same translator who, in my opinion, already improved the translation of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and ot has some gorgeous illustrations too. But I already have a copy of the Sillm and the new one is 40€ apiece.

[PontificatusRex]

Absolutely, but I can understand the thought process of wanting to stand on your own, and feeling like the person in charge could be doing a heeeeeelll of a lot more than they are.

But Tolkien makes it clear that Melkor isn't rebelling because he thinks he could do a better job, he just wants to be the one that has others bowing down to.

Eru is an artist who is Creating for the sake of creating, for the joy of it and to share that joy with others. Melkor doesn't have any inclination to creating art and spreading joy, he just wants reknown and worship for its own sake. He's the original reality tv star.

[Mystic Muse]

Oooh, a read-through of the Silmarillion, that ought to be interesting!

While I love that book to bits, it was definitely an acquired taste, so I wonder what you'll make of it. Your copy should have in the back a few genealogy trees, a graph of the various divisions of the Elves and other readers' help, that are probably going to be useful on a first read.

Little correction: "Ainur" is the plural of "Ainu", you'll meet that plural form a few times in this book: Vala/Valar, Maia/Maiar, Sinda/Sindar, Noldo/Noldor, Melko/Melkor... (That last one is a joke).

As for people defending Morgoth, yeah, that happens. There's a even a(n illegally) published Russian fanfic called The Black Book that telles the story from his point of view. I think almost every character has their share of irrational haters and/or defenders.

There's a new translation to French that's just been published, by the same translator who, in my opinion, already improved the translation of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and ot has some gorgeous illustrations too. But I already have a copy of the Sillm and the new one is 40€ apiece.

Yeah, I spent a bit of time looking for a copy tonight for similar reasons. "I'm not buying a book I know we already have, and I may not even like."

I'm enjoying it so far, and I think taking it at a slow and steady pace will help a lot.

But Tolkien makes it clear that Melkor isn't rebelling because he thinks he could do a better job, he just wants to be the one that has others bowing down to.

Eru is an artist who is Creating for the sake of creating, for the joy of it and to share that joy with others. Melkor doesn't have any inclination to creating art and spreading joy, he just wants reknown and worship for its own sake. He's the original reality tv star.

And that is fair. I'm just giving my initial impressions on reading through it. While there are some vague details I'm familiar with, for the most part I'm functionally reading through this for the first time.

And I have a proclivity towards fiction where characters in Melkor's position are at times in the right, so I think that's coloring my reading of things.

[factotum]

Tolkien clearly based the creation myth here on his own beliefs, but managed to make it feel distinct and, for want of a better phrase, "proper fantasy". Regarding your nascent dislike of Eru, you don't need to worry overmuch about that, we won't be seeing him for almost the entire rest of the book--it concentrates purely on the Valar/Maiar on the "god" side of things.

[Corvus]

And I have a proclivity towards fiction where characters in Melkor's position are at times in the right, so I think that's coloring my reading of things.

Well watch this space. We may have a character coming up who might appeal to you.

The good thing about the Quenta Silmarillion, the main part in the book, is that the chapters that make it up are in effect mostly self-contained stories that go into making up an over-arcing plot.

[Peelee]

I was 8 when Fellowship came out.

Barely a few sentences in and already I'm upset. It wasn't that long ago!

[looks at release date]

DAMMIT HOW AM I SO OLD

[Mystic Muse]

Tolkien clearly based the creation myth here on his own beliefs, but managed to make it feel distinct and, for want of a better phrase, "proper fantasy". Regarding your nascent dislike of Eru, you don't need to worry overmuch about that, we won't be seeing him for almost the entire rest of the book--it concentrates purely on the Valar/Maiar on the "god" side of things.

I'm also pretty sure my dislike of Eru is entirely my own biases showing, and not at all based on his intended portrayal.

Well watch this space. We may have a character coming up who might appeal to you.

The good thing about the Quenta Silmarillion, the main part in the book, is that the chapters that make it up are in effect mostly self-contained stories that go into making up an over-arcing plot.

That does sound good, yes.

If I end up liking this, I have a few other non-LotR books hanging around the house I may delve into, but not counting any chickens before they hatch.

