Today I'll try to answer a new lore question from the comments. This time I started a vote
and you decided for:
What happens to the various peoples of Middle-earth after they die?
The question was sent in by Derek Pronk.
As always: I try to pronounce names as described by Tolkien and spoiler warning.
The "edifying" topic of death and afterlife is also a difficult one in Tolkien's universe,
if you go into detail, which I will try. For length's sake I'll have to take a few shortcuts
though and the video still became very long.
Death is fundamental and some would say a final element in our existence, but it also
plays an important role in Tolkien's work, same with many other fictional stories and
universes. Many characters die in battles or under unusual circumstances in Lord of
the Rings and we have different motives and ideas tied to this. Age, heroism, redemption,
sacrifice, but also being a small wheel trapped between the tides of fate.
I hope it will become clear what I mean by this later. Ofc it would not be Tolkien, if
this matter would not be at places quite complex.
To truly approach this topic we have to talk about a few other problems first. So prepare
for a long introduction.
The biggest problem is defining something like a book canon. So what books and texts
are part of the "what I think is" the universe and what not. This can differ from
person to person. For me Tolkien's 2 main works "The Hobbit" and esp. "The Lord
of the Rings" are canon. Also the "Silmarillion", excluding some small editorial mistakes, like
Gil-galad's parents. And how canon the Silmarillion is, can be debated. I also consider some parts
of the "Unfinished Tales" to be canon, where it makes sense. Same with Tolkien's
letters.
The problematic part, are the contents of the History of Middle-earth books, which are
very interesting to read (and also important), but sometimes they make things difficult.
The idea behind them is explaining the process of Tolkien creating his main books, why the
Silmarillion is the way it is (and what it's problems are) and to publish notes and ideas
Tolkien worked on in the background. So this contains obviously unfinished material (probably
never intended to be published), which can be difficult to place in his universe.
But why is all this so important for this video? A lot of information about death and
afterlife can be found inside the History of Middle-earth books. Not considering them
would make a very short and at times speculative video, because we don't know too much about
many details otherwise.
So to answer this questions, it comes a bit down to my personal interpretation and my
opinion on what is canon. I can ofc only explain this question through my view and understanding
of it and I'll try to not contradict the main works including the Silmarillion.
So what's the problem with the Silmarillion? It was never finished by Tolkien himself,
but instead by his son and editor Christopher Tolkien, who also had birthday recently. Thank
you for all your hard work Mr. Tolkien. He published it posthumously and some topics
and decisions can be heavily discussed, because Tolkien changed his mind quite often about
certain topics. And when everything is linked together in your books, the smallest change
can affect a lot of other parts of everything else. For some of his later ideas, Tolkien
needed to basically re-write big parts of his books, which made finishing the Silmarillion
without too many contradictions to the other works an insanely difficult task for Christopher
Tolkien and even he himself is not 100% sure, if the Silmarillion he published represents
his father's ideas correctly at all.
However he explains his decisions in detail in his History of Middle-earth books, which
we will need to understand the concept of death in Tolkien's universe. Mainly the book
Morgoth's Ring.
And now we slowly come to the actual answer. Sorry for that.
I would start with the Firstborn, the Elves, but there is one "character" I have to
introduce first:
The Vala Mandos. His actual name is Námo and Mandos is his realm. Like e.g. Hades,
the name of his realm became his actual name too. You will often hear the term "Halls
of Mandos" in this video.
Námo or Mandos is a Vala, so to say a high angel of Eru (who is god), he is also part
of something similar to a god pantheon formed by multiple Valar and his task is judgement
in matters of fate (I like this phrase). This includes the final fate of many beings: death.
He is also called "the Doomsman of the Valar" and he summons the dead to his halls.
His judgment also has a lot of weight, not to say, that only one entity overpowers him
in this regard, which is Eru. Ofc he speaks to Manwë (who is the leader of the Valar)
and coordinates with him too.
The Doomsman himself is also quite powerful e.g. even Sauron's master Morgoth or Melkor,
as he was originally called, could leave his realm against his will and Melkor was considered
the most powerful Vala.
