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Wight
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Re: Why is enigma pretty much tied with maia and earth spiri
My own, perhaps rather controversial position on this is that, though men were never immortal (in the sense that the elves were immortal), they nonetheless were not in the beginning doomed to short lives.
Could it be that in the beginning men were given a choice with respect to death - they had indefinite lifespans, but would all eventually (because they were at that time unfallen) lay down their lives out of choice and go to Eru. But The Fall - Man's corruption by Morgoth - would have changed all this, as Morgoth gave them the fear of Death. Thus, to save all Men from Melkor's domination, Eru would have given them the Gift of death (death without choice) so that all men would die soon and come to Eru to know the truth.
In his commentry on the Athrabeth, Tolkien refered to the Hobbit's sailing to Eressea thus:
<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> The passing 'oversea', therefore, of Mortals after the Catastrophe - which is recorded in the Lord of the Rings - is not quite the same thing [as the passing oversea of the Elves]. It was in any case a special grace. An opportunity for dying according to the original plan for the unfallen: they went to a state in which they could acquire greater knowledge and peace of mind, and being healed of all hurts both of mind and body, could at last surrender themselves: die of free will, and even of desire, in estel. A thing which Aragorn achieved without any such aid.<hr></blockquote>
So, with this slightly shaky theory, the Gift would have been given in response to the Fall.
The quote cited above from letter 153 would seem to make this all unfounded speculation; however, letter 153 was written in 1954. This means it definitely pre-dates the Athrabeth, probably by about 5 years. It could be possible, then, that one of Tolkien's motives for composing the Athrabeth were his feelings about 'bad theology', wanting to offer the possibility of an alternative point of view that tied in with his own world-view a little more closely.
So I suppose it all comes down to which point of view you want to believe - the Elvish (Ainulindale), the 'Mannish' account of Athrabeth, or some combination of the two. Personally, I believe that the Elves (and Valar) never fully understood Men or their mortality, and so I prefer the account given in Athrabeth, but with some elvish elements, such as the concept of a Gift instead of a Punishment, thrown in. But that is entirely my own view, and I don't believe it's possible to be certain about this; it is something Tolkien deliberately left open-ended (is it possible to be certain about anything in Tolkien's work?!)
-Voronwë
<font size="2">Down the sunlit breath of Day's fiery death
He sped from Westerland.</p>