[davem]

Originally Posted by Gurthang

Iluvatar specifically says that he made the Music and that everything will follow the music, even if someone was trying to not follow it. It may seem that a person did something on his own, but Eru states that it is still part of his design. Even before Elves and Men existed, even before Middle-Earth existed, Eru had everything planned.

My point is this: Iluvatar, being omniscient, made the plan in the beginning. Every being will follow that plan. Call it fate, call it divine intervention, whatever you want; it's going to happen. Each choice we make is a part of that plan, whether we want it to be or not. Even if we choose to do what we wouldn't do, it is still what was planned.

But:

For it is said that after the departure of the Valar there was silence, and for an age Duvatar sat alone in thought. Then he spoke and said: 'Behold I love the Earth, which shall be a mansion for the Quendi and the Atani! But the Quendi shall be the fairest of all earthly creatures, and they shall have and shall conceive and bring forth more beauty than all my Children; and they shall have the greater bliss in this world. But to the Atani I will give a new gift.' Therefore he willed that the hearts of Men should seek beyond the world and should find no rest therein; but they should have a virtue to shape their life, amid the powers and chances of the world, beyond the Music of the Ainur, which is as fate to all things else; and of their operation everything should be, in form and deed, completed, and the world fulfilled unto the last and smallest.

So, while the Music is 'as fate to all things else', it is not as fate to Men. Men can 'shape their life, amid the powers and chances of the world'.


As to swiftshadowofutumno's point:

But why were so many of Tolkien's characters so passive? Why didnt they ever try to interfere (with what could very well in hindsight be Eru's plan) and come up with some alteration or other plan that would... more befit their characters?

My own feeling is that by the end of the Third Age the Elves had surrendered to fate (ie the Will of Eru) - they knew that they could not rule the world, as they had once believed. They were 'beaten'. They couldn't change the Music, but perhaps Men could....

This opens up a can of worms - like, was Eru dependent on Men to do what had to be done? By being exempt from 'fate' were they 'wild cards' - Sauron, being bound by the Music, couldn't possibly predict what Men (& Hobbits) would do. He couldn't think outside the box, they could. Perhaps that's why the Quest is left in the hands of mortals, & the Elves simply did all they could to aid them, but in the main stayed out of the way.