Considering your _specific_ guideline, I will go with the first option, having in mind the following:
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Originally Posted by Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth
This then, I propound, was the errand of Men, not the followers, but the heirs and fulfillers of all: to heal the Marring of Arda, already foreshadowed before their devising; and to do more, as agents of the magnificence of Eru: to enlarge the Music and surpass the Vision of the World!
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as I don't see what kind of operations the Men would be capable of when dying or beyond the circles of the world. To further my case, here is the HoME X version of the paragraph:
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Therefore he willed that the hearts of Men should seek beyond the world and find no rest therein; but they should have a virtue to fashion 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 shape and deed, completed, and the world fulfilled unto the last and smallest. Lo! even we, Elves, have found to our sorrow that Men have a strange power for good or ill, and for turning things aside from the purpose of Valar or of Elves; so that it is said among us that Fate is not master of the children of Men; yet are they blind, and their joy is small, which should be great.
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However, in the greater scheme of things, I consider their special freedom to be their escaping Ea, before its end.