[Raynor]

Ok, some more on the issue of the rings (letter #181):

"The 'Three Rings' were 'unsullied', because this object was in a limited way good, it included the healing of the real damages of malice, as well as the mere arrest of change; and the Elves did not desire to dominate other wills, nor to usurp all the world to their particular pleasure.But with the downfall of 'Power' their little efforts at preserving the past fell to bits. There was nothing more in Middle-earth for them, but weariness. So Elrond and Galadriel depart."

Originally Posted by Nogrod

Isn't it also in a way, that we have two traditions present at the same time, at least in the west. The one would say, that the mankind has fallen from paradise and continues to fall. Everything that is, is less than what was. The second would say, that we, as a mankind, are climbing the ladders of enlightenment and evolution, to the future, that will be all the better for everyone?

I would agree with the first tradition; concerning the second one, Men could only truly advance in matters of wisdom, since their hroar are continuously erroded - unless there is a special divine intervention to help them.

I must say, I'm at odds with this "raising men to a higher level of their potential". Isn't Tolkien more like a romantic, who kind of lays before our eyes, what we could have been, but which we never were?

Tolkien does reffer to Numenoreans as "Man rehabilitated", although that was true only for a short while.

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

I can't agree. Gandalf refuses the Ring when Frodo offers it because he knows that it would corrupt him, though he would begin his tyranny with good motives.

Well, that is a bit of a strawman, since I wasn't reffering to the One ring, but to the elven use of magic, concerning which (letter #155):

"Magia could be, was, held good (per se), and goeteia bad. Neither is, in this tale, good or bad (per se), but only by motive or purpose or use. Both sides use both, but with different motives"

Those myths are about Elves who without fail affected Men, most often for the worse, as has been discussed elsewhere on the Downs, but not as their God-(or Eru)-given purpose!

From the letter #131:

"The doom of the Elves is to be immortal, to love the beauty of the world, to bring it to full flower with their gifts of delicacy and perfection, to last while it lasts, never leaving it even when 'slain', but returning - and yet, when the Followers come, to teach them, and make way for them, to 'fade' as the Followers grow and absorb the life from which both proceed"

Moreover, Tolkien states that, prior to the One Ring, Sauron ruled over _all_ Men who didn't have contact with the elves.

It should be noted, also, that in the mythos Tolkien created, blood-lines were of utmost importance, and in Faramir the Numenorean ran true, and Tolkien "plays this up"

While I agree that blood is given a good deal of importance, Tolkien also makes the following remarks in the letters:

Here we meet, among other things, the first example of the motive (to become dominant in Hobbits) that the great policies of world history, 'the wheels of the world', are often turned not by the Lords and Governors, even gods, but by the seemingly unknown and weak - owing to the secret life in creation, and the pan unknowable to all wisdom but One, that resides in the intrusions of the Children of God into the Drama. It is Beren the outlawed monal who succeeds (with the help of Luthien, a mere maiden even if an elf of royalty) where all the armies and warriors have failed: he penetrates the stronghold of the Enemy and wrests one of the Silmarilli from the Iron Crown.
...
[the] structure [of the story]is planned to be 'hobbito-centric', that is, primarily a study of the ennoblement (or sanctification) of the humble