Q: Did the Elves Fear Death at All?
ANSWER: A common assumption among Tolkien readers is that since Elves could be “reborn” or “reincarnated” in Arda that death did not hold the same meaning for them as it did for men. This is an erroneous idea.
Where Elves and Men differed was in what happened to their spirits after their bodies perished. Men’s spirits/souls were driven to “seek elsewhere”, the where being beyond the knowledge and experience of the Elves. Elvish spirits were — according to different versions of the texts and some of Tolkien’s private notes — destined to remain in Arda until the end of Time, but that fate did not include their always having bodies to inhabit.
In fact, Elves faced (and feared) death just as Men did. That is, sooner or later every Elf would stop being a “living being” and would instead become a disincarnated (“houseless”) spirit. But because of their special fate — that their spirits would remain in Arda until the end of Time — the Valar had the ability and the authority to create a special refuge for Elves where their spirits could be rejuvenated and, if they wished, joined with bodies again (either through rebirth as in the older stories or simply through reincarnation as in the later stories).
When an Elf died in Middle-earth his or her spirit was “summoned” to the Halls of Mandos; if the elf refused his or her spirit would remain in Middle-earth, essentially a “ghost” just like the spectral Dead Men of Dunharrow. Legolas’ comment about the weakness of Men’s dead spirits seems to imply that Elvish spirits were far more powerful and perilous (to Men). In one of his private notes Tolkien dwelt at length about the eventual fate of these “houseless” Elves, some of whom would eventually seek to reconnect with living beings, thus giving rise to necromancy among Men.
What Tolkien does not state in any of the notes published in The History of Middle-earth, but which seems logical and plain to me, is that the Elves of Eregion who made the Rings of Power were essentially practicing a form of necromancy, too. They not only devised the Rings to hold back or delay the effects of Time (and thus lengthen the years in which they could enjoy Middle-earth as physical, living beings); they also gave some of the rings the ability to “render seen the unseen” or to “make unseen the seen”. In other words, they were using at least some of the Rings of Power to commune with dead Elvish spirits who had chosen NOT to answer the summons to the Halls of Mandos.
Tolkien does not say that such communion between living and dead Elves was forbidden (as it was between living and dead Men) but it stands with the rebellious act of altering the fundamental laws of Time and Space through the main purpose of the Rings of Power; that is, the Elves perverted the natural order of Time and Space by slowing down Time in Middle-earth. It may have been an equally rebellious act for them to intervene in the natural process of Elvish death, for a Ring of Power that could “render seen the unseen” must have been used as a means to help Elvish spirits remain in Middle-earth after the deaths of their bodies.
To an Elf, fading was as final an act of life as the physical death of the body would be for a Man; especially after the Downfall of Numenor and the Changing of the World. In this context, an Elf spirit’s departure from Middle-earth was final and without reprieve. Therefore death in Middle-earth was as devastating for an Elf as it was for a Man, and the Elves feared such a fate enough that they took action to ameliorate it.
And yet even in Aman, the so-called Undying Lands, the complex story of Finwë and Miriel shows that there was no guarantee of an Elf’s return from death to physical life. Because of her weariness after giving birth to Fëanor Miriel no longer wished to live again — and that was a thing unheard of among the Elves. Finwë wanted to marry again after Miriel’s death, and the Valar decreed he could do so only if Miriel agreed never to return to life again. But after the Noldor’s rebellion and Finwë’s death he no longer wished to live again; whereas Miriel had by this time repented of her choice, and so the Valar allowed Finwë to take Miriel’s place in the Halls of Mandos while she was restored to life (although she thereafter dwelt with the Maiar rather than with the Elves).
Some of us even believe that Tolkien meant for Fëanor to remain in the Halls of Mandos longer than any of the other Noldor, for as the instigator and leader of the Noldor’s rebellion he bore the most blame for their first great fall. Fëanor’s sons went on to commit such horrific evil deeds (including two additional Kinslayings after the one their father led) they may have also been forbidden to return to life (at least for far longer than other Noldor).
Tolkien’s Elves were not assured of eternal life; they simply lived longer than Men and some of them managed to slow down their natural aging process so that they could remain in Middle-earth far longer than they should have. When an elf in Middle-earth became extremely advanced in age (perhaps Cirdan was close to such an age) he or she had to choose to leave for Aman, where the Valar would be able to restore and sustain his/her body, or to remain and stay in Middle-earth but in a faded (disembodied or “houseless”) state.
Galadriel, last of the leaders of the rebellious Noldor, had been denied a return to Aman at the end of the First Age. She was forced to live in permanent exile in Middle-earth. By the time of the War of the Ring despite the power of her Ring she had grown immensely weary of the mortal lands and maybe fearful of what fate lay before her regardless of what the outcome of the war with Sauron might have been. But when Frodo offered the One Ring to her and she managed to reject it, she was at last forgiven by the Valar and allowed to pass into the Uttermost West with the rest of her people.
Had Galadriel not been given a chance to redeem herself she would have been an unusual Elf, condemned to fade and become a houseless spirit in Middle-earth against her own will and desire. The prospect of suffering such a fate after seeing all her friends and family eventually leave Middle-earth must have seemed a terrible burden. She was willing to hasten that doom by assisting Frodo in his quest to destroy the One Ring, so I don’t think it was simply her rejection of the Ring that redeemed her — I think it was her full willingness to give up on the Rings of Power completely and to accept the punishment that had been decreed for her.
Galadriel, I think, had to hit rock bottom before she could be forgiven. And that is why I have held for years that death meant as much to the Elves as it did to Men. They did not have a “get out of death free” card by any means. It’s just that the “afterlife” they experienced was different from that Men were expected to experience.
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