Quote:
Originally Posted by Ibrîniðilpathânezel
From that description of the transit, it does sound, in science-fictional terms, like some kind of interdimensional shift, vanishing from the physical world of Arda to another plane of existence. It seems that if you don't have the right ship or don't have permission, you just keep sailing along in the water and remain on the earth. One does wonder how the passengers perceive that part of the transit where they leave the waters and continue straight on rather than following the curvature of the earth. It's interesting, I think, that the legends about it are written by people who never made the trip.
|
In the classic mythological sense, attaining the shores of Faery (or Aman, Hy Brasil, Avalon, etc.) has its own sanctions, permissions and prohibitions (and seemingly, Tolkien subscribed to the classic fomulae). For instance, you can reach there with luck or permission, but you can usually never return; doing so will result in the breaking of a prohibition, and the sanction is usually something dreadful (Ossian, for instance, aged to the point of death while he was talking to St. Patrick, and poor old Rip Van Winkle also returned from his trip into the mountains so aged that every one he knew had died years before). Earendil was not allowed to return to Arda, save aboard his ship, which stayed aloft among the heavens, and the Numenoreans paid for breaking the prohibition against mortals setting foot in Aman with their lives.
As far as Frodo, his description of the silver curtain lifting to me infers passing through a portal into another plane of existence (he and Bilbo of course received permission, or intercession from Galadriel and Arwen).