Various statements to ponder (the word
fear is the plural of the Elvish word
fea, for anyone who might not know):
Silmarillion
'... and Mandos under Ilúvatar alone save Manwe knows wither they go after the time of recollection in those silent halls beside the Outer Sea.' <> 'But the sons of Men die indeed, and leave the world; wherefore they are called the Guests, or the Strangers.'
Author's commentary on Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth
7) 'Since Men die, without accident, and whether they will to do so or not, their fear must have a different relation to Time. The Elves believed, though they had no certain information, that the fear of Men, if disembodied, left Time (sooner or later), and never returned. (Authors note *4 ...)'
Note 4...
Quote:
Sooner or later: because the Elves believed that the fear of dead Men also went to Mandos (without choice in the matter: their free will with regard to death was taken away). There they waited until they were surrendered to Eru. The truth of this is not asserted. No living Man was allowed to go to Aman. No fea of a dead Man ever returned to life in Middle-earth. To all such statements and decrees there are always some exceptions (because of the 'freedom of Eru'). Earendil reached Aman, even in the time of the Ban; but he bore the Silmaril recovered by his ancestress Lúthien, † and he was half-elven, he was not allowed to return to Middle-earth. Beren returned to actual life, for a short time; but he was not actually seen again by living Men.
Author's Notes on the Commentary to the Athrabeth, Morgoth's Ring
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Letters of JRRT
'The Doom (or the Gift) of Men is mortality, freedom from the circles of the world ... (my edit) ... mortality is not explained mythically: it is a mystery of God of which no more is known than that 'what God has purposed for Men is hidden'.'
'Neither had they of course any special information concerning what 'death' portended for Men. They believed that it meant 'liberation from the circles of the World', and was in that respect to them enviable.'
I find note 4 especially interesting, so I quoted it 'specially' in a sense
