Can not agree with the last statement. The letter 208 (I reckon) you refer to states:
Quote:
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The Elves call 'death' the Gift of God (to Men)
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implication being that since Elves call it so, it is not necessarily true. Several points to argue - first, elves derive their knowledge from the Valar and their own observations. Valar as a source of information truly must be reliable. Another point is that elsewhere in the letters Tolkien himself calls death gift, without ascribing the statement (thus differing from Treebeard situation, when Treebeard's statement about orkish origin is set apart from author's point of view)
Letter 131 addressed To Milton Waldman
Quote:
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The doom or gift of God, of mortality, the gods of course cannot abrogate, but the Númenóreans have a great span of life
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death here is explicitly stated as being "doom or gift", and, though [embittered] Andreth may have thought of it as a punishment (at that imposed by Melkor), and punishment only, I'd rather lean on JRRT himself, who, following Christian tradition, pictured it as, at the same time, punishment and gift - the result of the fall and means of mending it. Or, being fallen, Man became too 'bendable' to evil, so it is necessary to remove him from the world soon (besides other reasons stated in Atrabeth Finrod ah Andreth)
[ 7:34 AM November 30, 2003: Message edited by: HerenIstarion ]