I like your theory very much, Lyta, and agree with you!
About the "fading" :in the Silmarillion it is written about the Elves:
Quote:
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Their bodies indeed were of the stuff of the Earth, and could be destroyed; and in those days they were more like to the bodies of Men, since they had not so long been inhabited by the fire of their spirit which consumes them from within in the courses of time.
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And in the curse of Mandos it is said, that the Elves "that endure in Middle-earth (.....) become as shadows of regret before the younger race that cometh."
Galadriel says that " We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic folk of dell and cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten".
And in "Farewell to Lorien" Frodo looks at Galadriel: "Already she seemed to him, as by men of later days Elves still at times are seen: present and yet remote, a living vision of that which has already been left far behind by the flowing streams of time."
As far as I can remember I have read somewhere that in HoMe it is actually stated that the remaining Elves become invisible or only visible to Men if they will it, and don't have a proper body anymore. (I'll try to search for that...)