With this we have the foundation of how death works in Tolkien's universe: if you die, Mandos
summons your soul or spirit into his halls, but what happens then?
This depends on who is summoned, each race in Lord of the Rings has its own fate upon
death.
The Firstborn Elves have a quite interesting one.
They are bound to the world (called Arda) itself and don't need to die by natural means,
but can e.g. be slain. The binding part here is very important to understand. They also
age very slowly and under certain circumstances (it seems) even a bit faster. E.g. the Sinda
lord Círdan, the Shipwright is described as looking "old" and having a long white
beard. I have a long lore video about him, if you are interested. Elves having beards
seems unusual, which it is, but he is incredibly old and very old elves can have a beard, even
looking old, but they don't die of age. Círdan's case however is special, because he never
left Middle-earth until probably the Fourth Age (so after Sauron's defeat). Then he most
likely went to Aman, to the so called "Undying Lands".
And this part is really important, if you truly want to understand the elves and their
fate. This goes into the direction of why elves have to leave Middle-earth.
Middle-earth is (you could say) the product of the rebellion of the mentioned evil Vala
Melkor oe known as Morgoth (Sauron's master). With his rebellion and destructive evil deeds
(that changed the shape of the world and continents itself) he so to say infused the world with
his "corruption" or evil.
In case of Middle-earth this led to it being a place of "chaos" or let's say of change.
The books use the term "marred" and "Arda marred" for the whole world, but also call
it "Morgoth's Ring". So this corruption is the "Ring" of Morgoth. His evil tainted
the concept and essence of the world and esp. of Middle-earth, which would be otherwise
perfect and symmetrical you could say.
Aman on the (literally) other side is at least a bit different. Here the Valar live and have
their realms. All undying, which is why it's called the "Undying Lands". And here the
world is not changing much, it's still marred too, but less. It does not have the chaos
and corruption of Middle-earth. And when we come to men, you will understand, why they
are in most cases not allowed to enter Aman.
Now what happens when elves don't leave Middle-earth? They are primarily tormented by its change,
because their nature is not to change much and at some point they will fade or be diminished.
In Galadriel's words: "We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic folk of dell
and cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten."
Elves are bound to Arda. And as the world slowly ages, they do too. Middle-earth changes
more than Aman and it's corruption is more intense and so this affects the elves stronger,
when they live there for a very long time and that's why they have to leave it at some
point. Their nature clashes with the essence of Middle-earth so to say.
Now when elves die, their body stays behind and their "spirit" is summoned into the
halls of Mandos. The summon can be refused, but that is very unwise for elves and not
really explored in any of Tolkien's stories, because they are not complete without a body.
At some point after the summon, Mandos will judge them and if they were "good" elves,
they can (if they want) receive Manwë's blessing and will be re-embodied in Aman after a while
and live there again.
Tolkien had different concepts for re-embodiment. First it was re-birth, where they are born
again, have new parents and receive all their memories and knowledge back, when they grow
up again. Tolkien later distanced himself from this idea and his final stand seems,
that Manwë and the other Valar have the authority to recreate the old body (without wounds ofc),
so the spirit can return to it and live again. The image o f their physical form is so to
say saved in their spirits. There are a few more iterations of Tolkien's ideas, but I
can't cover them all in detail. This also makes it clear, that elves need a body. It's
part of their existence, which was a bit different in early concepts of Tolkien too.
However after explaining all this, I hope you see, that this makes sense for the concept
of elves. They are bound to Arda, but only the Undying Lands fit their being's nature.
So when they die, they ofc go and live on in this special place - as long as Arda is
there.
There are also some strange exceptions and rulings, that I can't cover in detail too.
E.g. the first or original High King of the Noldor elves Finwë had a wife called Míriel.
They had a son, that is the often mentioned Fëanor. Shortly after his birth his mother
died, because her son's spirit was so powerful, that he used too much of her lifeforce or
"essence" so to say. Her spirit left her body and went to the Halls of Mandos. Her
body was you could say dead, but was preserved by the Vala of Healing, so that it would not
wither.
