Subject: Quotes!
Author:
Posted on: 2013-08-15 19:25:00 UTC
Since I'm now at home and have access to Morgoth's Ring.
On death and reincarnation:
It was in Aman that they learned of Manwe that each fea [spirit] was imperishable within the life of Arda, and that its fate was to inhabit Arda to the end. Those fear, therefore, that in the marring of Arda suffered unnaturally a divorce from their hroar [bodies] remained still in Arda and in Time. But in this state they were open to the direct instruction and command of the Valar. As soon as they were disembodied they were summoned to leave the places of their life and death and go to the 'Halls of Waiting': Mandos, in the realm of the Valar.
If they obeyed this summons different opportunities lay before them. The length of time that they dwelt in Waiting was partly at the will of Namo the Judge, lord of Mandos, partly at their own will. The happiest fortune, they deemed, was after the Waiting to be re-born, for so the evil and grief that they had suffered in the curtailment of their natural course might be redressed.
I think the keystone of this idea is the opinion that death, among the Eldar, was never meant to happen. Unlike mortal folk, the forcible separation of Eldarin spirit from body is entirely a result of the Marring of Arda. Since the purpose of the Valar is to try and counteract the Marring and Morgoth, it follows that they'd want to get the dead back to life as soon as they were ready. The fact that the reembodiment comes both from the will of the Judge (therefore presumably punishment) and from their own will (therefore psychological readiness) is very interesting. Oh, here:
For there was, for all the fear of the Dead, a time of Waiting, in which, howsoever they had died, they were corrected, instructed, strengthened, or comforted, according to their needs or deserts. If they would consent to this. But the fea in its nakedness is obdurate, and remains long in the bondage of its memory and old purposes (especially if these were evil).
Those who were healed could be re-born, if they desired it: none are re-born or sent back into life unwilling. The others remained, by desire or command, fear unbodied, and they could only observe the unfolding of the Tale of Arda from afar, having no effect therein.
(Really, I love this book)
In the interests of full disclosure, I will note that in the text quoted, Tolkien says that being born to another set of parents is (virtually) the only option for reenbodiment. I think he went back and forth on that point a bit.
On the topic of marriage:
The Eldar wedded once only in life, and for love or at the least by free will upon either [ie, both] part. Even when in after days, as the histories reveal, many of the Eldar in Middle-earth became corrupted, and their hearts darkened by the shadow that lies upon Arda, seldom is any tale told of deeds of lust among them.
[Some details about betrothal and its breaking off]
Such was the law; but the right of revoking was seldom used, for the Eldar do not err lightly in such choice. They are not easily deceived by their own kind; and their spirits being masters of their bodies, they are seldom swayed by the desires of the body only, but are by nature continent and steadfast.
Nonetheless among the Eldar, even in Aman, the desire for marriage was not always fulfilled. Love was not always returned; and more than one might desire one other for spouse. Concerning this, the only cause by which sorrow entered the bliss of Aman, the Valar were in doubt. Some held that it came from the marring of Arda, and from the Shadow under which the Eldar awoke; for thence only (they said) comes grief or disorder. Some held that it came of love itself, and of the freedom of each fea, and was a mystery of the nature of the Children of Eru.
hS