Melkor (Ice Aesthetic)
Melkor, also known as Morgoth, was an Ainu who became known as the Dark Lord due to his many atrocities that he committed in his quest to obtain dominion over Arda and take the Flame Imperishable for himself. He disrupted the Music of the Ainur, and was considered the most powerful of the Ainur, being exceeded only by Illuvatar himself.
Melkor was associated with extremes; while he is often mentioned in relation to fire and scorching heat, he was also associated with ice. At one point he is described as, "...as a mountain that wades in the sea and has its head above the clouds and is clad in ice and crowned with smoke and fire; and the light of the eyes of Melkor was like a flame that withers with heat and pierces with a deadly cold".
During the theft of the Silmarils, he used the icy crossing known as the Helcaraxë when fleeing Aman. He also built his fortresses in the northernmost parts of Arda, where it was colder than the rest of the world.
Melkor’s most significant connection to ice, though, may be in an early version of the creation of the Two Lamps. In this version of the story, the Valar had become tired from their struggles against Melkor and his servants. They tried to make peace with him by offering to let him help with the construction of the Two Lamps, Iluin and Ormal. Melkor pretended to agree, and when the Valar were trying to figure out how to set the heat-producing lights on Arda, he presented them with ice. Ice was a strong, sturdy substance that the Valar were not yet aware of, so they accepted, not knowing that the heat from the lamps would melt the ice. Once the lamps had been raised, Melkpr pretended to be satisfied and left the Valar alone. Eventually, the Lamps melted the ice and the towers holding up the lamps collapsed, causing great destruction across Arda. This event marred the symmetry of Arda, destroyed the Isle of Almaren, and left two inland seas where the towers once stood.
In the published Silmarilion, the story behind the Lamps is shorter and the towers that support them are described as being “forged” by Aulë. Instead of sabotaging the Lamps during their creation, he attacks them when the Valar and their servants are resting following the wedding of Tulkas and Nessa. The one remnant of the original story is that there are still inland seas that form where the towers once stood, suggesting that ice may still have been involved in some way.