You could say: no the problem, she can be re-embodied or return to her body. But she
refused and stayed in the Halls of Mandos instead. Finwë was in despair, but was allowed
to later take a new wife, where his other children are from, e.g. Galadriel's father
Finarfin. However this generated a strange conflict. Because there was change: a new
wife. For this to work his former wife had to accept, that she can't be re-embodied anymore.
Later when Finwë was slain by Morgoth, he offered Míriel, that he stayed inside the
Halls of Mandos forever, so that she can get be re-embodied. Which she accepted.
It's a quite complex topic and difficult to explain, but I hope you understand the concept
of the elves fate with this a bit more. I should also mention, that the Undying Lands
were moved into the Unseen Realm (in the Second Age, after the Fall of Númenor), so they
are (you could say) moved away from the changing Arda and only the elves can reach it with
their ships. However the Undying Lands are still part of the world, but I think this
"removal" underlines the concept even more.
Now we come to men, who are almost the antithesis of this concept. They are mortal. And this
is their essence. Mortality is their gift, which they received from the one transcendent
creator god, Eru. It's often referred to as the "Gift of Men".
In contrast men change and are fit for the task of living on a changing and corrupted
world, because they are not bound to it. They age, they work, they fight, they get sick
and they die. All in a very limited amount of time. While elves have all the time in
the world, to built their realms, men must achieve this with the little time they got
and you could say are always driven and in haste, esp. when young. On one side it's sad,
that they have to leave the world forever at some point, but on the other side, it's
also their greatest and defining strength: the Gift of Men, which is death.
In the Silmarillion we find a quite interesting remark about this.
During mid First Age a group of men arrived in Beleriand (the old West coast land of Middle-earth)
and met the elves. They met Galadriel's oldest brother Finrod first and he and his people
became friends with this group, which is also known as the Edain. They are divided into
3 houses and one was the House of Bëor. I talk about this in my Círdan and the History
of the elves video. Now comes the interesting part: when Bëor died of old age, we can read
in the Silmarillion:
And when he lay dead, of no wound or grief, but stricken by age, the Eldar saw for the
first time the swift waning of the life of Men, and the death of weariness which they
knew not in themselves; and they grieved greatly for the loss of their friends. But Bëor at
the last had relinquished his life willingly and passed in peace; and the Eldar wondered
much at the strange fate of Men, for in all their lore there was no account of it, and
its end was hidden from them.
I really like this little story, because it shows the contrast between both fates. While
elves are bound to Arda, men are not.
When men die, they are (I assume) summoned to Mandos' halls too, and then they go somewhere
outside of Arda, to an unknown place - not the elves or even the Valar know about. Only
Eru knows and this is also part of the "Gift of Men". Leaving Arda forever is their fate.
And this is also a bit why, they are not allowed to enter the Undying Lands. They are beings
of change and a different fate awaits them, so they don't belong to Aman. If they would
live in Aman, they would want immortality, rejecting the gift of men, which is against
their nature.
But ofc there are more peoples living in Middle-earth. E.g. hobbits. Hobbits are also counted towards
men and share their fate. Half-elves must decide for one side and their decision gives
them the "Gift of men" or not. But if they once accepted it, they are men and not
half-elves anymore. But if they decide to be elves, their children also inherit the
right to decide.
Beyond Hobbits, we have some other peoples like the Drúedain (not to be confused with
the Dúnedain), but they are all counted towards men. Same with the Variags from Khand I assume.
Then we have the dwarves. While the elves want to preserve and like the growing things
above the earth, the dwarves love, what is below the earth. They also love the mountains,
which are to them what trees are for elves. Their bodies were created by Aulë, the Vala
of Smithing, who they revere. So their affinity to craftsmanship is natural for them. They
are sturdy like rocks and ores, but not immortal. Corresponding this, they live quite long compared
to men (who are not Dúnedain), so about 200 to 350 years.
Their fate tries to fit into all of this. When they die, they are summoned into the
halls of Mandos too, where they (according to their believes) wait until an unmarred
Arda is created and then they will help Aulë to built and form it.
