The Void
So just a passing question-if a mortal man was suspended in the void outside Eä how would he perceive it? Darkness? White? Just nothingness?
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Since the Void was Nothing, I don't know that even the existence of consciousness in any of the Children of Ilúvatar could be possible.
Though Men were not tied to Arda as Elves, the destination of their fea after physical death would be a similar plane, I think, and maybe the opposite of the Void. |
What I meant was is say you take a mortal man and teleport him to the Void what would he perceive if anything?
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A question of philosophy: if you put something into the Void, is it still a void if it's not void of everything?
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Melkor searched the Void for the flame imperishable yet it was still void.
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As usual, we can find interesting information, if not answers, in "Myths Transformed". In part (iii) of 'Notes on motives in the Silmarillion', Professor Tolkien defines the Void as "a conception of the state of Not-being, outside Creation or Eä":
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I say this as someone who has always imaged Melkor striding about in the darkness looking for something he cannot find. If the Void is 'the state of Not-being', and as we know it is timeless ("the Timeless Void"), then I suspect its existence is more conceptual than physical - separation from Eru and the Flame Imperishable. I also suspect that it might be something arguably metaphysical because the Void is nothingness. There is nothingness (the Void) and there is "thingness" (Eru, the Timeless Halls and Eä). |
I always imagined Melkor the same striding around an infinite black nothingness looking for a fire he could not find. It's easier to imagine that than it is to imagine it metaphysically.
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It might also be worth pointing out that it's unclear which "Void" Morgoth was cast into at the end of the First Age.
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Ainuldinalë also implies that the Void has spatial dimensions: Quote:
I really think that to a degree the Void is beyond human comprehension... :confused: |
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Men were creatures of Eä. The Void, whether a physical or spiritual realm, would seem to be not of the material universe, as it was a negative of 'the World That Is'. As the mortal cannot comprehend the eternal, the 'real' lacks a capacity to understand the 'unreal'. Lunchtime philosophy 101. ;) |
On a related cosmological note are there other worlds in Ea?
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Only Eru knows
That was a good question you asked, Rhun charioteer, about whether there are other worlds in Eä. I agree with you, Inziladun, that only Eru would know...
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I always did consider it a fascinating question.
This is a bit of a more idle question-what do the Ainur who didn't descend into Ëa do? Sing to Iluvatar all the time(if time as a concept can be said to exist in the Timeless Halls). |
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