How does morgoth die

In unpublished writings, Tolkien suggested that Morgoth was destined to one day return, breaking free from his prison of nothingness, but this has never been canonized in The Lord of the Rings. It's strange that Sauron would become one of the most famous fictional villains in history when he was merely the servant of a far greater evil whose feats eclipsed those of his Ring-obsessed underling.

Sauron never came close to achieving the sheer scale of death and destruction Morgoth committed, for it was the wayward Vala who introduced darkness to Middle-earth in the first place. If, hypothetically, Morgoth made a grand return in The Lord of the Rings , Sauron likely would've bent the knee to his former lord. Craig first began contributing to Screen Rant in , several years after graduating college, and has been ranting ever since, mostly to himself in a darkened room.

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Since joining the Screen Rant fold, Craig has been involved in breaking news stories and mildly controversial ranking lists, but now works predominantly as a features writer. By Craig Elvy Published Sep 12, Share Share Tweet Email 0. As a result, the continent languished in darkness, and Melkor filled its lands with terrible creatures and decay.

During this time, Melkor built his second, lesser fortress of Angband in the west, as a defense in the West should the Valar attack. Angband was delved into the Iron Mountains, and was given to Sauron to command. As such, most of them remained in Aman and forsook Middle-earth.

Due to this, Melkor discovered the Elves before the other Valar, captured many of them, and transformed them by torture and other foul craft into the first Orcs in mockery of the Elves.

The Valar overcame the hosts of Melkor and he retreated into Utumno. After a grievous siege, the Valar rent the doors open and Melkor was captured. Melkor was bound with Angainor and brought back to Valinor. There, he pleaded for pardon, but was cast into the Halls of Mandos for three Ages. However, in their haste to overthrow Melkor, the Valar left many of Utumno's pits and vaults unexplored, and Sauron remained at large.

Additionally, they did not capture or destroy the Balrogs , who gathered at the ruins of Angband and went into a long hibernation, awaiting Melkor's return. At first, it seemed as though the evil of Melkor had been cured, for all who sought his counsel and aid in that time benefited greatly from it. However, Tulkas and Ulmo were both very slow to forget Melkor's evils, and watched him closely. In truth, Melkor was more filled with malice than ever, and began to put his extraordinary cunning to use in devising a way to ruin Aman.

Seeing the bliss of the Elves and remembering that it was for their sake that he was overthrown, Melkor desired above all things to corrupt them. Over a long period of time he spread lies concerning the intentions of the Valar in bringing the Elves to Aman, telling them, among other things, tales of the coming of Men , the existence of which the Valar had not revealed to the Elves. But Melkor could not be found. Melkor then passed unseen to the south, and came upon Ungoliant.

Promising to sate her unrelenting hunger, she and Melkor came back to Valinor, intending to destroy the Two Trees of Valinor. Then, during a time of festival, Melkor and Ungoliant suddenly attacked. Melkor thrust a great spear into the Trees and Ungoliant drank the sap that poured from the wounds, draining the Trees and poisoning them.

The Trees quickly withered and died, plunging Aman into complete darkness for a time. In the fear and confusion that followed, Melkor sped to Formenos and broke into the fortress. The Silmarils burned Melkor's hand, causing him immeasurable agony, but he did not release them. He and Ungoliant fled to the North, and the Valar gave chase, but the Unlight of Ungoliant bewildered them and the two escaped.

In Lammoth , Melkor and Ungoliant approached the ruins of Angband, with Melkor hoping to escape and leave his promise to feed Ungoliant unfulfilled. Ungoliant saw through his plan and stopped with him before they reached Angband. She demanded that he surrender the treasure of Formenos to sate her hunger as he had promised, and begrudgingly he gave her the lesser treasures he had taken, but would not yield the Silmarils.

For his refusal, Ungoliant attacked Melkor, weaving her dark webbing about him. His resulting cry of pain and anguish roused the Balrogs from their slumber in the darkest depths of Angband. They came swiftly to his aid and drove Ungoliant away. He then began to rebuild Angband, and to gather his servants there. The name Melkor was never spoken again by his enemies.

As Morgoth finished rebuilding Angband, the slag and debris created by his vast tunnelings was plied into three huge volcanoes, collectively known as Thangorodrim. He hastened then to rebuild his forces, breeding innumerable Orcs and other fell beasts.

The Silmarils were mounted into the Iron Crown. This action triggered the tragic War of the Jewels , in which the Elves would be utterly defeated in the end. Soon, he and his vanguard drew far ahead of the main host, and the Orcs, seeing this, turned and gave battle at the gates of Angband.

Unfortunately for the Elves, Morgoth's force was the greater of the two, and was accompanied by Balrogs. The Elven company was quickly slain with the exception of Maedhros, who was captured and chained by his right hand to one of Thangorodrim's many cliffs.

However, the Elves knew that Morgoth would not honor his word, and sent no reply. To his dismay, however, the Valar revealed the creation of the Sun and the Moon , which confounded Morgoth and his servants for a time. To counter these new lights, Morgoth sent up nigh-impenetrable clouds of smoke from the Iron Mountains to darken Hithlum. During the time of confusion and inaction among Morgoth's forces by these new lights, Fingon traveled to Angband, aided by the very darkness Morgoth had set upon Hithlum, and rescued Maedhros.

