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I also lean toward the fact that the inhabitants of Middle Earth did not have free will, and everything that played out was by 'fate'
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But I find that very unsatisfactory. For me, it diminsihes the qualities of the individual characters if each of their actions was predetermined by some guiding hand.
My understanding is that the people of Middle-earth did have free will, and so were able to determine their own courses of action. Events were "predestined" in the sense that, ultimately, Eru's will would prevail. But it was the individual choices made by the characters that determined how and when this would happen.
So, for example, Sauron might have been defeated much earlier had Ar-Pharazon, or the Celebrimbor and the Elves of Eregion, made different choices. On the other hand, his defeat might have been long delayed had Frodo and Sam not shown such courage and determination, or had Beregond and Pippin not managed to save Faramir.
It was for the free people of ME to defeat Sauron. That is made clear on many occasions. Eru knew that Sauron's defeat would come about eventually. But it was the choices that they made, exercising their free will, that determined when and how that would happen. At the same time, His hand was there to guide them, for example through the Istari (and Gandalf in particular) who were sent by the Valar by Eru's will to aid them in their struggle with Sauron, and, arguably, through the "rescue missions" performed by the Eagles. And Eru's hand (the hand of fate) was also present in the "fortuitous" events that assisted in bringing about Sauron's downfall, the most dramatic example being Gollum stumbling on the edge of Mount Doom.
So it was predestined that good (Eru's will) would prevail. And it was the exercise of free will (assisted by Eru's guiding hand) that brought this about.
Or that's my theory, anyway. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]