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Originally Posted by davem
Here, he seems to be going against the idea that Death is a 'Gift'. Here he says (in agreement with de Beuvoir) that Death is an 'accident & an unjustifiable violation.' Of course, it could be argued that this was his personal feeling & that things were different in LotR - yet he says that those words are the keyspring of LotR. Does this mean that, while the idea of Death being a gift runs through the Legendarium, Tolkien himself didn't believe it?
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Yet he often reffers to our world as 'fallen' or 'corrupt' - which would mean that in this kind of world Melkor's marring of the gift is prevalent ("But Melkor has cast his shadow upon it, and confounded it with darkness, and brought forth evil out of good, and fear out of hope "). Aragorn, who embraces this gift as he 'should', has the most beautiful ending:
Then a great beauty was revealed in him, so that all who after came there looked on him in wonder; for they saw that the grace of his youth, and the valour of his manhood, and the wisdom and majesty of his age were blended together. And long there he lay, an image of the splendour of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world.