[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

What I'm trying to say is that a culture which was inherently pessimistic would not invest huge amounts of resource into making long lasting monuments, temples, scientific observatories - whatever these enigmatic remains might be. Pessimistic cultures would live for today and not look to the future generations, not assume that time invested in constructing elaborate structures would be worth it in the long run. Look at the great cathedrals of the world - built by people who felt assured of their future, just as did the peoples who built Stonehenge.

Originally Posted by Tolkien via Legolas, The Ring Goes South

"But the Elves of this land were of a race strange to us of the silvan folk, and the trees and the grass do not now remember them. Only I hear the stone lament them: deep they delved us,fair they wrought us, high they builded us; but they are gone. They are gone. They sought the Havens long ago."

Originally Posted by Beowulf poet, from Heaney, ll.3150 ff

A Geat woman too sang out in grief;
with hair bound up, she unburdened herself
of her worst fears, a wild litany
of nightmare and lament: her nation invaded,
enemies on the rampage, bodies in piles,
slavery and abasement. Heaven swallowed the smoke.
[Heofon rece swealg.]
Then the Geat people began to construct
a mound on a headland, high and imposing,
a marker that sailors could see from far away,
and in ten days they had done the work.
It was their hero's memorial
. . .
kindest to his people and keenest to win fame.

Originally Posted by Beowulf via Beowulf poet, from Heaney, ll. 2814 ff

Fate swept us away,
sent my whole brave high-born clan
to their final doom. Now I must follow them.

Why does the epic poem end not with victory but with the death of the hero king and the defeat of his people, their loss?

Why does LotR end not with Frodo's recovery or Aragorn's coronation and wedding but with the inescapable consequence of Frodo's decision and the departure of the elves?

Perhaps you would prefer the word elegaic rather than pessimistic, as I see you have also suggested nostalgic. Nostalgia suggests a bit too much sentimentalism, from my way of thinking. I will respectfully submit that we are dealing here with your interpretation and mine and I will respectfully insist upon my right to call these mythologies and world visions pessimistic.

Yet beneath the Sun all things must wear to an end at last.

EDIT: Sorry, cross posted with several and no time to reply further, except yeah, what Fea said.