[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

If you think about it, Men would be better off accepting their fate in a very real psychological sense. Denying death is not a healthy thing to do, as it comes to us all one day, and this idea has been explored over and over again by Artists. Even were Tolkien an out-an-out atheist it would make perfect logical sense for Men in his creation to be better off if they accept the inevitability of death - indeed that's one of the messages of Pullman's HDM and he has beliefs quite opposite to Tolkien's.

It is interesting how Tolkien though, of all people, counterbalances this with an examination of a race both immortal and bound to the fabric of the earth. I can't explain that.

Well but that's exactly it, I think - the more, in comparison to the Elves, the fate of Men stands out. The Elves are something totally alien from Men after all: or rather, something with a totally different fate. Where they share both the life in Arda (although each of them experiencing it with a bit different point of view nevertheless), the death of Men - and of Elves too, in the technical sense - is something completely different, there is a division that cannot be passed (as the tales of Beren and Lúthien etc. show in the brightest clarity). Middle-Earth is not Men's world, strangely enough. The Elves also, kind of, reflect something of the so often repeated (in RL tales, mythology etc.) idea of immortality. They are immortal, which also means bound to that world forever. Whereas Men are spared the infinity in this very same existence, their existence is seemingly mysteriously changed in some way (sure they are not anymore what they have been like while still alive), yet at the same time they seemingly remain themselves: their identity is preserved. Because we are told that Men will be present together with Ainur and the rest of the Children to sing in the Great Music at the end of days (see Ainulindalë). And that is what I had in mind when saying that it is probably where Tolkien succeeded the best (if he tried, or from where he tried) to reflect the Christian image of the world, resp. in this case human destiny in particular. I wanted to remark this purely from professional interest as it kind of popped at me. In case there were per chance any people interested in the echoes/depiction/not-depiction of whatever theological concepts in Tolkien's world reading it in the future.