fate of Arda

[Alcuin]

This is a good thread that deserves to be resurrected. There are a lot of solid points here.

The one point I’d like to add is that we carry a serious misconception about “fate” and “destiny”, and Tolkien reflects upon this in The Lord of the Rings.

Eru is outside Time and Space. He exists before the Ainur, and if the Ainur cease to exist, Eru still will be. Eru created Time and Space, and Eru created the Ainur, who witnessed his creation of Eä and so also of Arda within Eä. There isn’t anything that exists outside of Eru, and this is why the rebellion of Melkor and those who followed him is so heinous to Eru: it is contrary to Eru’s nature.

When something happens, Eru is not only immediately aware of it, he was aware of it before it happened, at least as we temporal beings understand things. For we pass through Time as an arrow launched at conception, and our conscious existence in this world comes also to an end, even as it had a beginning. So if something comes to pass without which another thing that we believe important or imperative could not have been, we say it is “fated” to have been, that “destiny” brought it about. But in fact, as Tolkien shows, its occurrence is the result of decisions made and actions taken by creatures of Eru’s creation exercising free will and free action, at least to the degree that they are able.

For Eru, all is clear, and all choices are known, for all are present before him at once: there is nothing unknown, only the play itself. For us who pass through Space and Time, each decision and each action is our own, and their outcomes are not only unknown to us, but to some extent unknowable.

In the Ainulindalë, the Ainur sang first the theme laid out by Eru, then a cacophonous counter-theme devised by Melkor; then a second theme put forth by Eru, which Melkor disrupted; then a third theme, filled with sorrow, that took the discord of Melkor and wove it into itself; then a great chord from Eru himself that ended all the Music. The theme of Arda was first, which Melkor disrupted; the theme of the First Incarnates, the Elves, which Melkor destroyed; the theme of the Second Incarnates, Men, which Melkor sought to overcome; and finally the End.

“And thou, Melkor, wilt discover all the secret thoughts of thy mind, and wilt perceive that they are but a part of the whole and tributary to its glory.”

Was Frodo “destined” to destroy the One Ring? Was Aragorn “destined” to become King? No: but through their decisions and their efforts, and those of others they achieved good ends. It seems to us as destiny, but for them, it was the struggle of a lifetime.