Inevitability of death (revisited)

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Raynor

Well, I believe the main difference would be that Morgoth's shadow wouldn't be cast upon the *perception* of death

My thoughts exactly. Death untainted would be neither terrifying nor repulsive. Finrod in the Athrabeth, once again:

[...] to love the body and yet scorn it, the carrion-disgust: these things may come from the Morgoth, indeed.

You're right about the context of my earlier quote, of course: both Finrod and Andreth are primarily concerned with the death of Men. Yet, to me Finrod's words or death would not be found at all (my emphasis) sound like he has something larger in mind.

I would have liked, at this point, to delve a little into the theological implications of death as part of Eru's design (death as the Gift of Ilúvatar vs death as 'the wages of sin'), but discovered that this has already been discussed at length and brilliantly here: http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=11971 Talk about re-inventing the wheel...

Anyway, I think we have to consider that the Children were introduced into the Music with the Third Theme, after Melkor had already spread discord; so their very nature, as designed by Eru, was a reaction, on Eru's side, to Melkor's initial marring of the Music.
(Side-thought: did Eru create the Children in Melkor's despite? That is, did He, being aware of Melkor's obsession with matter and his desire to dominate it, deliberately create beings consisting of a union of fea and hroa - matter and spirit - , knowing that whatever Melkor might do to their hroar, he would never be able to completely dominate their fear?)

P.S. to Legate:

Arda is this world in some other Age, but an Age when - note! - many things were different

I'd like to emend this to this world in an imaginary (or imaginable) Age, when many things were different from the way we know them to have been in the true past of our world (rather unelegant, but more precise). - Don't get me wrong: while it can be fun to speculate about the biology and other sciences of Arda, my peace of mind certainly doesn't depend upon it. Actually, I subscribe to everything you said about scientific explanations in the 'Enchantment or advancement' thread. I'm quite happy to accept trees growing (and even blossoming) without light as a given fact; and if they have to be explained somehow, I prefer a mythologic explanation ('they grew in the dark because Yavanna made them for the dark') anytime to a mock-scientific explanation ('they used a different kind of chlorophyll that enabled them to photosynthesize starlight').