Quote:
Originally Posted by alatar
Assuming Christianity (of which Tolkien was a believer), does anyone ever die? Surely there was a time before we existed (outside the knowledge of God), but after our souls are 'born,' we are then eternal. Our bodies may go to the ground, but our souls live on, either in eternal bliss or that other place from which all spambots come.
Isn't Sauron then just like that?
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Perhaps the distinction comes in that death in the Christian myth still requires to transfer of the 'soul' to some other realm (heaven). In Middle Earth there is a sense of this to some degree - eleves to the halls of Mandos, Melkor to the void. Sauron still roams Arda, as a disembodied spirit, unable to do anything or influence anyone. A kind of living death more so than the Nazgul.
It's difficult to make the distinction when there is some idea of an after life.