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I am reading for the first time the Valaquenta. It mentions right at the beginning the seven Lords and Queens of the Valar (the Valiers). Melkor is excluded from the count of the Lords and from the numbers of the Valar: but I wonder if there ever was a Queen for him. Who knows, being forever alone could be the root cause of some rudeness in his temper...

Ps I am maybe bordering on the gossip, I know :)

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3 Answers

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No, there was no Queen for Melkor, though he was not alone in that. Strictly speaking, "Queen" is just a title, it doesn't indicate a pairing exists - there is a Queen with no Lord. There are six pairings of a Lord and a Queen:

  • Manwë and Varda
  • Aulë and Yavanna
  • Námo (or Mandos) and Vairë
  • Irmo (or Lórien) and Estë
  • Tulkas and Nessa
  • Oromë and Vána

The remaining two lone Valar are Ulmo and Nienna. I'd argue that being alone didn't really play a part in the fall of Melkor, given neither of these two showed the same inclinations as him.

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Soon after posting I read that Varda "rejected him and he hated her" so he "proposed" himself in some sense or the other. Jokes apart, I am not hinting at a "romantic proposal" but to a "likeness of purposes" or "willingness to follow his lead". – Francesco Sep 11 '12 at 8:11
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I read the rejection, "for Melkor she knew from before the making of the Music and rejected him, and he hated her, and feared her more than all others whom Eru made", as indicating that Varda saw him for what he was and wasn't deceived by him, so rejected him and as a result earnt his fear and hatred. – dlanod Sep 11 '12 at 8:20
Yes: but rejected him from what kind of offer? I guess "from the kind of music/of view of the "world" that Melkor has to offer". So, reading too much into it, she - being very powerful - could be a possible target of interest for Melkor. – Francesco Sep 11 '12 at 12:40
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You don't need an offer to reject - you can reject someone directly, i.e. "deem wrong or inappropriate". She did not consider Melkor to be sincere so either ignored him or treated him with mistrust. – dlanod Sep 11 '12 at 12:57
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Point taken, and answer accordingly not rejected. – Francesco Sep 11 '12 at 15:05
up vote 3 down vote

He also appears to have a taken a shine to Lúthien, though whether he was thinking of making her a queen or not is another thing...

Then Morgoth looking upon her beauty conceived in his thought an evil lust, and a design more dark than any that had yet come into his heart since he fled from Valinor. Thus he was beguiled by his own malice, for he watched her, leaving her free for awhile, and taking secret pleasure in his thought.

Silmarillion - "Of Beren and Lúthien"

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Good point, I noticed it too while reading the Silmarillion (as I told in the question I was reading it for the first time...) – Francesco Nov 21 '12 at 7:17
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In the Book of Lost Tales, Gothmog was the son of Melkor and an ogress (although it's never said wether the ogress was his wife or not). But this detail was soon removed from the legends. Similarly, in "Myths Transformed" (HoME, "Morgoth's Ring") Tolkien experimented with a new version for the story of the Sun and Moon, in which Melkor tried to marry the Sun Maia. But this version of the story was never developed or included in the books. So no, in the final canon, Melkor never had a wife.

As for the Luthien thing, I think the word "lust" is misguiding there. Tolkien never uses that word with a sexual meaning. And if you read the earlier versions of the Silmarillion, as compiled in HoME, from which this passage comes, all of them say that Morgoth plotted some evil against Luthien, but there aren't any hints about him having a romantic/sexual interest in her. Also, the word "lust" doesn't appear in any of the other versions. So it seems to me that Tolkien simply meant that Morgoth plotted some generic evil plan, but never thought anything specific.

The closest to a "queen" that Melkor ever had would be Sauron, really. XD

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Nice finding about this ogress. Didn't know about it. – Francesco Feb 10 at 11:00

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