The War of Wrath (545-587 Y.S.) - Although it would come at a cost, the voyage by Eärendil into Valinor proved successful.  For the Valar had decided it was time to deal with Morgoth once and for all.  For only the second time (see Valar Assault Utumno) the host of Valar left the Undying Lands and journeyed to Middle Earth.  And Melkor was caught off guard.

 

"Yet it is said that Morgoth looked not for the assault that came upon him from the West; for so great was his pride become that he deemed that none would ever again come with open war against him.  Moreover, the thought that he had forever estranged the Noldor from the Lords of the West, and that content in their blissful realm the Valar would heed no more his kingdom in the world without; for to him that is pitiless the deeds of pity are forever strange and beyond reckoning.  But the host of the Valar prepared for battle...

 

"The meeting of the hosts of the West and of the North is named the Great Battle, and the War of Wrath.  Therre was marshalled the whole power of the Throne of Morgoth, and it had become great beyond count, so that Anfauglith could not contain it; and all the North was aflame with war.  But it availed him not.  The Balrogs were destroyed, save some few that fled and hid themselves in caverns inaccessible at the roots of the earth; and the uncounted legions of Orcs perished like straw in a great fire, or were swept like shrivelled leaves before a burning wind.

 

"...and all the pits of Morgoth were broken and unroofed, and the might of the Valar descended into the deeps of the earth.  There Morgoth stood at last at bay, and yet unvaliant.  He fled into the deepest of his mines, and sued for peace and pardon; but his feet were hewn from under him, and he was hurled upon his face.  Then he was bound with the chain Angainor which he had worn aforetime, and his iron crown they beat into a collar for his neck, and his head was bowed upon his knees.  And the two Silmarils which remained to Morgoth were taken from his crown..."  ~The Silmarillion, chap. 24 (The War of Wrath)

 

This time the Valar were without mercy.

 

"But Morgoth himself the Valar thrust through the Door of Night beyond the Walls of the World, into the Timeless Void..." ~The Silmarillion, chap. 24 (The War of Wrath)

 

And so the end of Morgoth brought an end to the First Age.  But his evil still lingered in the world...and eventually it would manifest itself into a new Dark Lord...