According to
Tolkien in
Myths Transformed, after the
War of Wrath,
Morgoth was judged, eventually taken out of
the Blessed Realm and executed; that is, killed like one of the incarnate.
Morgoth had by then become permanently incarnated in his "beloved" body, and with this execution he became Houseless
> he then was a terribly shrunken and reduced spirit, thrust out into the Void (Tolkien then notes that this may refer inaccurately to the extrusion or flight of his spirit from
Arda).
It's then noted that Morgoth could not
yet reclothe himself, but that the spirit of his "remainder" might be expected (for related reasons, see text VII, MT, MR), at least after long
ages, to increase again, and become, as it were,
"a dark shadow brooding on the confines of Arda, and yearning towards it."
That said,
for myself, within the context of a
Númenórean/Manish myth, I don't feel the need to go very deep here. In this context it simply makes sense that Morgoth be defeated by a Man, or at least a Man should be awarded the death blow, and
Túrin, considering his tragic story, fits
. Or to say it another way, why would such a story arise among
Men, in which a notable Man is defeated by Morgoth in the end!
In other words, no matter the deeper
concepts that might lie beneath all this, to my mind the prime impulse behind this myth is that, again, no matter "how", Túrin will be raised in "stature" to defeat even Morgoth himself:
"so that the children of Húrin and all Men be avenged"
Vengeance and Renewel.
In the "1937"
Quenta Silmarillion, Túrin is even given a place among the sons of the
Valar! Tolkien would later write a large X near this concept, and of course, we know the Valar having actual "sons" was dropped from the Legendarium.
Mânawenûz And
Tulukhastâz
One could argue, I guess, that the "Gods" had grown weary after long ages (in the prophecy version), and that
could/might/possibly explain why Morgoth
could/might/possibly defeat
Tulkas here, because in this version of the prophecy, in the light of the Two
Trees (rekindled)
"the Gods will grow young again" and earlier in section 31, it had been said:
"When the world is old and the Powers grow weary, then Morgoth, seeing that the guard sleepeth. . . " which
might mean "weary" beyond simple vigilance, admittedly.
Now
I'm using "could, might, possibly"
see also MT text VII about the "fading" of the Valar, which I'll leave up to interpretation there
What about
Manwe? Could he have "died" in some final battle, even if not named in section 31?
Again in MT, Text VII, Tolkien says
this much:
"The 'Elder King' is obviously not going to be finally defeated or destroyed, at least not before some ultimate 'Ragnarok' - which even for us is still in the future, so he can have no real "adventures" (. . .) "Even to the final war against Morgoth it is Fionwe son of Manwe who leads out the power of the Valar. When we move out Manwe it will be the last battle, and the end of the World (or of 'Arda Marred') as the Eldar would say."
Again, interpret as you like, but please consider all this within the points/arguments already raised and discussed, including the dating of
Myths Transformed here! I note, in any case and for whatever reason, JRRT writes "
Fionwe
son of Manwe" here, rather than the later
Eonwe, herald of Manwe!
And while getting into Ragnarok itself (not to mention Christian ideas) could get fairly complicated in this already stuffed post,
very generally speaking we do have Ragnarokian accounts where even some notable "Gods" perish before the earth will appear once more from the sea
> along with even Baldr, on the other hand and for one example, returning from "Hel".
All that said, what can anyone simply or easily "conclude" from this long-winded yammering?
I think it's pretty safe to mumble that Tolkien could be said to be "generally influenced" by certain versions of the Ragnarok myth, or Christian accounts of an "End of World" scenario,
but that only goes so far in my book, especially without doing a deeper dive into all this,
if trying to make any compelling connections. . .
. . . and I for one, am happy with Christopher Tolkien's caution concerning this matter
> again, especially in light of the
Mannish Myth change (and his caution with respect to the actual changes made to the relevant text in the later 1950s), and yes, once again, Andreth's Prophecy.
For me, in Tolkien's world. . . well, I'll just say that my ears begin to twitch when I see an actual prophecy anywhere in the Legendarium.
Anywho, I'm not changing my overall stance about this matter. . . I'm just sayin'