Elves don't belong in Valinor?

[Keneldil the Polka-dot]

I am posting this thread to explore some ideas about the Firstborn's presense in Valinor. I got this idea while reading debate in another thread over which elven race, the Vanyar or the Noldor, was greater. The Exile was used as evidence against the Noldor, which made me think about whether it really was wrong for them to leave. That led me to question whether the Elves should have ever been in Valinor in the first place.

The Valar brought the Elves to the Undying Lands after much deliberation amongst themselves:

Then again the Valar were gathered in council, and they were divided in debate. For some, and of those Ulmo was the chief, held that the Quendi should be left free to walk as they would in Middle-earth, and with their gifts of skill to order all the lands and heal their hurts.

The Sil. goes on to talk about the Valar's reasons for bringing them in. One of those reasons had a selfish motovation:

But the most part feared for the Quendi in the dangerous world amid the deceits of the starlit dusk; and they were filled moreover with the love of the beauty of the Elves and desired their fellowship.

Mandos' comment didn't exactly give the plan a ringing endorsement:

At the last, therefore, the Valar summoned the Quendi to Valinor, there to be gathered at the knees of the Powers in the light of the Trees for ever;and Mandos broke his silence, saying: 'So it is doomed.' From this summons came many woes that afterwards befell.

That portion of the Sil. cites the summons as the origination of the woes that happened afterward.

The Elves initially didn't even want to go to Valinor:

But the Elves were at first unwilling to hearken to the summons, for they had as yet seen the Valar only in their wrath as they went to war, save Oromë alone; and they were filled with dread.

When the Valar finally did convince the Eldar to travel to Valinor it caused the divisions of the Elven race. A people that was once whole became separated into the Caliquendi and Moriquendi, groups that were themselves even further subdivided.

To theorize that the Valar were wrong to bring the Quendi to Valinor means to accept the fact that they were not perfect and could make mistakes.

Before the gates of Valmar Melkor abased himself at the feet of Manwë and sued for pardon, vowing that if he might be made only the least of the free people of Valinor he would aid the Valar in all their works, and most of all in the healing of the many hurts that he had done to the world. And Nienna aided his prayer; but Mandos was silent. Then Manwë granted him pardon; but the Valar would not yet suffer him to depart beyond their sight and vigilance, and he was constrained to dwell within the gates of Valmar. But fair-seeming were all the words and deeds of Melkor in that time, and both the Valar and the Eldar had profit from his aid and counsel, if they sought it; and therefore in a while he was given leave to go freely about the land, and it seemed to Manwë that the evil of Melkor was cured. For Manwë was free from evil and could not comprehend it, and he knew that in the beginning, in the thought of Ilúvatar, Melkor had been even as he; and he saw not to the depths of Melkor's heart, and did not perceive that all love had departed from him for ever.

The Valar mishandled this entire situation, showing they were capable of making mistakes. Melkor himself embodies the potential fallibility of the Valar. Thus, it is possible that they made the wrong decision in bringing the Elves to Valinor.

Perhaps this thought should be another thread entirely, but I find it unconscionable that the Valar did not toss Melkor into the Timeless Void when they had their hands on him this first time. He had already done enough to show he was beyond redemption.

Eru created the Quendi to be born in Middle Earth. Let me know what you think about the Valar's presumtion to move them to Valinor.

By extension, if it was wrong to bring the elves to Valinor, it was not wrong for the Noldor to leave. The "Fall of the Noldor" then should refer not to the fact that they left, but to the manner in which they left(the Kinslaying at Aqualonde, abandonment of Fingolfin's people, burning of the White Ships at Losgar) and the things that happened to them as a race afterward.

I realize this probably sounds a bit like the "black lies of Morgoth" [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img], but I just wanted to get some of your thoughts on this different view of the elves in Valinor.

[ November 15, 2002: Message edited by: Keneldil the Polka-dot ]