[Farael]

I strongly agree with the point of view that Tolkien would not kill off a character before his story was finished. Whether that's good or bad is open for debate, as sometimes in real life accidents happen and a life is cut short with no chance to achieve "completedness" in life, whatever that may be.

Yet I think that having main characters die would go against what I percieve was Tolkien's intent, to write a story about good triumphing over evil. There are many tragical, cruel deaths, that happen before the character has a chance to finish his story to the last word, such as Halbarad for example. Yet these characters are not as well developed as say, any of the four hobbits, Aragorn and just slightly less than Lady Eowyn (whom I hear Tolkien was thinking about killing).

Should Pippin be murdered by an orc when Eomer and his riders attack their camp, we would all be extremely saddened and the happiness we feel at the end of the story (at least, before we realize that Frodo will not be staying in The Shire) would be tainted by the realization that not all of those who left made it back. I think it's an important part in Lord Of The Rings that the good trimphs over evil almost flawlessly. The only "flaw" would be Frodo, yet he gets a compensation by being allowed into the West. All the others survive and become greater than what they had been before and most likely, greater than what they would have ever been if they had not joined Frodo's adventure.

I think that all the deaths (or near-deaths) and subsecuent resurrections are intended to show us the grave peril in which the forces of Good are found and how everyone's life hang on a really thin thread... yet their resurrection and victory are there to show us that even in such grave situations there is still hope and in the end, we see that even after so much sadness an pain it is possible to go back to a state of happiness rather than mourning.

Now, this I say from my own experience, I'm certain that other readers will think otherwise, yet by killing off only those characters that had succumbed to evil (Denethor, Saruman) or those who had in a way finished their mission in life (Theoden, Boromir) or those that are not dealt with in as much depth as others (Halbarad, Hama?) when the story ends the readers can feel that "everything is alright" without having that feeling tainted by the mourning of a character (or more) in the story.