Manwe on 🧝Feanor

[m4r35n357]

Manwe: "even as Eru spoke to us, shall beauty not before conceived be brought into Ea, and evil yet be good to have been"

I can only parse this last bit as "and evil yet good to have been" - am I missing a trick? (the "be" bit)

 

[ZehnWaters]

You're asking what does the sentence mean, as the phrasing is off?

 

[Alcuin]

The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.

– JRR Tolkien, Letter 142.​

The statement “Thus even as Eru spoke to us shall beauty not before conceived be brought into Eä, and evil yet be good to have been,” is first Manwë’s recitation of Eru’s statement to Melkor after that Vala had fouled the Music of the Ainur:

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. ... 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.​

Overarching this, however, is the Catholic idea of felix culpa cited in the Exultet at the beginning of the Easter Vigil, the night before Easter, which proclaims in part,

O certe necessárium Adæ peccátum,
quod Christi morte delétum est!
O felix culpa,
quæ talem ac tantum méruit habére Redemptórem!​

usually translated as

O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
O happy fault
that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer!​

An explanation is offered by Fr Jonah Pollack, a Dominican Friar in New York,

The sin of Adam was necessary so that it could be destroyed by the death of Christ. Adam’s fault is happy because it necessitated Christ’s redemption. The sin of Adam is greeted with jubilation because it created the problem to which Christ’s redeeming death and resurrection is the solution. It brought on the disease for which Easter is the cure. To be sure, the sin of Adam is not itself good. It is not, in itself, a cause for rejoicing. It is, rather, an occasion for good. It is the tragic plot twist that sets the stage for the story’s glorious resolution. Our rejoicing is therefore is not that Adam sinned, but that, out of Adam’s sin, God brought about a greater good.​

The philosopher St Augustine said that, “God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist.”

This concept is intimately intertwined with the Problem of Evil, which arises from Free Will. What Tolkien puts into words from Manwë, and before that from Eru, is this theological notion of felix culpa, that Eru can use even the evil acts of his rebellious creatures to achieve good. This does not justify or excuse evil in any way, nor is Eru in any way responsible for their evil actions; only that in the ultimate end, Eru’s designs may not be opposed, and he will overcome all evils of his fallen creatures to achieve good beyond the measure of their wickedness.

As an aside, I hasten to point out a felix culpa in Tolkien’s own life. His mother died when he was but 12 and his brother even younger. This cannot be seen as “good” thing to happen to children: their father had already died in South Africa, and the Tolkien clan, Anglican to the core, rejected Mabel Tolkien because she had converted to Catholicism at a time in English history when this was still verboten: Mabel raised her children in financially straightened circumstances. Tolkien and his brother Hilary were fostered by a Catholic priest, Fr Francis Morgan, who saw to their education and discipline. Tolkien’s excellent and extensive self-discipline and education are the tools he used to create the world we love so well, a world that seems almost real. O happy fault! the saying goes.