[Fyraltari]

I'm enjoying it so far, and I think taking it at a slow and steady pace will help a lot.

That's eminently possible.

And I have a proclivity towards fiction where characters in Melkor's position are at times in the right, so I think that's coloring my reading of things.

Part of what makes Morgoth easier to root for, is that his opposition is far (very far) from perfect. Well, except Ulmo, who rocks. In the earlier versions, there was even a moment where the Valar execute an envoy of his after he'd let an envoy of them go back home safely and he gets (rightfully) mighty pissed about this.

Well watch this space. We may have a character coming up who might appeal to you.

Who could you possibly mean?
Oh. Oh! OH!

[DavidSh]

Are people here familiar with Lord Dunsany? His own fictional mythology The Gods of Pegana, came out in 1905, before Tolkien began writing. He has a creator god MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, and a host of subsidiary gods of various things that work while MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI dreams.

[pendell]

Thank you for starting this, Mystic Muse!

The thing about Melkor is that he doesn't start out evil. He becomes an evil dark lord over the course of the books but at the beginning he's still a relatively good being, and he attracts many spirits to him because of his ideals , his undoubted gifts, and his brilliant plans. It's easy to sympathize with Melkor at the beginning of the story. So in some ways the Silmarillion is a tragedy. Melkor could be a Hector or an Achilles, a hero whose tragic flaw gradually brings all his good deeds to nothing, as he falls gradually from a near-perfect being to one in whom goodness is utterly absent. It's a tragedy seen frequently in Middle-Earth. In the LOTR books, this happened to Saruman. He started out as very much like Gandalf. Indeed, Gandalf describes himself as "Saruman as he should have been". But that one flaw ate away at Saruman, until at the end of the story he is a being devoid of compassion, motivated only by spite.

Melkor himself is not entirely aware of this. We haven't got to that part yet, I think, but when he goes into middle earth, he feigns, "even to himself at first", that he means to undo some of the harm he has done. It isn't for quite some time that even he himself understands the true motivations of his actions and his heart.

The image of Melkor and Eru having a rap battle means that I will forever after assume Sauron was Melkor's beatboxer while Melkor was throwing down the rhymes.

Also, Blind Guardian has a full album of music about the Silmarrillion, and it is licensed for use on youtube.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Dragonus45]

I've bounced off this so many times that I really wind up just reading it in tiny bits and pieces. This might be a good excuse to read the whole thing through.

[ereinion]

The thing about Melkor is that he doesn't start out evil. He becomes an evil dark lord over the course of the books but at the beginning he's still a relatively good being, and he attracts many spirits to him because of his ideals , his undoubted gifts, and his brilliant plans. It's easy to sympathize with Melkor at the beginning of the story. So in some ways the Silmarillion is a tragedy. Melkor could be a Hector or an Achilles, a hero whose tragic flaw gradually brings all his good deeds to nothing, as he falls gradually from a near-perfect being to one in whom goodness is utterly absent. It's a tragedy seen frequently in Middle-Earth. In the LOTR books, this happened to Saruman. He started out as very much like Gandalf. Indeed, Gandalf describes himself as "Saruman as he should have been". But that one flaw ate away at Saruman, until at the end of the story he is a being devoid of compassion, motivated only by spite.

Of course you see what is going to happen already at this stage by him thinking he can find the flame imperishable anywhere but with the true god of the mythology. Pride before a fall etc. I think this theme resonates quite strongly with what Tolkien wrote about himself just being a sub-creator in "On Fairy Tales". Unfortunately I think the creation myth itself (i.e. the first few chapters of the book) is hard to discuss without looking at the real world beliefs of Tolkien. To a lesser you can see it later in the Silmarillion too, but not quite as pronounced.

[LaZodiac]

I really like the description of how Melkor's manipulations end up simply being woven into the fabric of things. Evil's greatest enemy is itself, after all, and Melkor is... if not evil, at least quite rude.

[Fyraltari]

Hard to talk about without getting into real world religion. Hopefully if discussed only in the context of how said religious ideas influenced Tolkien's creation it won't go over the line.

