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Old 05-18-2002, 09:00 PM   #27
Mankáno
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Tirion
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Sting

Two things, Christopher Tolkien said that his father did make a mistake with Glorfindel's name and when he realized that he thought that Glorfindel should be allowed to be back to life, the reason being that elves didn't have repeated names.

The other is that I have read too that elves were only allowed to return to Valinor, however, to my knowledge that doesn't come from any Tolkien's manuscript.

It is probably an interpretation since Aman and Eressea were taken away from Arda and the Halls of Mandos are there that it was unlikely the elves would return to Middle earth.

However there is a complicated explanation in Morgoth's ring (the history of Middle Earth, volue 10).

It says that the elves, if they return to life, do so through reincarnation, that is, they are born again. In those cases, it isn't a new Fea (soul) but the old one, however, when young they have not memomories of their past life and they learn new things, but when they become adults, their past memoirs come back to them and they are enriched by both life experiences. It says nothing about them being forced to return only to Valinor. I think it must be understood as Aman and Tol Eressea and the explanation to that theory is that since all elves abandoned Middle Earth, and the vehicle to return is a new birth, that wouldn't happen within Arda. There are not documented cases of elves that returned to life in Middle Earth, except for Glorfindel which isn't explained.

The other two cases of elves returning to life are Finrod and Miriel but both in Aman.

About Finrod, it's said somewhere (I think the Silmarillion) that he is with his father Finarfin in Valinor.

About Miriel, there is a story in History of Middle Earth that says she was allowed to return but chose to stay with Vaire (Mandos' wife) being the only living elf allowed to enter Mandos' house.

In any case, this part of the mithology is confuse, apparently Tolkien changed his mind many times and the scripts are contradictory and not clear. As he died without finishing his work, his son had to make a decision of what he wanted, and the problem was that apparently Christopher Tolkien found manuscripts after the Silmarillion was published.
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