Inevitability of death (revisited)

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

I myself have wondered about certain contradictions in a truly "deathless" Valinor. The Ainur and Elves may reproduce little or not at all, but what about the flora and fauna? It seemed an odd thing to me, until I remembered that Melkor marred the Music even before Ea was created. If Ea, and Arda, are indeed the Music made manifest, precisely as it was sung, then it never was "perfect." Melkor's attempts to make it wholly his own after the Ainur entered Ea certainly made things worse, but as Men were also a part of the Music (and presumably their Gift as well), then I would think death has always been a part of the world made from the Song. Tolkien did also make it clear that Valinor itself was not really deathless, but that the presence of the immortal Powers gave the place its apparent lack of death and decay. The very power that makes Aman seem immortal and unchanging would present a danger to mortals (as the flame that attracts moths also kills them, as I believe was noted in the Akallabeth). Men, especially those who strayed from their belief in Eru, feared death, and thus anything that seems to have what they can't -- eternal physical life -- is seen as being perfect. Aman appears to be a paradise, but for those who live there, it's really a gilded cage. The Elves and Ainur cannot die and leave the circles of the world, as Men do (Elves because they were made that way, the Ainur because they are bound to remain within Ea until its end), and Tolkien did say that before the end, even they would grow weary of life and its burden. So you really have two sides that eventually will envy and covet what the other has, immortality and death.

Well, that's how it all seems to me, at any rate.