...we shall see that the heroic Noldor were the best possible weapon with which to keep Morgoth at bay, virtually besieged, and at any rate fully occupied, on the northern fringe of Middle-Earth, without provoking him into a frenzy of nihilistic destruction. And in the meanwhile, Men... were raised to their fullest achievable stature, and by the two marriages the transference to them, or infusion into Mankind, of the noblest Elf-strain was accomplished, in readiness for the still distant, but inevitably approaching, days when the Elves would "fade."
The last intervention with physical force by the Valar, ending in the breaking of Thangorodrim, may then be viewed as not in fact reluctant or even unduly delayed, but timed with precision. The intervention came before the annihilation of the Eldar and the Edain. Morgoth though locally triumphant had neglected most of Middle-Earth during the war; and by it he had in fact been
weakened... above all in mind. He had become absorbed in "kingship," and though a tyrant of ogre-size and monstrous power, this was a vast fall even from his former wickedness of hate, and his terrible nihilism. He had fallen to
like being a tyrant-king with conquered slaves, and vast obedient armies.
The war was successful, and ruin was limited to the small (if beautiful) region of Beleriand. - 402-403,
Morgoth's Ring
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)......Who says that the Romans had first said this?
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