Silmarillion - Chapter 06 - Of Feanor and the Unchaining of Melkor

[Břicho]

I found that interesting, too. I can only assume that, unlike the "pure' Manwe, Ulmo and Tulkas are more acquainted with the their own dark sides and urge.

I also found it interesting that Finwë married twice. Does this ever happen again in the legendarium--that an Elf remarried? I can't think of a single example(off hand).

Another thing that struck me is how very different the Elves(and especially the nutty genius Fëanor) seem from the Elves in the Lord of the Rings.
I can't imagine Feanor beng of the same race; the Elves in the Third Age seem to display a much more world-weary wisdom than the rash Feanor; Feanor is much more of a loner and spurns the Valar and Melkor, keeping around him only a few respected craftsmen and his father.
The sibling rivalry--to the point in w hich the Noldor later believe is Feanor's founding drive and the reason for all the woe that follows-- is out of my vision of "Elven character" in the Third Age...

Quite a lot of the Elves in the Silmarillion behave differently, in fact, than they would several thousand years later in Rivendell or Lorien.
These are the years of their youth--when their craft was at it's height but their wisdom hadn't yet caught up with it.
They almost seem like "wicked and foolish" men...but unlike men they will have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes-.

[Laurelin the Younger]

I don't quite understand why Míriel died. I thought Elves wouldn't die until either Arda perished or they were slain. Does childbirth count as a slaying? I've only read LoTR, the Hobbit, and this far into the Silm, so I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question that is obviously answered elsewhere.

[Findegil]

There are no stupid questions!

There is a difference between the death of the Elves at the end of Arda and the death when they are slain. And besides being slain Elves can die from great weariness. For this Míriel is the first and probably only explicit example.

If Elves are slain or die from weariness they are summoned to the Halls of Mandos. There they are judge by Mandos. Some are held there until the end of Arda (e.g. Feanor) other are held for a time of thought and purification. When Mandos judges them fit and if they desire it a body is build for them by the Valar from the memory of the old body that the soul caries on for that propose. Then with a blessing from Manwe the Elves become (re-)incarnated beings again (e.g. Glorfindel). But if an Elf does not want to be alive again, he is free to stay in Mandos as long as he of she wishes.

At the end of Arda all Elves will die a real death, which means they will leave time and space of the created world and will go to the doom prepared for them by Ilúvatar (what ever that may be).

Respectfuly
Findegil

[Laurelin the Younger]

Thanks Findegil! That makes a lot more sense now.

[Legolas]

Weariness is a way of saying it, but specifically 'grief' is what elves are susceptible to.

Miriel died of grief. A few others may die of grief as well, but no sense in spoiling the story if you're just that far!

The Silmarillion describes it as below in the first chapter, though there's a lot of information there so it was probably easy to miss on the first reading.

For the Elves die not till tile world dies, unless they are slain or waste in grief (and to both these seeming deaths they are subject); neither does age subdue their strength, unless one grow weary of ten thousand centuries; and dying they are gathered to the halls of Mandos in Valinor, whence they may in time return.

[Findegil]

Melian is neither an Elf nor does she die. But other wise you are ofcourse right that grief is one course of weariness that many Elves suffered.

Respectfuly
Findegil

[Legolas]

A mistake, of course. 'Miriel' intended.