Is the Everlasting Darkness Even a Thing?

[dawn_felagund]

Crossposted from Tumblr, where I received an anon ask: Do you think after Maedhros dies his spirit goes to Mandos or does he face the eternal darkness for “breaking” his oath? I love the character and I often think about what his ultimate fate is because he had an end like no other elf that I can think of.

I'm trying to do better about posting fannish stuff here, so here is my answer!

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I don’t think the Everlasting Darkness is a thing. I think Maedhros goes to Mandos (if he chooses) or remains a spirit in Middle-earth (if he chooses not to go).

(Personally I think that he–they all–choose to go to Mandos.)

His seven sons leaped straightway to his side and took the selfsame vow together, each with drawn sword. They swore an oath which none shall break, and none should take, by the name of the Allfather, calling the Everlasting Dark upon them, if they kept it not; and Manwe they named in witness, and Varda, and the Holy Mount, vowing to pursue with vengeance and hatred to the ends of the world Vala, Demon, Elf, or Man as yet unborn, or any creature great or small, good or evil, that time should bring forth unto the end of days, whoso should hold or take or keep a Silmaril from their possession.

This is the first mention of the Everlasting Darkness in the oath, in the Quenta began in the late 1930s and published in The Lost Road. The oath itself is old: It is first mentioned in the outline of the later chapters found in the Book of Lost Tales 1. So the concept of the Everlasting Darkness is old, the significance of which I’ll return to in a moment.

It’s not clear what Fëanor and his sons expect will happen should they fail in their oath. Clearly, they do think something will happen; Maglor brings it up in “Of the Voyage of Eärendil” in The Silmarillion. Again, this idea first appears in the Quenta, although it is Maedhros who brings it up there, so it is an old idea. However, this concept of an “Everlasting Darkness” is mentioned nowhere else in The Silmarillion or in any of the multiple texts dealing with eschatology. The closest equivalent is Melkor’s banishment to the Void, which is depicted more as a physical removal by the Valar into a place in the universe apart from Arda:

But Morgoth himself the Valar thrust through the Door of Night beyond the Walls of the World, into the Timeless Void; and a guard is set for ever on those walls, and Eärendil keeps watch upon the ramparts of the sky. (”Of the Voyage of  Eärendil”)

This doesn’t seem to be what the Fëanorians are calling upon themselves and what they fear will happen. Rather, it seems to me that they fear an utter annihilation of their feär, contrary to their essential enduring natures as Elves. Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth (among other sources) makes abundantly clear that the feär of Elves are bound to Arda, and the feär of Mortals leave the Circles of the World. Countermanding this is a Big Deal: This is why the choice granted to Lúthien and her descendants is so extraordinary. It is beyond even the power of the Valar to grant and requires the special intervention of Eru, who is generally a hands-off kind of god.

Therefore, the power to annihilate their own feär cannot belong to the Fëanorians. It’s simply a power they do not–and cannot–have. It undermines the entire metaphysical basis of Arda if people are simply able to will their souls into anything but their appointed existences.

The question then becomes: Would Eru send their souls, in defiance of their appointed natures, to this Everlasting Darkness? I don’t think so for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as noted above, Eru is hands-off as deities go. Eru intervenes only a handful of times in the entire Silmarillion. Are we to believe that damning Fëanorian souls is of equivalent importance to Lúthien’s case or the reshaping of the world? I don’t think this case can be made convincingly.

There is also the fact that the Fëanorians were carrying out Eru’s plan because everything–good and bad–is part of Eru’s plan. There is Eru’s line from the Ainulindalë that I find brutally and darkly honest:

“And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.”

In “The Statute of Finwë and Míriel,” Manwë repeats this idea:

“[Hope] cometh  not only  from the yearning for the Will of Ilúvatar the Begetter (which by itself may lead those within Time to no more than regret), but also from trust in Eru the Lord everlasting, that he is good, and that his works shall all end in good.” (emphasis mine)

Essentially, everything that happens is part of The Plan and leads to good, i.e., the return to Arda Unmarred.

(And isn’t Eru just like any author in this regard? All the awful things we do to our characters because a story isn’t compelling without conflict, and it is only suffering through that conflict that makes the eventual resolution worthwhile. I always think it is abundantly clear that Eru is a god created by an author.)