After this failure, Morgoth took to capturing what Elves he could, breaking them with the power of his will and chaining their lives to his. The burning of Ard-galen at the beginning of the Dagor Bragollach, by Filat.

One hundred years later, Morgoth sent an army into the north to approach Hithlum from the side, but an army under the command of Fingon destroyed them yet again in the Battle of the Firth of Drengist. Another century passed, and the issuing of the first dragon, Glaurung , demonstrated the results of Morgoth's long labor. Glaurung's sudden appearance scattered the Elves in the immediate vicinity of Angband, but a company of archers under Fingon's command engaged him before he could do much more than frighten the Elves.

As Glaurung was barely half-grown, his hide was not yet invulnerable to the Elven arrows and he fled the field. Morgoth was displeased with Glaurung for revealing himself before his creator had planned, but ultimately Glaurung's youthful foray was of little consequence. Some time later, when men first arrived in Beleriand, it was revealed that Morgoth had left Angband and walked among the fathers of Men. Hoping to corrupt them to his service, he spread his lies among them, and found them to be considerably easier to sway than the Elves had been.

However, the strengthening of the Elven kingdoms worried Morgoth, and he returned to Angband before his labors were complete.

Nevertheless, most Men believed or half-believed his lies and either departed from the North or joined with Morgoth's forces. However, a small group of men that became known as the Edain resisted him. Morgoth duels Fingolfin by Ted Nasmith. About years after Fingolfin came to Middle-earth, Morgoth deemed that the time was ripe to destroy the Elves and their allies.

One cold winter night, when the Elven watch was least vigilant, Morgoth sent forth terrible rivers of fire and lava from Thangorodrim and poisonous fumes from the Iron Mountains.

In the wake of these fires there came Glaurung, now fully grown, the Balrogs, and armies of Orcs and other monsters in numbers such as the Elves had never conceived of. Thus began the Dagor Bragollach. The Siege of Angband was swiftly broken and the forces of the Elves were scattered. So swift and overwhelming was Morgoth's assault that the various Elven kingdoms were unable to marshal their forces in any sort of unified front, and as such Morgoth was able to engage the Elven forces in a piecemeal fashion, greatly blunting the effectiveness of any resistance.

Fingolfin and Fingon only just barely managed to defend Hithlum from Morgoth's onslaught, as the mountains surrounding it provided an effective barrier against Morgoth's fires. The Elves were completely driven from the forests of Dorthonion , and many of the Sindar forsook the war altogether and went to Doriath. When news came to Fingolfin of the totality of the disasters that had befallen the Elven forces, a great despair came upon him. When he arrived, he smote upon the doors of Morgoth's fortress, challenging the Dark Lord to come forth to single combat.

Though Morgoth did not wish to, Fingolfin's challenge was heard by all in Angband, and was given in such an insulting manner that to ignore it would have been to lose face before his captains. Morgoth issued forth in black armor from Angband to confront Fingolfin.

Wielding the terrible hammer Grond , Morgoth repeatedly attempted to smite the Elven king, but succeeded only in carving many fiery pits in the ground from his missed strikes. Why did the gods not kill Morgoth at the end of the First Age?

Instead, they stick him outside the doors of the world to come back later for a final battle. Counterpoint: I can't think of one. Anyone have things to add? You are confusing two different stories with each other. The earlier story dealt with "gods" who could, like the Norse gods, be killed.

They could "clothe" themselves with physical bodies that could be "killed", but the beings themselves were immortal. Some had the strength to reclothe themselves, others did not. Gandalf, some people think, actually left the Universe when his body was killed, but not everyone is convinced of this.

However, one could view the departure of the spirit from Ea the Universe as a form of death as well as the destruction of the body. Melkor was thrust through the Door of Night into the Timeless Void, which was a region separate from the Timeless Halls where Iluvatar dwelt with the Ainur and Ea, which is the Universe.

Although Tolkien borrowed many elements from the earlier story in writing the later story, they are essentially two separate works, not intended to be intermixed together. The second story was the author's attempt to retell the original legends in a different style and context, and he wholly abandoned some ideas while retaining others of which some were altered considerably and some were almost not altered at all.

Also there is a certain plan that all must follow to fulfill the Music of the Ainur. Tolkien wrote an interesting essay called 'Notes on motives in the Silmarillion. It is given in Morgoth's Ring, and explains a great deal about the nature of Melkor's fall. But this wouldn't be Tolkien if it was completely certain. JRRT did speculate that Morgoth would slowly be able to grow and recover and eventually return, which is rather interesting since the Second Prophecy the one where Morgoth returns had at this time been adandoned if my memory serves me right.

So can Morgoth be killed? I guess it all depends on how you define things. But even JRRT raises some doubt as to what it means when Morgoth's spirit was thrust out into the Void, and suggests that this might simply mean he fled from Arda. From my point of view, I prefer to think of Morgoth as being dead until proven alive.

It makes me sleep better : Lars Christensen fl Hostetter Aelf Ars longa, vita brevis. The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne. Where does it say that? It says that Melkor left Valinor and went into the world. At least, in the published Silm. Haven't seen books V and on of the HoME series. According to Greek mythology the gods could be injured, but not killed.