Descent into Hell!!! Rarrr!...Well, sort of...

[Eruanna]

davem

Middle earth has its own rules & they are neither wholy Pagan nor entirely Christian.

Agree entirely.

In orthodox Christianity the UnderWorld is a place of eternal damnation in the Mysteries it is a place of Light & liberation through darkness.

I too cannot recall reading anything about an Underworld as a place of light...is this a Pagan belief?
I don't think it is just Christian orthodoxy that has the idea of eternal damnation. Most ancient (pre-Christian) religions have a belief in some sort of divine justice. The Greeks and Romans had Elysium (for the brave and good) and Tartarus (for the wicked) and coincidentally or not, if I remember correctly, one was situated in the far West and the other in the East.