We can see this in the bloody, horrible tale of the Fëanorians, which left a swath of death and destruction in its wake but also brought into position those characters needed for the various battles against evil throughout the ages. Remember, without the Fëanorians, you do not have Gondolin and therefore Eärendil; you do not have Galadriel and her aid to the Fellowship. You perhaps have an Elrond who, not fostered by Maglor and Maedhros, becomes a very different character, less suited for his work in the Last Alliance and his assistance to the Fellowship. Would the forces of good have won out without the intervention of these characters? You can see exactly what Eru promised at work here: evil deeds producing good ends with the same inevitability as a ball rolling down a hill.

Given this, I’m not sure that I can believe that Eru would find such a punishment fitting or, again, worth the effort of intervention. But, some will say, they swore an oath! Eru is just giving them what they asked for! Again, though, incarnate characters cannot hold that kind of power in this universe, nor can there be a force to compel them to the Everlasting Darkness greater than Eru. We return to the earlier point that this simply is not and cannot be within their power.

We also have evidence that Fëanor went to Mandos, and if he evaded this Everlasting Darkness, there is no reason his sons should not. Mandos himself predicted Fëanor’s imminent arrival in his halls: “To me shall Fëanor come soon” (Silmarillion, “Of the Sun and the Moon). Furthermore, again from The Lost Road, in the Second Prophecy of Mandos it is Fëanor who returns from Mandos to break the Silmarils and restores the Two Trees.

Finally, I mentioned earlier that the Everlasting Darkness appeared relatively early in the textual history of the Silmarillion: before Tolkien began work on The Lord of the Rings. I think this is important. For one, that it is an old idea means that Tolkien had ample opportunity to integrate the concept of an Everlasting Darkness into his extensive eschatological work that would follow. He did not. Also, because it was part of his older work, it carries a more distinctly Northern flavor than his later work. He was, at this point in his career, still interested in writing a mythology of England. The oath passage from the Quenta above refers to Eru as the Allfather–a nod to Odin and Woden of Norse and Anglo-Saxon mythology, respectively–and the ineluctability of the oath calls to mind those Germanic cultures as well. As he aged (and, I believe, as his work achieved a level of fame–and therefore audience–that he never expected), he tended away from these early Germanic ideas and seems, to me, to have become more conscious of the ideas in his work that aligned with Christian values. Playing with pagan ideas was all well and good when his audience were the Inklings; it was quite different when, intended or not, people would be taking moral instruction from his stories.

I have seen both fiction and meta over the years make the compelling case that the Everlasting Darkness is in fact psychological state. This I think is a compelling idea. Essentially–and there are many different twists on this idea–the Fëanorians’ failure brings the realization of what they have destroyed in order to gain exactly nothing. The pursuit of the Silmarils and vengeance–which were just causes in a Noldorin cultural context–became so singleminded as to wreak a level of injustice and harm to where they became de facto servants of the enemy they came to defeat. The Everlasting Darkness is having to live with that. This, I think, is a real thing; the Everlasting Darkness as an eschatological state I do not.

Comments

[ermingarden]

This is super interesting! I think I've always basically assumed that either 1) the Everlasting Darkness was the place the Valar put Melkor or 2) it refers to going "beyond the circles of the world", paralleling the fate of mortal Men. The idea that it refers not to a destination for the fea but to the cessation/annihilation of the fea is honestly fascinating - I'm going to be thinking about this for a while!

[dawn_felagund]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! ^_^

The reason I don't think it is those things (whereas it was for Melkor) is because Melkor's milieu included all of the universe, including the Void. He was able to move through those spaces as a matter of his nature. I mean, he liked the Void; the Ainulindalë says he wandered around there at length, by choice. (Which kind of makes me think that banishing him there is like suspending a kid from school.) Elves, on the other hand, cannot by nature occupy any place outside of Arda (as in the Earth, not the solar system). Banishing them to the Void would only be possible by Eru, and I don't think Eru would do that. I'd also question the extent to which that experience would be appreciably different from Mandos (another place we know almost nothing about).

[hhimring]

Thank you for your thoughts on this!

I always tend to sort of go for psychological explanations myself, in my fic. For after-death, there are Swedenborg's ideas about hell to draw on, although I don't know what Tolkien thought of those, at the various stages of his life.

But on the level of the text, I've always felt that the words "Everlasting Darkness" are so powerful that somehow the existence of such a thing is conjured up. And this despite the fact that the Feanorians ought not to have such power, as you say.
Perhaps that is one of the reasons why Tolkien doesn't seem to have changed the old wording of the Oath and the conversation between Maedhros and Maglor, even when he was changing his ideas about eschatology, etc.

