The trouble with Aule

[Bacchus]

So what is it precisely that gets Aule and his minions in trouble? Sauron and Saruman were Maiar of Aule, and the Noldor were most closely associated with Aule as well. Aule himself got into some hot water over the Dwarves, but came up with a brilliant save when confronted. The key seems to be humility, or the lack thereof. Although Aule himself was properly humble, and thus saved the Dwarves, everyone else associated with him seems to fail this test. Why?

Ideas?

[Sister Golden Hair]

You know, I have wndered about this a lot myself. Aule is the Vala of craft, and it seems that all who had this desire were drawn to him. Their creations were to the extream, the ultimate in either beauty or evil. In this we see the One Ring, and the Silmarils. The cause of all the griefs of the Noldor, and the Ring being the pains of the third age.

[Darth Tater]

I think it has a lot to do with Tolkien's dislike of mechanical things, and of progress on the whole

[Wayfarer]

The trouble with aule can be summed up pretty easily in this:

Of the Valar, Aule was closest of mind to Melkor. Both wished to create, to make things and think things that no one had before them. But melkor wished to dominate, to control, while aule took pleasure in the making, and gave freely of both his craft and his time.

Thus, his maia were the easiest to seduce, and he deliberately made his dwarves resistant to corruption.

[Sister Golden Hair]

Originally posted by Wayfarer
The trouble with aule can be summed up pretty easily in this:

Of the Valar, Aule was closest of mind to Melkor. Both wished to create, to make things and think things that no one had before them. But melkor wished to dominate, to control, while aule took pleasure in the making, and gave freely of both his craft and his time.

Thus, his maia were the easiest to seduce, and he deliberately made his dwarves resistant to corruption.

Where does it say this? I pretty much got that impression just from reading te story, but I don't recall reading that.

[Captain Stern]

SGH it says something similar on page 18 of the Silmarillion:

"Melkor was jealous of him, for Aule was most like himself in thought and in powers; and there was long strife between them, in which Melkor ever marred or undid the works of Aule, and Aule grew weary in repairing the tumults and disorders of Melkor. Both, also, desired to make things of their own that should be new and unthought of by others, and delighted in the praise of their skill. But Aule remained faithful to Eru and submitted all that he did to his will; and he did not envy the works of others, but sought and gave counsel. Whereas Melkor spent his spirit in envy and hate, untill at last he could make nothing save in mockery of the thought of others, and all their works he destroyed if he could."

[Finmandos12]

he deliberately made his dwarves resistant to corruption.

I think, SGH, that he means that the dwarf-rings didn't let Sauron control them.

[Sister Golden Hair]

Originally posted by Finmandos12


I think, SGH, that he means that the dwarf-rings didn't let Sauron control them.

Yes, that makes sense.

[Ñólendil]

I don't think so. I think Shannon was referring to a passage in Of Aulë and Yavanna, where it is explained why Aule made the Dwarrows the way he did. It says that he made them stone-hard and stubborn so that they may resist the evils of Melkor.

[Wayfarer]

I actually made sort of a blanket statement. It talks about how Aule is most like Melkor in at least two places in the sil, and the dwarves are mentioned somewhere else. It also talks about how dwarves are strong and undaunted in the appendices.