{scrubbed}

I'm sorry Pontificatus but this is really funny.
But also, yeah, this is going to be something of a problem going forward.

The image of Melkor and Eru having a rap battle means that I will forever after assume Sauron was Melkor's beatboxer while Melkor was throwing down the rhymes.

Thank you for this wonderful image.

Of course you see what is going to happen already at this stage by him thinking he can find the flame imperishable anywhere but with the true god of the mythology. Pride before a fall etc. I think this theme resonates quite strongly with what Tolkien wrote about himself just being a sub-creator in "On Fairy Tales". Unfortunately I think the creation myth itself (i.e. the first few chapters of the book) is hard to discuss without looking at the real world beliefs of Tolkien. To a lesser you can see it later in the Silmarillion too, but not quite as pronounced.

I think the sub-creator thing resonnates better with one of the early chapters of Quenta.

Spoiler: No peeking, Mystic!

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When Eru chastises Aüle for making the dwarves and he explains he only did it to be like daddy.

Melkor is... if not evil, at least quite rude.

The entire Silmarillion is just a child being unruly and sent to his room without dinner.

[pendell]

Absolutely, but I can understand the thought process of wanting to stand on your own, and feeling like the person in charge could be doing a heeeeeelll of a lot more than they are.

Before I was a software engineer, and before I was a teacher, I was a musician.


Here's the way I see it.

Eru is the composer and the conductor of a work. In order to do this, he "hired" musicians to play in his orchestra to bring about his musical piece.

What's more, this isn't a western classical orchestra, where everyone is expected to rigidly follow the score set before them without deviation. It's more like a very large jazz band. You're allowed to add to the theme and improve on it, add your own little flourishes, *provided it supports the overall theme of the piece*.

It takes highly skilled musicians to do a collaborative jam session, each person adding their own creations and flourishes, each improving the part of the piece assigned to them, while still respecting the overall work and the contributions of their fellow players.

Melkor is a highly talented musician. The problem is, he's not happy with playing the part assigned to him. As a perpetual third trumpet myself, I well understand the feeling.

I eventually got out of that status by putting passion, emotion into the music other people couldn't do. That got me the melodies and the first trumpet parts. Melkor doesn't take that approach. He's like that one drummer (if you were in band , you know the one) , who starts up the extended drum solo that ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT STOP. Eventually he takes the music in its own direction. He and his friends are playing something like The Marine Corps Hymn -- lots of brass, lots of refrain -- while Illuvatar's theme at this point is calling for something like Swan Lake .

Try playing both of these at the same time in two separate tabs on the browser. Does it give you a headache? I guarantee you that's what Illuvatar was feeling. This isn't music any more or an improvement. It's just noise, a war of clashing sound.

He doesn't mind Melkor adding and improving his own part , *provided he respects the theme and his other musicians* . He's not doing that. And Eru can't have that. Even if all the other musicians agreed, Eru's the composer. He's the one who's metaphorically paying them. A musician who can't give the producer what's asked for isn't going to be employed for very long.

So Melkor strikes off into the void to do his own solo gig by himself, like Simon from Simon & Garfunkel. Yep, "creative differences" at the very beginning of the world. The problem is, he can't. He doesn't have the creative flame that Eru has. Melkor doesn't have the ability to write music on his own. Since that proves a waste, rather than come back and contribute to the overall theme Eru has set, Melkor steps out to either twist the music to follow his own theme, whatever the Producer thinks, or if he can't do that, at least to sow so much discord and noise that Eru's intent is ruined.

Melkor would rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. But if he can't get into Heaven he's not going to let anyone else in either. And if he can't live in a house he'd sooner pull it down than let someone else live there.

Obligatory shout-out to The World Ends With You , in which "Producer", "Composer" and "Conductor" are actual titles given to godlike beings and angels who keep that world running.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Peelee]

But also, yeah, this is going to be something of a problem going forward.

I have faith in y'all. Now, granted, that faith may be more in the direction of "surely these good people won't make me do more work", but faith nonetheless.

[Mystic Muse]

Yeah guys. Please keep things board safe, because reading for this thread is the only way I'm getting through this book.