[dawn_felagund]

I didn't do my usual level of research into the textual history for this one. I wrote it on the fly last night! :D I am thinking of revising it into an HL post and would be curious to see how the language changed (or didn't) re: the Oath in his post-LotR years. I'm assuming it was still there, which doesn't necessarily even mean anything, though (yes, totally contradicting myself here ;) since we know there were myriad things he intended to change and did not.

I totally agree that the Feanorians could have had this conception--even belief--in a thing that is not real. It's actually rather Feanorian to assume that they had the ability to send their souls where they chose. ;) I mean, how many people have made decisions--including lots of really awful ones--based on their belief in an afterlife that is not actually supported by any sort of evidence? So I definitely don't think that Tolkien's eschatology and Feanorian belief were mutually exclusive; just that the Feanorians were full of shit on this one. ;)

[narya_flame]

Fascinating - thank you!

I'd always equated the Everlasting Darkness with the Void - like Himring, I found the words so powerful that they conjured up the existence of the thing (or not-thing?) in my imagination, and it's stayed there. The psychological explanation is fascinating, though, as is your point that no incarnate being should be able to alter their fate in that way.

Hmm...things to think about :D

[dawn_felagund]

Yes, the reason I don't think it is the Void--because that is the most logical assumption, isn't it? we have, after all, a naughty character being punished by being sent there--is because the Void was a place that Melkor's nature allowed him to inhabit. He even went there by choice, frequently, back in the day!

But it is not a place that, by nature, the Elves can inhabit, which requires intervention on Eru's part and a big philosophical debate on Would Eru Do Such a Thing? ;) I come down on the side of no on that one.

[rhapsody]

He even went there by choice, frequently, back in the day!

Just wondering, did anyone write a fic of Melkor trying to get back from the void and Earendil fights him?

[dawn_felagund]

Not that I'm aware of! I did pose this scenario last night on the SWG's Discord server:

The Final Battle: a spork-wielding Melkor busts through the Void, sending Vingilote reeling. He immediately performs a Fortnite dance of victory. And then is quashed by Turin.

And backed over by Vingolote a few times.

:D

In reality, I think Melkor-in-the-Void fiction that considers some of the weirder aspects of astronomy (like dark matter) would be pretty amazing. I mean, we know from our own universe that "the Void" isn't always as empty as it seems.

[heartofoshun]

No way is there any room for Everlasting Darkness for my beloved protagonists!

I always thought the Oath had more to do with Tolkien's fascination with a tone and ambiance carried over from the old Northern epics than any particular attention to the desire to expand upon the metaphysics of Arda or preach in that instance. I think he got swept up in the idea of plot there--drama and characterization as much as worldbuilding!?

I do actually agree with your analysis (nitpicking) of the specifics--the look at language and use of logic. Lots of great textual mining above. It works for me on an imaginative and a visceral level. The Silmarillion is no Pilgrim's Progress--OMG! How dreary that would be. Tolkien made me love these characters--all of the Finweans basically!--but particularly Maedhros and Feanor. I am caught up in the art and emotion of The Silmarillion and usually choose to ignore the philosophy. I am probably a very bad reader. Deliberate or not, Tolkien's genius is that he leaves room for so many hearts and minds.

[dawn_felagund]

I think The Silmarillion is such a brilliant work in part because Tolkien wasn't really writing it for an audience, at least at first. He was largely writing it for himself, even if he did read bits of it from time to time in various small-group settings. So we see the full breadth of his imagination, drawing on his considerable knowledge of pre-Christian myth and legend, untrammeled by his Catholicism. There is a freedom in the pre-LotR ideas and writings that I feel beginning to stiffen in his later writings where he was highly conscious of a voracious readership willing to read moral lessons into his work that he did not intend. And from criticism he'd received from readers (like the Catholic bookshop owner) knew would be scrutinized by people who shared his belief system. Jeezum, if *LotR* was unacceptable to them then what would that audience have thought of those Northern paganesque heroes! I think writing with Northern pagan overtones became difficult-verging-on-impossible for him then.

I think the Everlasting Darkness is an artifact left over from those freer times. Nor is it one that stands at odds with the texts otherwise: As I note to Himring above, it is perfectly possible for the Feanorians to believe in it even if it's not real. How many people, after all, have made painfully bad decisions based on their fear of an afterlife that exists only in their imaginations?

[oloriel]

Personally, I've always assumed that the "Everlasting Darkness" simply refers to a stay in Mandos with no hope for release (before Arda is Remade, that is), rather than the Void (I mean, the Void is the Void and the Everlasting Darkness is just... yeah, what exactly?). It was very puzzling to first come across the idea that Feanor & sons, like Melkor, would've been cast out into the Void. As you say, that seems completely contrary to the idea that Elven spirits are bound to the circles of the world, for better or worse. And although the Valar occasionally do things that aren't fully compatible with Eru's plan, that would seem a bit extreme!

