The Demonization of Snow, Part I

"In the beginning Eru, the One, who in the Elvish tongue is named Illuvatar, amde the Ainur of his thought; and they made a great Music before him. In this music the World was begun; for Illuvatar made visible the song of the Ainur, and they beheld it as a light in the darkness...

The mightiest of those Ainur who came in the World was in his beginning Melkor... Melkor spent his spirit in envy and hate, until at last he could make nothing save in mockery of the thought of others, and all their works he destroyed if he could..

[Valaquenta;J.R.R. Tolkien]

Then the voices of the Ainur...began to fashion the theme of Illuvatar to a great music; and a sound arose of endlessly interchanging melodies woven in harmony... and the echo of the music went out into the Void, and it was not void...But as the theme progressed, it came into the heart of Melkor to interweave matters of his own imagining that were not in accord with the theme of Illuvatar, for he sought therein to increase the power and glory of the part assigned to himself...Some of these thoughts he now wove into his music, and straight-way discord arose about him... Then the discord of Melkor spread ever wider, and the melodies which had been heard before foundered in a sea of turbulent sound... in the midst of this strife, whereat the halls of Illuvatar shook and a tremor ran out into the silences yet unmoved, Illuvatar arose a third time, and his face was terrible to behold. Then he raised up both his hands, and in one chord, deeper than the Abyss, higher than the Firmament, piercing as the light of the eye of Illuvatar, the Music ceased.

Then Illuvatar spoke, and he said: 'Mighty are the Ainur, and mightiest among them is Melkor; but that he may know, and all the Ainur, that I am Illuvatar, those things that ye have sung I will now show them forth, that ye may see what ye have done. 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 had not imagined...But when they were come into the Void, Illuvatar said: 'Behold your Music!'And he showed to them a vision... and they saw a new World made visible before them...And when the Ainur had gazed for a while and were silent, Illuvatar said again: 'Behold your Music! This is your minstrelsy; and each of you shall find containeth herein, amid the design I set before you, all thos things which it may seem that he himself devised or added. And thou, Melkor, wilt discover all the secret thoughts of they mind, and wilt perceive that they are but a part of the whole and tributary to its glory'...

Now to water had that Ainu whom the Elves call Ulmo turned his thought...But of the airs and winds Manwe most had pondered, who is the noblest of the Ainur...And Illuvatar spoke to Ulmo and said:' Seest thou no how here in this little realm in the Deeps of Time Melkor hath made war upon thy province? He hath bethought him of bitter cold immoderate, and yet hath not destroyed the beauty of thy fountains, nor of they clear pools. Behold hte snow, and the cunning work of frost! Melkor hath devised heats and fire without restraint, and hath not dried up thy desire nor utterly quelled the music of the sea. Behold rather the height and glory of the clouds, and the everchanging mists; and listen to the fall of rain upon the Earth! And in the clouds, thou are drawn near to Manwe, thy friend, whom thou lovest.
Then Ulmo answered: 'Truly, Water is now become fairer than my heart imagined, neither had my secret thought conceived of the snowflake, nor in all my music was contained the falling of the rain. I will seek Manwe, that he and I may make melodies forever to thy delight!'

[Ainulindale; J.R.R. Tolien]