Quote:
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...Men were more frail, more easily slain by weapon or mischance, and less easily healed: subject to sickness and many ills; and they grew old and died. What may befall their spirits after death the Elves knew not. Some say that they too go to the Halls of Mandos; but their place of waiting there is not that of the Elves, and Mandos under Ilúvatar alone save Manwë knows whither they go after the time of recollection in those silent halls beside the outer sea.
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Here we see that even if they did spend any time in Mandos, which my personal feelings tend against, they
do, at some stage,
leave the circles of the world.
Additionally...
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None have ever come back from the mansions of the dead, save only Beren son of Barahir, whose hand had touched a Silmaril; but he never spoke afterward to mortal Men. The fate of Men after death, maybe, is not in the hands of the Valar, nor was all foretold in the Music of the Ainur.
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As for Dwarves. I tend towards Kuruharan's sceptical approach to potential reincarnation. The passage quoted above of Dwarves is indeed misleading...I believe it to be simply Tolkien working in a myth of a myth.
[ July 23, 2002: Message edited by: Stephanos ]