Inevitability of death (revisited)

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Originally Posted by Pitchwife

Indeed, within the circles of this world as we know it every living thing (even plants) feeds on the death and decay of other living things; which makes me wonder: supposing that nothing ever dies and decays in the Undying Lands, what do trees and other plants in Aman grow on and draw nourishment from?

I don't have time to check this up or elaborate much on it, but I think it's a misconception that nothing ever died in Aman. I believe the Elves hunted even in Aman, and that there were predatory animals doing what predatory animals do too. Probably no flesh-eating maggots, centipedes, leeches or cockroaches though, I should hope. No, everything just passed very slowly and gracefully, if I remember correctly, and there were no disease or deformation - much like in Plato's world of ideas everything was in its ideal state. You couldn't find a single discolouration on a green leaf even if you searched all your life for one. There certainly were seasons though, and crops such as wheat was cultivated and presumably cut down and processed too.

I remember reading somewhere that the natural life of say a flower or a bee would also be much prolonged in the hallowed Aman compared to the outside world however, and that a mortal man would seem to whither away very quickly compared to other things in hallowed Aman, although his life wouldn't actually be cut short.