[factotum]

Yeah guys. Please keep things board safe, because reading for this thread is the only way I'm getting through this book.

It took me a good three or four attempts before I came up with the wording for my earlier comment, because every version seemed to impinge on the forum rules...

[Fyraltari]

I have faith in y'all. Now, granted, that faith may be more in the direction of "surely these good people won't make me do more work", but faith nonetheless.

Faith through laziness, heh? I see, you've been blessed by Lorien.

[PontificatusRex]

I'm sorry Pontificatus but this is really funny.
But also, yeah, this is going to be something of a problem going forward.

No worries, I thought it was pretty hilarious myself.

Are people here familiar with Lord Dunsany? His own fictional mythology The Gods of Pegana, came out in 1905, before Tolkien began writing. He has a creator god MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, and a host of subsidiary gods of various things that work while MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI dreams.

I'm a big Dunsany fan, although I don't think 'Pegana' was his strongest work. I like how existential his stories about gods are, Pegana and otherwise. Gods hiding behind gods hiding behind gods ad infinitum, gods looking away for what is just a few moments for them and then looking back at Earth only to discover their wayward servant Time has destroyed their favorite nation - definitely the thoughts of someone who spent a lot of time contemplating the nature of infinity and existence.

Before I was a software engineer, and before I was a teacher, I was a musician.


Here's the way I see it.

/snip/

Dang dude, that was a totally spot-on analogy. Kudos.

[J-H]

Yeah guys. Please keep things board safe, because reading for this thread is the only way I'm getting through this book.

I read it as a kid (somewhere before age 12 I think) and I know I skimmed over the first 60 pages (creation stuff) super fast and barely remembered any of it. Boring!

I was there for the big Fs... Feanor, Fingon, Fingolfin, Finarfin, Finrod Felagund, glorFindel, and, uh, the other guy. Also that human who fought the monster. No, not the one with the doomed romance. The other human with the doomed romance who fought the monster. Uhh....

Aside from Feanor, please don't expect me to tell the F Lords apart. Too many similar names. Um, they're all elvish nobles?

Spoiler: spoilers for the book

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Spoiler: no really

Show

The two I remember are the guy who was friends with Beren and had a song-battle with Sauron, and the guy who got mad and went out and challenged Morgoth to a public duel he coudn't turn down. I don't remember which names belong to them, though.

I should probably borrow my dad's copy and re-read it after I finish going through the first 3 Dune books. It has been decades since I read it.

If you want to dig into the background by going off-forum, Ryan Reeves has a really good lecture series on Youtube covering CS Lewis & Tolkien, their backgrounds, views, and interactions, as well as themes in their writing. At least for LOTR, he identified a couple of themes that made sense, but that I had never noticed. He is a lecturer on history at a religious institution, so some of the content of his lectures is hard to discuss in this forum. I found the entire series very enjoyable and educational, and it made me go back and read some CS Lewis that, again, I hadn't read since I was a child.
I'm looking forward to reading Tolkien to my boys when they are older.

[Fyraltari]

Oh, I forgot:

Spoiler: Not a plot point of this book but still a surprise

Show

Barely a few sentences in and already I'm upset. It wasn't that long ago!

[looks at release date]

DAMMIT HOW AM I SO OLD

I read it as a kid (somewhere before age 12 I think) and I know I skimmed over the first 60 pages (creation stuff) super fast and barely remembered any of it. Boring!

I was there for the big Fs... Feanor, Fingon, Fingolfin, Finarfin, Finrod Felagund, glorFindel, and, uh, the other guy. Also that human who fought the monster. No, not the one with the doomed romance. The other human with the doomed romance who fought the monster. Uhh....

Aside from Feanor, please don't expect me to tell the F Lords apart. Too many similar names. Um, they're all elvish nobles?

Fun fact: The reason for a lot of the "F" names is because they were the same guy in the first version(s?) whose role got split up between various charcaters.

[Grim Portent]

This is off to an interesting start. I recall there being a post in the Hobbit thread about how somebody most sympathized with Morgoth, and I'm curious if I'll feel the same way.

That would be me.

