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Originally Posted by Formendacil
It is right and good to resist evil, and we will be rewarded for in the afterlife to come. Turin Turambar is an excellent example of that. His entire life was a useless struggle against evil, but his post-death reward is consistently rumoured to be great. Should not equally great rewards await Finrod, Beren, Thingol, Luthien, Turgon, and others who fought the great fight?
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Was Turin rewarded? Is that documented somewhere? Wasn't he human (the Travelers) in that he left the confines of the world or something upon death? I would note that Turin's life was one bad day after another; however, he made some poor choices that made the bad worse.
I think that in the Sil what Tolkien was trying to say was that we are all fighting the long defeat and cannot 'win' without divine intervention (Christianity?). Each age starts with promise and hope, yet the 'beings' therein (Elves, Men) fall into the same old ruts, requiring a big battle/intervention to set things aright again. Each age starts a little more removed from Paradise where both 'good' and 'evil' are diluted down a bit so that you can eventually arrive at our present age where the difference between orcs and men is determined by actions, not looks.
Anyway, I didn't think that the Sil was depressing and agree that it might be a bit sad though punctuated with hope, beauty and inspiration. And if you regard the Sil as history, then it might make sense to only read about the big bad stuff as the pleasant day to day peace was a lot less interesting (Feanor's journal entry, Day 223 in Valinor - spent day staring at Two Trees, fell asleep...)