I really love the interpretation that the Everlasting Darkness is the grim reality of having to live with all these deaths and all that ruin that ultimately achieved - well, not nothing, but certainly not what they were going for.

A note on the "All-father" epithet for Eru, though; while indeed the same term is used for Oðinn, it also recalls God-the-Father, and since Eru was always above and apart from the other Valar, even when they were still properly gods, it seems more likely that in spite of the identical names, Eru ("The One") was never meant to be recall Oðinn (who instead influenced aspects of Manwë, Melkor, Gandalf and Saruman to some extent). Nor did the name of "All-father" disappear from the later Silmarillion even after the pagan ideas were purged (or at any rate mitigated) from the text; ilúvë means "allness, the All", and atar means father, so Ilúvatar is quite literally All-father.

[dawn_felagund]

The fact that some characters choose eternity in the Halls, though, makes me think it wasn't much of a punishment. Perhaps for the Feanorians it would have been, with their active minds and desire to shape the world. But I also don't think that Finwe, for instance, was more traumatized than Maedhros ... and he also had those same tendencies and chose eternity in the Halls.

I think they believed that it was something worse. I don't think that thing was real, but they clearly believed it was. (Typical Feanorian, thinking they had the power to invent a new creative fate for their souls. ;)

I don't think that sending the Feanorian feär was something within the power of the Valar. That would ring false to me. That is a power only Eru has, to alter the fates of feär.

Just for the record I don't think Eru is meant to be a parallel of Odin! Only that the name Allfather clearly calls to mind Northern pagan mythology, and I think Tolkien very deliberately used that term to create that coloring.

[oloriel]

Correct! It's only a punishment if you don't want it. But they collectively condemn themselves to that fate whether they want it or not. Of course, it's also feasible that they did expect something worse, whatever that might be. I mean, in spite of his composed rhetoric, Fëanor clearly wasn't thinking clearly when making that oath. Swear first, figure it out later! Perhaps he was just looking for a nice grim formula to alliterate with "doom"? :P (I laughed at the idea of a new creative fate! That would be so them!)

It rings absolutely false with me, too, on so many levels! Even if it were within the power of the Valar (which, as you say, is unlikely), I don't think they'd do it, simply because they feel bound to certain rules (and also because for all the bad that Fëanor & Sons did, it's not on the same level as Melkor's behaviour). Not to mention that Melkor, after his initial crimes, was given a chance to repent and reform. And Elves shouldn't be? And, as you say, there's that whole issue about the nature of the universe in general, and Elven vs. Ainurin spirits in particular.
Yeah, not buying the Void.

Aaah! I read you wrong then. Sorry!

[dawn_felagund]

I think my issue with the Everlasting Darkness = eternity in Mandos is twofold. For one, fëar can be called but not forced to go to Mandos (unless L&C is lying, which you know I always accept as a possibility XD). That brings us back to the original quandary of needing the intervention of Eru to force an outcome other than the natural fate of an Elven fëa.

The second is that a fëa in Mandos always lacks control over the timing of its own release. I suppose something could be said about going in knowing one won't be coming out--kind of like a triple life sentence in prison--but since one goes voluntarily, there still must be a degree of acceptance of that fate.

And no worries--this was hastily penned meta! That part is not super clear; I knew what I meant but the way you read it is a reasonable reading of what I said too ... I just leaned too heavily on the assumption that people would know I know enough about Norse mythology not to make that kind of mistake. XD Definitely an area for revision if I decide to post this to the HL.

[oloriel]

Yeah, but if the fëa refuses to go to Mandos and remains forever houseless, that's also a form of Everlasting Darkness, so they don't win either way.

The fëa always lacks control over the timing, but most people can expect to get out eventually, which would not be the case after the Oath. In all honesty, I wonder whether this isn't to some extent a premonition: If the Oath is not fulfilled, they would not actually want to return to life, because they'd forever be haunted either by the impossibility or the obligation of fulfilling it. Better to remain dead, either as a houseless spirit or in Mandos, perhaps! Very melodramatic, but on the plus side, they wouldn't sign up for anything they wouldn't get anyway. (A bit like the Valar deciding that Fëanor's punishment for swearing the Oath in the first place is to be exiled from Aman. Considering that he wants to leave anyway, this is not particularly impressive! XD)

As you see, I'm pretty flexible in my interpretation of the Everlasting Darkness. (The guilt, however, always remains - which is why I like the interpretation of the Everlasting Darkness as a psychological state.)

