[davem]

In The Athrabeth Finrod distinguishes between two kinds of Hope. He says there is amdir & estel. Amdir seems to correspond to something along the lines of optimism, a belief that in some way it is possible to find hope within the world, to make the world better by one's own actions, which it seems the Elves mostly lack, & by the end of the Third age seems completely absent - they fight the Long defeat', they've seen 'many defeats & many fruitless victories'. This perhaps implies a loss of any sense that they can have any effect in bringing about Arda Unmarred by their own actions, & they have simply chosen to go on fighting because the alternative is seen as simply 'wrong', & therefore while they hold to the ideal, they do so without amdir.

Estel is faith, in Illuvatar, in the idea that something from 'outside', beyond Arda, will intervene to bring about victory of the 'Good', but it will have nothing directly to do with their own actions. They are fighting a 'holding action' till Illuvatar decides it is time to intervene, & bring an end to evil. Illuvatar, in the end, will make everything right, but this seems based in little more than a belief in the goodness of Illuvatar - Illuvatar is good, therefore good will eventually, in some way, at some point be victorious.

It seems to me, if my understanding is correct, that the absence of amdir perhaps grows out of a sense of their own role within the Music, the Doom which is as fate to all in Middle Earth except Men. Men, however seem to posess amdir, because they go on struggling to bring about the victory of the Good through their own actions, as well as posessing estel. This seems to be a major distinction between Elves & Men, & possibly reflects their innate knowledge that they are not bound by the Music, that they can change things.

Maybe the Elves fatalism is what keeps them looking always to the past, & trying to hold back the future, by the Rings, but, as Tolkien says, in doing so they have 'flirted with Sauron'. But this is perhaps their attempt to hold back what they percieve as a change to the Music. They seem to have a strong sense that things should not be permitted to change, & that their task is to stop it happening. All change would perhaps seem 'wrong' to them because it feels like it is forcing them out of their fated path. So even if they aren't robots, perhaps there is something inside them that is trying to force them to behave like robots. Their ideal would almost seem to be to stop time & change, make the world into an 'embalmed' work of art, perfect & pristine, set forever unchanging. If their essential nature cries out for the stability of fate, of the Music, then all change, time itself, could come to seem like an evil.