Robert Brown
New Member
"For of this summons came many woes that after befell; yet those who hold that the Valar erred, thinking rather of the bliss of Valinor than of the Earth, and seeking to wrest the will of Ilúvatar to their own pleasure, speak with the tongues [read tongue] of Melkor."
It seems to me, that this sentence is being misunderstood. The speaking with the tongue of Melkor is ascribing those motivations to the Valar in summoning the Elves, not in saying that it was an error at all. Indeed, we are told in the immediately preceding clause that much hurt came of the Valar's action--an odd choice of rhetoric for someone seeking to cast them as inerrant. With this reading, the invention of a state of mind of the narrator or positing that Tolkien briefly considered making the Valar infallible is not necessary.
It seems to me, that this sentence is being misunderstood. The speaking with the tongue of Melkor is ascribing those motivations to the Valar in summoning the Elves, not in saying that it was an error at all. Indeed, we are told in the immediately preceding clause that much hurt came of the Valar's action--an odd choice of rhetoric for someone seeking to cast them as inerrant. With this reading, the invention of a state of mind of the narrator or positing that Tolkien briefly considered making the Valar infallible is not necessary.