That good night: gift or punishment?

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by alatar

Did I miss something in the Silmarillion in regards to the 'Fall' of mankind?

And, to be a bit silly, Eru allows humans to escape the confines of Arda in order that they might escape the fate of being the subject of a movie sequel by Peter Jackson and company; something that in time even the Powers may envy ("Hmmm, just how can we make this Silmarillion story more exciting...let's make it 10 jewels, add a back story of a romance triangle between Manwë, Varda and Melkor, leave out that Eru guy as he's not really important to Tolkien's main theme, add a few belching Dwarves and we might just have a hit! ").

And now back to the serious discourse.

Dredging up a VERY old (but timeless) thread to note how 100% spot on alatar's assessment of Peter Jackson's adaptation methods were: he just didn't know it would be The Hobbit!

Since I'm here, I'll add to what Bêthberry says in the second to last prior post:

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Maybe this is why Tolkien omitted a Fall in his mythology?

Namely, I'll clarify that Tolkien omits showing the Fall in his mythology. That Men have some dark, shameful past is quite clear in the Silmarillion texts showing the arrival of the Edain in Beleriand--it's just that Tolkien doesn't dwell on what that was, at least not there.

The Athrabêth does the exact opposite of that, which is why though I find it fascinating, it's a text that I'm wary of. In other words, the Athrabêth is Tolkien doing for Middle-earth's theology what the Myths Transformed texts would do for Middle-earth's cosmology: attempt to make it more consistent with the world as we know it (well, with the world as Tolkien would claim to have known it, anyway).

Given Tolkien's claim that The Lord of the Rings is "about Death and the desire for deathlessness," this is a theme likely to be ever fruitful, not least because Death and the desire for deathlessness are ever in tension in reality as in fiction. And while fiction may be a way of understanding reality, Tolkien's fiction is certainly not a simplistic way of trying to work out this particular issue.