Well, I should have known! But I still got confused. But then, my reading comprehension isn't always the best. My brain is so fried RN. How long until the holidays? ;)

[dawn_felagund]

Ehhh ... I have to be perfectly honest that I can't equate "remaining houseless" with "Everlasting Darkness." L&C certainly depicts this particular choice as anything but a dark one; those spirits seem pretty darned active! :D I would actually see Mandos as the more likely choice here since, who knows, maybe he has some unusual spiritual sensory deprivation room lurking in those Halls about which we know so little?

But in reality, I don't think a normal fate for souls was powerful enough to compel the kinds of extreme behaviors undertaken by the Feanorians out of fear of this "Everlasting Darkness," whatever it is. It seems to me that--imagined or real--it must be something powerfully scary enough beyond the normal fate of Elven souls. After all, otherwise, every Elf to die would potentially face the "Everlasting Darkness," and that diminishes the power of it quite a bit.

[oloriel]

Huh. I did understand it as a pretty dark fate: "But it would seem that in these after-days more and more of the Elves, be they of the Eldalië in origin or be they of other kinds, who linger in Middle-earth now refuse the summons of Mandos, and wander houseless in the world, unwilling to leave it and unable to inhabit it, haunting trees or springs or hidden places that once they knew. [...] For the Unbodied, wandering in the world, are those who at the least have refused the door of life and remain in regret and self-pity. Some are filled with bitterness, grievance, and envy. Some were enslaved by the Dark Lord and do his work still, though he himself is gone. They will not speak truth or wisdom. [...] Some say that the Houseless desire bodies, though they are not willing to seek them lawfully by submission to the judgement of Mandos. The wicked among them will take bodies, if they can, unlawfully." [LaCE] --Active? Maybe. Happy? Certainly not! Fading is already painted as a miserable fate, but longing for a body and not getting one - "There long shall ye abide and yearn for your bodies, and find little pity though all whom ye have slain should entreat for you", as Mandos so charmingly words it in the Prophecy of the North - seems to be a pretty awful thing.

In fact, one could easily say that Mandos' curse/prophecy illustrates the Everlasting Darkness: Either coming to Mandos and there finding no pity and no release, or surviving in Middle-earth but fading and become "as shadows of regret" because they cannot return to Aman. Neither of these are extremely extraordinary for Elves, not all of whom appear to be reborn (or reborn quickly) and all of whom supposedly fade if they remain in the World. And yet Mandos here treats it as something extraordinarily horrible, a fit punishment for the Kinslaying at Alqualondë. And thus, possibly, a fit punishment for Oathbreaking?

But all in all, I think the extreme behaviour stems more from the fear of the thing than from the thing itself. The thing itself may not actually exist (or did not exist until Fëanor accidentally conjured it!). It has no power unless you give it power. It is entirely possible (in my reading) that the Fëanorians actually have no clue what the Everlasting Darkness is, but it must be bad, so it must be avoided. They all know that words have power, and whatever the Everlasting Darkness may be, it is going to happen, and because of the context, it must be a dreadful thing. In actuality, it may be just ordinary regret & guilt (which undoubtedly is what all of them suffer in the end - even Maglor, who never officially dies, but officially does wander the shores in pain and regret) for ever and ever. Which of course is what they have to face anyway. Doesn't that make the whole drama even more poignant? All that running away from something that isn't actually (extraordinarily) bad, but simply what they're already naturally dealing with? The irony! The drama! It's delicious! (OK, I'm a bad person.)

That said, our earlier conversation about the early forms of the story and the mythological (Germanic and otherwise) inspiration has dislodged a memory of one of the early BoLT versions where there were actually various different options for dead spirits, one of them - for the wicked - eternal torment in Angband. If that's the Everlasting Darkness they (particularly Maedhros) have in mind, that would certainly fit the picture.
But I still like the psychological, fear-of-an-unknown-terror, actually-just-natural-consequences interpretation better.

I'm probably not making a lot of sense here. I should sleep! And that's what I'll do now.

[mindstalk]

Your ideas are certainly plausible.

They were clearly trying to call down some sort of damnation on themselves for non-fulfillment, whether they knew what they were doing or not. Would Eru intervene to enforce a deliberate and repeated rejection of Him? Despair is said to be the ultimate sin.

There's an idea that they end up in Mandos because Maglor is still alive, to hold open the chance of fulfillment, and that they would all go *sproing* into the Void if he died too. Certainly something to haunt poor Maglor as he wanders.