Quote:
Originally Posted by Belegorn
It was one of the gifts given to them like the island of Numenor, "As a reward for their sufferings in the cause against Morgoth" [RotK, p. 351] in the First Age.
|
I think this is a rather pertinent example. It would seem to me that the long lives of the Dśnedain were both a reward and a responsibility - so that these Men would have a long time to attain wisdom and therefore see to their inheritance, the governance of Arda, with justice and righteousness, but also so that they had the time to appreciate the fruits of their labours. Yet not endlessly, so that they avoided the weariness of the "terrestrial longevity" which was the burden of the Elves and the incarnate Ainur. For instance when Gandalf is talking to himself and says it is "a habit of the old", Aragorn responds: "I am no longer young even in the reckoning of Men of the Ancient Houses. Will you not open your mind more clearly to me?" (
LR p.485) This longevity was seemingly an assistance to their spiritual mission, as it were, for it lent them the experience and time needed to fulfil the responsibilities of their age. On the other side, it's said when Aragorn and Arwen are married that "the tale of their long waiting and labours was come to fulfilment." (
LR p.951) A long life was not an unenviable thing; it was a reward for labours. But an endless life was not such a blessing: "Thus you escape, and leave the world, and are not bound to it, in hope or in weariness." (
The Silmarillion .265)
I would offer, therefore, that a long life was meant as an opportunity and a responsibility to fulfil one stage of Eru's plan for Men in the greatest possible way, before passing beyond Eä to experience the next stage of the spiritual journey ordained for Men by Eru: that which occurred after the death of the body. I would consider that to be a possibility for why a long life would still be considered valuable even if mortality was regarded as a gift. It effectively allowed a Dśnadan to have the best of both worlds.