The Souls Of Men
 

The elves go to the Undying Lands, along with the occasional dwarf/human/whatever, it would seem.
What happens to the souls of men? Men die in Middle Earth, but do the people believe in any form of heaven? Or perhaps a pagan/other view that the souls rejoin the earth and become part of it? Or even reincarnation?

Basically, all we know is that the souls of men go 'beyond the circles of the world.' It doesn't seem that reincarnation was the case, as Iluvatar gave men a means to 'escape' by their mortality, and I don't think that reincarnation would be an escape. Tolkien left details of the beliefs of Man towards the afterlife vague, probably purposefully so. Perhaps he feared that he would spawn some sort of cult.
Sorry that I can't give you more of a conclusive answer. Maybe some of the 'heavyweights' can help you out more on this. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
Peace

Thanks anyway! I appreciate the effort to help me [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Hmm, I'm pretty sure Tolkien was a christian...so maybe it's, as I believe, when men die they go to heaven, and instead of God it's Eru...

I'm not sure if they believe in a Heaven or not, but this is what it said in The Silm about their death...

That's all I see where it tells about Men's death. So unless Tolkien has written about it in one of his letters which I have not read yet {I'm on Unfinished Tales}, then that is all I can tell you about it.

Where are these letters of Tolkien's? Are they some form of collection, or are they a book based on his letters?

I saw them at Barnes and Nobles once, though, I couldn't get them at the time. What I saw was a 2-volume hardback edition of a collection of all his letters. It is simply called "Tolkien's Letters" Parts 1 and 2. It's not based on his letters, but is literally his letters to people. I'm trying to get them right now actually. I just need to find them again.

The Letters of JRR Tolkien is a collection of 354 letters written from 1914 on put together by Christopher Tolkien and Humphrey Carpenter. A great number of them are to his children - quite a few to Michael, a couple to Priscilla, one to John, and a very large number to Christopher (because they're about the progress of The Lord of the Rings - JRR kept Christopher up to date as the story progressed) - publishing company executives, and readers with questions. There are others too, of course, including correspondence with WH Auden and CS Lewis, as well as some early letters to Edith Bratt (who he married later on).

It's fun to read the parts of the book Tolkien tells CT about as he writes it, and the letters to readers are very insightful.

[ July 07, 2003: Message edited by: Legolas ]

I think that the whole uncertantity aspect makes Aragorn and Arwen's relationship more unique and interesting for that reason.

...or even more tragic.

Aragorn, who is bound to leave the circles of the earth will not be reunited with Arwen until the end of all days, which is Eru knows when.

The irony in the fate of men is that they are certain of the number of their days, so to speak, and yet they do not know where exactly they go to when they die.

You mean, before she made her choice? In being half-elven, she decided to be mortal and thus would leave Arda shortly after death just as Aragorn and all men did - they would be together forever, like Beren and Luthien.

Oh yeah...I was refering to this:

But then I forgot that she became mortal.