The Doom of Eucatastrophe

[littlemanpoet]

A fascinating, and dire, question, bilbo_baggins; and the answer you provided, Encaitare, is the same that occurred to me.

However, b_b alludes to something I think we all feel upon reaching the conclusion of the entire story of LotR: a bittersweet sense of something very satisfying having been enjoyed, married to a regret that it's over. It's why we go back and read it over and over again (I'm due), watch the movies, read the Letters, pour over the Appendices, study HoME, and spend inordinate amounts of time here! We don't want the story to end, but it does. So how come the quote Encaitare provided, fails to completely satisfy (at least me)?

I think Tolkien provides a clue by saying that LotR is about death. It's a story about endings. Great things are drawing to a conclusion and merely mundane things are taking their place; the First Age of gods and Elves (and some noble Men) and Morgoth the Great is followed by the Second Age of Numenorean Half Men/Half Elves, a shrunken Middle Earth (Beleriand is lost), and Sauron. Which is followed by the Third Age with its waning of the Elves, and then the Fourth Age in which Elves and hobbits diminish and the mundane world of Men takes over. Myth gives way to legend, gives way to folklore, gives way to history, gives way to yesterday's news.

There. I've gone and depressed myself, and you too no doubt. Time to read a few more Letters of Tolkien, and A Long Expected Party.....