Morgoth Bauglir ([ˈmɔrɡɔθ ˈbau̯ɡlir]; originally Melkor [ˈmɛlkor]) is a character, one of the godlike Valar and the primary antagonist of Tolkien’s legendarium, the mythic epic published in parts as The Silmarillion, The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin. The character is also briefly mentioned in The Lord of the Rings.
Previus Life as Melkor
Melkor is the most powerful of the Valar but he turns to darkness and is renamed Morgoth, the primary antagonist of Arda. All evil in the world of Middle-earth ultimately stems from him. One of the Maiar of Aulë betrays his kind and becomes Morgoth’s principal lieutenant and successor, Sauron.
Interpretation
Melkor has been interpreted as analogous to Satan, once the greatest of all God’s angels, Lucifer, but fallen through pride; he rebels against his creator. Morgoth has likewise been likened to John Milton’s characterization of Satan as a fallen angel in Paradise Lost. Tom Shippey has written that The Silmarillion maps the Book of Genesis with its creation and its fall, even Melkor having begun with good intentions. Marjorie Burns has commented that Tolkien used the Norse god Odin to create aspects of several characters, the wizard Gandalf getting some of his good characteristics, while Morgoth gets his destructiveness, malevolence, and deceit. Verlyn Flieger writes that the central temptation is the desire to possess, something that ironically afflicts two of the greatest figures in the legendarium, Melkor and Fëanor.
Name
The name Morgoth is Sindarin (one of Tolkien’s invented languages) and means „Dark Enemy“ or „Black Foe“. Bauglir is also Sindarin, meaning „Tyrant“ or „Oppressor“. „Morgoth Bauglir“ is thus an epithet. His name in Ainulindalë (the creation myth of Middle-earth and first section of The Silmarillion) is Melkor, which means „He Who Arises in Might“ in Quenya, another of Tolkien’s fictional languages. This too is an epithet, since he, like all the Valar, had another true name in Valarin (in the legendarium, the language of the Valar before the beginning of Time), but this name is not recorded. The Sindarin equivalent of Melkor is Belegûr, but it is never used; instead, a deliberately similar name, Belegurth, meaning „Great Death“, is employed. Another form of his name is Melko, simply meaning „Mighty One“.
Like Sauron, he has a host of other titles: Lord of the Dark, the Dark Power of the North, the Black Hand, and Great Enemy. The Edain, the Men of Númenor, call him the Dark King and the Dark Power; the Númenóreans corrupted by Sauron call him the Lord of All and the Giver of Freedom. He is called „Master of Lies“ by one of the Edain, Amlach.
Melkor is renamed „Morgoth“ when he destroys the Two Trees of Valinor, murders Finwë, the High King of the Noldor Elves, and steals the Silmarils in the First Age.
Text von: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgoth