LOTR
Meeting Melkor / Morgoth of The Rings of Power, Sauron's mentor and the first Dark Lord
We dive into Tolkien's Legendarium to rescue the figure of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth, Sauron's mentor who will appear in The Rings of Power.
Before the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Before the Third and even the Second Age. Before Sauron and the Rings of Power. Before, long before, there was darkness in Middle-earth. This darkness took on many names as time went by. Melkor ('He who arises in might'), Morgoth ('Black Foe of the World') or Belegurth ('Great Death') were just some of them. Today we are going to know a little more about this terrible figure, whose presence is more than confirmed in the new Prime Video series, with its premiere scheduled on September 2.
Who is Melkor / Morgoth?
According to Tolkien's Legendarium, Melkor belongs to the Valar, a kind of pantheon made up of the spiritual (and immortal) beings who created the Earth. Or well, more than the Earth, Arda, which is the real name of the world where all the adventures and misadventures created by the British writer take place. Melkor always dreamed of becoming Lord of the Valar, but that position was destined and reserved for one of his brothers. Rejected again and again in his attempts to stand out, envy and resentment soon surfaced in him and you know what they say. Envy leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate to suffering and suffering to the dark side. Or maybe we are heading to another saga?
Legends speak of dozens of confrontations between Melkor and the rest of the Valar. He was expelled from his land, Valinor, repeatedly, "and descended to Arda", from where he himself banished the Valar at some point. His final blow is narrated in the Silmarillion, where it is told how he killed several of his people and how he stole the Silmarils, the most precious jewels of the Elves and in which the destiny of Arda was said to be written. From that moment on, Melkor became known as Morgoth and was named the Dark Lord.
Melkor's army: Sauron, balrog, dragons, lycanthropes…
Wait a minute, wasn't the Dark Lord Sauron? Yes and no. Sauron is known as such, but with a clarification, he is the second Dark Lord. He took over from Morgoth when he fell because Melkor was his teacher and mentor. The Valar were surrounded by a cohort of creatures also spiritual (but of lower rank) called maiar. Sauron was a maia under the orders of Morgoth and it was not just any subject, but the most faithful and useful of all. Otherwise he would have been transformed into a balrog. Because, oh yes, Morgoth created the balrog by experimenting with "his" maias and fusing them with fire and darkness. He had an army of them and if Sauron did not meet such a fate it is because of Melkor's trust in his abilities and services.
The Rings of Power showrunners, JD Payne and Patrick McKay, have promised that although the series is set in the Second Age, after the fall of Melkor, there will be flashbacks of his time in which he will appear with the balrog. Let's keep our fingers crossed that these sequences will also feature his other great allies: dragons and lycanthropes, as well as the Valar and some of his confrontations with them. Namely: the Battles of Beleriand, the Battle of the Sudden Flame or the War of Wrath.
Morgoth's ruthless end
Melkor, or Morgoth, as you like, met his end. Men and elves pleaded with the Valar to take care of him and a huge army left Valinor to hunt him down once and for all. Melkor would be caught and beg for mercy, but after years of false forgiveness and repentance, there was no more room for mercy. The Valar sliced off his feet, Melkor was taken back to Valinor and sentenced to be cast through the Door of Night, beyond the Timeless Void.