Death as Gift: Why Tolkien's Elves Envy Mortal Men | Silmarillion Explained

One of Tolkien's most counterintuitive and profound theological concepts: mortality as divine gift. While Men fear death as enemy and curse, Tolkien's mythology presents it as "freedom from the circles of the world" - a passage beyond the created order that even the Valar will envy. The Elves, bound to Arda until its end, face increasing weariness and eventual fading into ghostly insubstantiality. Men's mortality was corrupted by Morgoth, who transformed its perception from gift to terror. Those who grasp for immortality - the Nazgul, Gollum, Ar-Pharazon - achieve only counterfeit existence worse than death. But those who accept the gift well - Luthien choosing mortality for love, Aragorn surrendering life with estel (hope), Arwen accepting its bitterness - demonstrate the proper reception. The Second Music of the Ainur hints at Men's ultimate destiny beyond Arda's circles, participating in cosmic creation that immortals cannot share.