peeplj wrote:I have always been under the impression that they crossed the Sea for a time of healing and peace before they died.
I am sure this is confirmed by Tolkien himself in one of his published letters. In short, mortal races are mortal and it is not within the jurisdiction or power of the Valar to grant them elf-like immortality.
Further research shows this. From letter 246 in "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien":
...'Alas! there are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured', said Gandalf (III 268) - not in Middle-earth. Frodo was sent or allowed to pass over Sea to heal him - if that could be done, before he died. He would have eventually to 'pass away': no mortal could, or can, abide for ever on earth, or within Time. So he went both to a purgatory and to a reward, for a while: a period of reflection and peace and a gaining of a truer understanding of his position in littleness and greatness, spent still in Time amid the natural beauty of 'Arda Unmarred', the Earth unspoiled by evil.
Jens_Hoppe wrote:Further research shows this. From letter 246 in "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien":
...'Alas! there are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured', said Gandalf (III 268) - not in Middle-earth. Frodo was sent or allowed to pass over Sea to heal him - if that could be done, before he died. He would have eventually to 'pass away': no mortal could, or can, abide for ever on earth, or within Time. So he went both to a purgatory and to a reward, for a while: a period of reflection and peace and a gaining of a truer understanding of his position in littleness and greatness, spent still in Time amid the natural beauty of 'Arda Unmarred', the Earth unspoiled by evil.
Yeah, Frodo croaks (ribbit). But what about Bilbo, Sam and Gimli? (I know, I know... they're "mortal" too...)
Giles: "We few, we happy few."
Spike: "We band of buggered."
Jens_Hoppe wrote:Further research shows this. From letter 246 in "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien":
...'Alas! there are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured', said Gandalf (III 268) - not in Middle-earth. Frodo was sent or allowed to pass over Sea to heal him - if that could be done, before he died. He would have eventually to 'pass away': no mortal could, or can, abide for ever on earth, or within Time. So he went both to a purgatory and to a reward, for a while: a period of reflection and peace and a gaining of a truer understanding of his position in littleness and greatness, spent still in Time amid the natural beauty of 'Arda Unmarred', the Earth unspoiled by evil.
Yeah, Frodo croaks (ribbit). But what about Bilbo, Sam and Gimli? (I know, I know... they're "mortal" too...)
Gimli is a Dwarf. If memory serves, they reincarnate, after spending some time in their own halls of waiting, which were separate from the Elves' halls.
(I know, I know... they're "mortal" too...)
