[davem]

This will again seem like I'm on my hobby horse, but I think we have to restrict ourselves to the way in which death can be seen as a 'gift' within the context of Middle earth. In Middle earth there is no account of what happens to men after death. They die & leave the circles of the world. That's it. No-one knows what happens to them - or even if anything does. It is implied that there is a continuation in some form, but of what kind is an open question.

So, how can death be seen as a gift within Middle earth? Men are not bound by the Music, so can change the world, in a way that other races/beings cannot, they can therefore 'think outside the box'. Yet they have a love of Arda - different from the love of Arda of the Elves. They have a desire to remain within the world, yet a curiosity about what may lie outside it. Men are called the 'Guests' by the Elves, because they only spend a little time in the world. In a sense they don't belong in the world & for all their love of it, they know that. Men know they have a different destiny - they are created with a desire for other things, for reasons only known to Eru. They have a central part to play because of that destiny.

Maybe that is the reason death is called a 'gift' - not death itself but the role they have within Arda of which death is a part - a central, essential, part, but a part nonetheless. Death is the means by which they fulfil their role.

Whatever we may say about Men within Middle earth they were not Christians, because they couldn't be. So, whatever hope Christianity offers Christians it is not relevant to Men in Middle earth. Their role & purpose, their 'gift', has nothing to do with Christianity. Aragorn accepts his 'gift' & leaves the world when it is his time, not because he is a Christian, but because he is a man in Middle earth.

In short, I don't think Christianity can offer an explanation of Death as a 'gift' to Men in Middle earth. If the secondary world is to stand alone & not require a primary world explanation for it to make sense - in which case applicability will cease to work & allegory be the only viable alternative - the answer to this question will have to be found within Middle earth, not outside it.

Or to put it another way, in this context (alone) the Christian understanding & explanation, is a cop out...