Awesome deaths!!!

[Olorin_TLA]

Which brings us to Helm's death! A cool death! *Olorin gets slapped by the Pun Fairy*

But I don't like Helm. That was just uncalled for, even if Freca was a slimy character.

[Orophin]

As I was reading through this thread I just remembered one of the best and most shocking deaths in the LOTR. The death of the Witch king. The leader of the Ring wraiths and the Leader of Sauron's forces. He was pretty much invincable to the people of middle earth and yet he was killed by a Hobbit and woman Meriadoc Brandybuck and Eowyn to be exact. First he gets stabbed behing the knee and then the final blow to the head from Eowyn. It brings a tear to my eye. Tlak about awsome. Most of the deaths have been of the memorable good guys who die honorably but we cannot forget the deaths of the evil villains, who make the good guys so good.

[Lush]

I agree with Bethberry, Arwen's death really is worthy to weep over.

It wouldn't take a lot of special effects to film it, but it is one of the most touching moments in all that Tolkien has ever written for us.

There is something about a woman's quiet, lonely passing that highlights how much the priorities of history are skewed. I think Tolkien clearly had a point when he reminded us that she was not be remembered. But, in a sense, it also makes her passing more heroic, evocative of the same emotion that a monument to the Unknown Solider might produce in us.

I was also struck by the fact that she literally had to lose everything before she died, and am wondering whether or not this was highlighted to make her passing easier or more bitter.

[Kuruharan]

I was also struck by the fact that she literally had to lose everything before she died, and am wondering whether or not this was highlighted to make her passing easier or more bitter.

I think that it was made bitterer for her because she had to go through the mournful process of losing everything she held dear.

However, at the same time, I think it may have been easier to depart in the end because she had nothing to keep her.

[Legolas]

There is something about a woman's quiet, lonely passing that highlights how much the priorities of history are skewed.

How?

[Lhunardawen]

However, at the same time, I think it may have been easier to depart in the end because she had nothing to keep her.

Indeed, Kuruharan.

Boromir's death, though rather untimely, is truly awesome, especially he died while doing some good (i.e. defending the hobbits Merry and Pippin). I loved Faramir's description of his brother as he saw him floating in a both down the Anduin, saying that his face was more beautiful than that in life.

And Fingolfin's death is another awesome death. Though terribly dreadful, it was courageous. 'Nuff said.

Finrod's death battling the wolf was definitely awe-inspiring. Imagine him dying to save Beren, killing his enemy with only his bare hands and teeth...it brings tears to my eyes. It's a good thing, though, that he got to be together with his father Finarfin again.

But one death everybody seemed to miss is Huan's.

Huan in that hour slew Carcharoth; but there in the woven woods of Doritath his own doom long spoken was fulfilled, and he was wounded mortally, and the venom of Morgoth entered into him. Then he came, and falling beside Beren spoke for the third time in words; and he bade Beren farewell before he died. Beren spoke not, but laid his hand upon the head of the hound, and so they parted.

I think that the most awesome deaths are those that occured after doing a great and heroic deed.

[Lush]

There is something about a woman's quiet, lonely passing that highlights how much the priorities of history are skewed.

How?

In favour of the heroic, loud, vivid, tabloid-worthy deaths of men, of course, whilst often leaving out the fact that a forgotten life and a lonely death also heroic precisely because there is nobody to immortalize them (of course, that's not to say that I don't enjoy reading of the heroic, loud, vivid, tabloid-worthy deaths of men, or am ungrateful for their sacrficies, in war, in defense of something or someone, et cetera).

This why Tolkien's description of Arwen's death resonated so much with me. He wrote about what is rarely mentioned.

Not that I mind. Most of "history is written by those who hang heroes" anyway, or so Mel would have me believe.

George Eliot has a wonderful quotation that would do Arwen justice, I think:

...the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

[Lalaith]

*nods in agreement*
Yes, I thought of the Middlemarch quote too when I read Bethberry's post.
And let's not forget Tolkien's own take on the issue:
"Many a man of arms misreads patience and quiet. She did much good among us at much cost."
Aerin's death was pretty awesome, now that I come to think of it.