Stories of Arda

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But the view of the myth is that Death – the mere shortness of human life-span – is not a punishment for the Fall, but a biologically (and therefore also spiritually, since body and spirit are integrated) inherent part of Man’s nature. The attempt to escape it is wicked because ‘unnatural’, and silly because Death in that sense is the Gift of God (envied by the Elves), release from the weariness of Time. Death, in the penal sense is viewed as a change in attitude to it: fear, reluctance. A good Númenorian died of free will when he felt it to be time to do so.
Letter 156, The Letters of JRR Tolkien Letters

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Stories

5,378 stories in the archive