To go back to Solikat's point about fate in lotr I think it all goes back to the music of the Ainur in the Ainulindale which seems to predetermine the entire history of Middle-earth. Glimpses of which, perhaps, are seen by the wise. Hence the prophecies you cited.
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"Come away, O human child!/ To the waters and the wild/With a faery hand in hand,/ For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."
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