[Child of the 7th Age]

The statement about mortals dying in the West is from Tolkien's Letters:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>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. Letter 246, Sept. 1963<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>As far as dwarves go...... the Dwarves believed Aule (who had made them) would bring them to the Halls of Mandos, also called the houses of the dead, and that, in the end of Time, they would join the children of Iluvatar. This is a different part of Aman than where they would have lived which was more toward the east, so Gimli would still have to go there even if he had sailed with Legolas. Unlike men and Elves, however, the dwarves stayed in Mandos till the end. The halls were supposed to be in far Western Valinor on the shores of Ekkaia (the encircling sea). People there were supposed to sit and think about their lives. It was also called the Halls of Waiting.<P>sharon, the 7th age hobbit