[Mithadan]

A number of good points have been raised in this thread, but I would like to return to the question I posed in my first post. Eru's gift to Man, that they may die and their feär (souls) can seek beyond the limits of Arda, is said to be beyond the powers even of the Valar to withhold. So how can Sauron, through the Rings, extend indefinitely the lifespan of Men?

One of the things I enjoy most about Tolkien is that his mythos is internally consistent. There are, even if they are speculative, solutions to resolve any apparent contradictions. My question above highlights an apparent contradiction. When I started this thread, I thought I had a potential solution. But yesterday I finished a re-read of Morgoth's Ring and I now wonder whether my solution is correct.

In one of the first discussions of the Ringwraiths in FoTR, Tolkien says that Sauron gave the Nine to Mortal Men "and so ensnared them. Long ago they fell under the dominion of the One, and they became Ringwraiths, shadows under his great Shadow." After Frodo was stabbed by the Morgul blade, Gandalf explains that if the blade reached his heart, Frodo "would have become like they are... You would have become a wraith under the dominion of the Dark Lord..." Gandalf also states that when Frodo wore the Ring, he was "half in the wraith-world."

To me, the implication is that the Great Rings eventually turn a Man into a naked spirit. The hroä (body) becomes separated from the feä and the body dies leaving only the spirit which, through the power of the Rings, can still manipulate and be partially present in the physical world. Gollum and Bilbo possessed the Ring for a long time. They were partway through this "conversion". So perhaps it is not a question of their life span being extended, but rather that they had undergone a fundamental change in their nature.

This is in keeping with Sauron's persona of the Necromancer. The feär of those who die or are slain are summoned to Mandos (at least the Elves and possibly Men also until they "move on"). A feä can resist the summons. This is considered an act of rebellion. There is also discussion of a "counter-summons" somewhere, through which Morgoth (and perhaps Sauron) sought to divert the feär for his own purposes.

So I thought I had a potential explanation. Not entirely satisfactory, perhaps, but an explanation.

Then I finished reading Morgoth's Ring. A large part of this volume, for those who have not read it, deals with philosophical discussions regarding the nature of Men and Elves, as well as a section called Myths Transformed" that includes Tolkien's experimental ideas about reforming the Silmarillion to better match up with the "real world". I found a few troubling things. First, Tolkien, later in his life (1950s) wrote that the lives of Men could not be extended and the gift of death could not be taken away even by the Valar. Hmmm. Explain the extended lifespan of the Dunedain? The effect of the Rings? Then he says that while the feär of the Elves can be unhoused and wander even in Middle Earth, the feär of Men cannot. This last causes major problems, not only for my theory above, but also it contradicts LoTR (the Dead of Dunharrow) and the published Silmarillion (the wraith of Gorlim how warns Beren of his betrayal).

This may be another "canon" issue. Inconsistent writings that weren't published can perhaps be disregarded as not part of Tolkien's final intentions. Still it is a bit troubling to me.

Thoughts?