Fundamentally a lot of it comes down to the real religion that the story is heavily drawn from, and my own philosophical and moral clashes with that, but I can try to put my perspective into a non-real world context.

First off is that during the singing the Ainur are basically unaware of what they're doing. Illuvatar has them create a world without actually informing them that they are creating a world, so all the discord Melkor has added was done without any informed ill intent. This is important because the song wasn't just the world itself, but is implied to be it's history, because a lot of things in the setting are pre-determined since Eru is omniscient. All the discord added by Melkor and his followers is implicitly the source of everything bad that happens in the world to come, but none of the Ainur were told that was the case or given a chance for a do-over, meaning that both the Ainur and their creations suffer as a result of what was ultimately corruption born of ignorance.

It's kind of like if I asked a bunch of children to draw me a big collaborative mural, let one of them draw a fire breathing dragon while everyone else was drawing ducks and swans, then told the one kid that it was his fault the mural didn't look right and then also revealed it was going to be on the wall of a hospital or something despite being messed up.

I'll leave it at that for now, because Morgoth is ultimately the Valar who has the most involvement in the story as it progresses.

[factotum]

All the discord added by Melkor and his followers is implicitly the source of everything bad that happens in the world to come, but none of the Ainur were told that was the case or given a chance for a do-over, meaning that both the Ainur and their creations suffer as a result of what was ultimately corruption born of ignorance.

What I'm about to say probably isn't going to make you like Eru any better, but part of the point here is that he created the Ainur before he went on to make any sort of music, and since, as you say, he was omniscient, he knew exactly what would happen when he did so. This is why, in the chapter under discussion, he basically tells Melkor "You can't actually do anything to spite me and the discord you added only makes my creation better"--because he intended all along for that to happen. That's the way I read it, at any rate. It just makes no sense to me that an omniscient creator God like Eru could accidentally create evil without realising it!

[Fyraltari]

That would be me.

Fundamentally a lot of it comes down to the real religion that the story is heavily drawn from, and my own philosophical and moral clashes with that, but I can try to put my perspective into a non-real world context.

First off is that during the singing the Ainur are basically unaware of what they're doing. Illuvatar has them create a world without actually informing them that they are creating a world, so all the discord Melkor has added was done without any informed ill intent. This is important because the song wasn't just the world itself, but is implied to be it's history, because a lot of things in the setting are pre-determined since Eru is omniscient. All the discord added by Melkor and his followers is implicitly the source of everything bad that happens in the world to come, but none of the Ainur were told that was the case or given a chance for a do-over, meaning that both the Ainur and their creations suffer as a result of what was ultimately corruption born of ignorance.

It's kind of like if I asked a bunch of children to draw me a big collaborative mural, let one of them draw a fire breathing dragon while everyone else was drawing ducks and swans, then told the one kid that it was his fault the mural didn't look right and then also revealed it was going to be on the wall of a hospital or something despite being messed up.

I'll leave it at that for now, because Morgoth is ultimately the Valar who has the most involvement in the story as it progresses.

While I agree with you, and again, trying to to steer clear of religious discussion, I think the general idea here is that Melkor's discordant chant as a selfish rebellion against both the common work and Eru is just as bad as what he'd do later because it was already evil in itself.

He knew he was ruining the Song for everybody else and marring a thing of beauty, and he'd probably have done it to, even if he'd known the people the song was about do have feelings.

Edit: Of course, as Eru freely admits in text: Illuvatar is ultimately the one most responsible for everything and he apparently made Melkor the way he is to get some rain, snow and sad songs down the line, which is an... interesting choice of priorities.

[Tvtyrant]

Morality works differently in LotR then in modern conception. It is corruptive, so committing small acts of evil lead the doer into larger and larger acts. It is why small time crooks and bandits so easily fall into full throated supporters of universal enslavement in setting, because the tipping point came when they chose to steal a piggy bank 20 years ago and everything naturally progressed from there.

Melkor making bad music wasn't exceptionally evil, it is was the choice to do it at all that seals his fate. This comes up later with the Elves, Gollum, etc. Once the initial choice is made it is all but impossible to stop the corruption from spreading.