# Did Melkor create any living creature from nothing?



## Flame of Utumno (Jan 20, 2002)

To all the faithful Silmarillion fanatics:

Does anyone know whether Melkor created any living being in the same way that Aule created the Dwarves? (Ie. A totally new living being from nothing).

This does not include any of the creatures that he corrupted or bred from other creatures (ie Orcs), nor does it include those creatures which he seduced or were already in existence before the Great Music.


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## Beleg Strongbow (Jan 20, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Flame of Utumno _
> *To all the faithful Silmarillion fanatics:
> 
> Does anyone know whether Melkor created any living being in the same way that Aule created the Dwarves? (Ie. A totally new living being from nothing).
> ...




What about Glaurung and the dragons and gothmog with the balrogs? Theres is nothing i can remember that resembles any of them before they issued from the gates of utumno and the spirits he must have turned them evil. I think shelob was in the music of Ainur. 
Holla


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## maarten (Jan 21, 2002)

I believe the Balrogs where maiar like Gandalf was too! But they where corrupted by Melko. I dont know about dragons... sometimes they are called great worms, so maybe Melko took some worms and corrupted them in to gigantic dragons?? 

And shelob was a descendant of Ungoliant the first great spider who was a evil of her own and maybe also a maia but im not sure about that...

gts


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## Telchar (Jan 21, 2002)

None of the Valar could create living beeings with free will, be it good or evil. Take Aule, creator of the Dwarves, if Illuvatar hadn't given them free will they would have been but puppets of his will and would have stood still as rocks when he (Aule) turned his mind to other matters. So the creatures of Morgoth were not created by him, he made them in mockery of other living creaturs..


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## Grond (Jan 21, 2002)

I don't have my Sil or UT with me but one of them very clearly states that none beside Eru have the capability to create new living creatures. Melkor does not and merely corrupts that which is. For example, I'm sure that Dragons were once merely some type of reptile that Melkor corrupted over the millennia by feeding them potions he made or by altering their DNA. Werewolves were surely perverted wolves or the like. Orcs were either bent and corrupted Men or Elves, depending on your viewpoint and what you believe of the author. Besides, the author is very clear in stating the Melkor hadn't the "power of making" (to coin a phrase from another author).


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## Snaga (Jan 21, 2002)

Yes Grond is right. 

In my view it is the fact that Melkor is frustrated in his desire to create, because he does not have the Flame Imperishable, that turns him bad.


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## TulKas Astaldo (Jan 22, 2002)

The only thing he really created was Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs... Gothmog is the only son of Morgoth. Read up on the Lost Tales, it's in Book I. I forget his real name... Anyway though, Glaurung and the dragons were made much in the same way the Lord of the Nazgul's flying beasts was in RotK.


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## Grond (Jan 22, 2002)

> _Originally posted by TulKas Astaldo _
> *The only thing he really created was Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs... Gothmog is the only son of Morgoth. Read up on the Lost Tales, it's in Book I. I forget his real name... Anyway though, Glaurung and the dragons were made much in the same way the Lord of the Nazgul's flying beasts was in RotK. *


Alas, Tulkas, if you'll read Christopher Tolkien narrative on this subject, you will find that Gothmog did not end up being a son of Melkor. The Lost Tales were JRRT's earliest attempts at creating the Mythology of England and were much revised before he finally assembled most of that stuff in the Quenta Silmarillion. His final word on Gothmog was the he was Lord of the Valarauko or "Lord of the 'Demons of Might.'"

Unlike many of his other works, The Book of Lost Tales can only be considered rough drafts of what later came to be The Silmarillion.


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