To quote myself from
elsewhere:
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Originally Posted by HerenIstarion
The brevity of their lifespan in later works is associated with the Fall (as a race), for "wise among men" hold that in the original design Men were meant for life indestructible - union of fëa (of Eru) and hröa (of the matter of Arda) so unbreakable that it would be able to lift, bring up the matter, i.e. thing temporal, to the eternal world of flame imperishable. (elves in this scheme are supposed to function as a kind of memory cells - to remember and remind others of the first world, when the Arda Remade is brought into being) But men are so weakened by their fall that death is given to them as a release (thus Tolkien's conception of Fall and Death as a consequence both differs and calls up at the same time to Christian myth, were death is a punishment, and at the same time, a release)
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Why release? (To nitpick a bit from posts previous- not a total release from Arda as such, release from this particular form the Arda is in now) Because, falling into the same driving pattern of all legendarium, and namely:
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And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined
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The death of Men is a means through which Arda Remade will be achieved, thing other (and better) than Arda Unmarred would have been.