Next would be the Ainur. That is the race of the Valar and their helpers of lower rank,
the Maiar. The Ainur are spirit beings. I would compare them to angels. They are immortal
and can exist as spirit beings alone, but usually they take a physical form.
When their body is destroyed, they lose a big portion of their power, which went into
the creation of it and can be diminished. E.g. to a mere shadow, depending on if they
rebelled with Melkor or not. Sauron and Saruman are examples, where this happened. Gandalf
in contrast was sent back, his form changed a bit and his lost power was restored and
even expanded (you could say), because he fought against Melkor and his servants, sacrificed
himself for the greater good and still had an important task. Still even if they are
diminished to nothingness, to my understanding, they are not gone, just have no power and
no way to recover anymore. This also has to do with not being able to return to Aman and
heal and that Eru and the Valar put this fate upon them. Those spirit beings can change
or create fate to some degree and they can also change the world, but in this exiled
and diminished form, they lose all their power. So losing their physical from is quite bad
for Morgoth's servants, who are Ainur. Sauron could trick this, due to him having the One
Ring, which had a big part of his will and power in it.
Now we shortly come to a few special cases. E.g. the Ents? They are immortal too, but
what happens when their body gets destroyed? Well, I don't know. And Tolkien wrote in a
letter:
"What happens to the Ents I don't yet know."
In my Entwive video I explained their origin a bit, and if I recall correctly, I also explained
the origin story of the dwarves. You could say they are also an antithesis to them. The
dwarves wait to help Aulë, maybe the Ents wait for Yavanna to grow things and help her
on Arda Unmarred. They are definitely bound to the world. This is however not explained
or mentioned by Tolkien and just a theory of mine. Also if the new unmarred world would
have no woods, they would have no purpose, because they protect the growing things from
the orcs and dwarves. So maybe without those, they lose purpose and cease to exist. But
when there are trees, there could be Ents I guess.
There is also the argument of them being Ainur too, then they would share their fate and
be truly immortal.
Another interesting case are the Nazgûl. They are bound to Sauron's fate. So when Sauron
is diminished, they are too.
Barrow-wights are probably corrupted Ainur or spirit beings. From my perspective they
share the fate of Ainur who are Morgth's or Sauron's servants.
The Oathbreakers were cursed by Isildur and this curse accepted by Eru. So they were not
summoned and trapped in this ghost form. After they fulfilled the oath, that they once broke,
they redeemed themselves and I assume share the fate of men.
Then there are the Nameless Things. Well, no idea. They are probably beasts and cease
to exist, but we know nothing about them.
Orcs' fate is a very tough one, because of the orc origin debate. Even if they were once
elves, they lost their immortality. So maybe they accepted the Gift of men? In Tolkien's
later notes, he wanted them to be corrupted men, instead of elves. And Here we are at
a problem when it comes to canon. We know Tolkien later changed his mind, but this change
conflicts with the source material, because orcs lived before men. Still they are mortals
and in theory could redeem themselves too. In this case they would probably go, where
men go. If they can't redeem themselves, their fate is bound to that of Morgoth's servants.
Then we have Trolls. And I have to admit no clue. We don't know much about their origin.
I assume Morgoth transformed beings into trolls as a mockery of the Ents. So they were probably
beasts or like orcs.
The old Dragons were creatures possessed by an evil spirit. So potentially spirit beings.
They were servants of Morgoth, so they share the same fate as Sauron. The later dragons
could be potentially like beasts or animals. So they would cease to exist after their death
I assume.
The Great Eagles' fate is also a tough one. As explained in the Why do Eagles not fly
the One Ring to Mordor video, Eagles could be originally Maiar. So they would be immortal
Ainur. Tolkien later changed his mind, but this did not make it into the Silmarillion.
Depending on what you see as canon, they are or are not. If we take Tolkien's later writings,
they are only more intelligent beasts and would cease to exist. I personally like the
Ainur interpretation more and one reason for Tolkien, that he revised this, was that they
had offspring. This is true for Melian too, but I see the problem.
Then we have nature spirits and other special entities. I would go with the similar to Ainur
argument. Tom Bombadil's fate is difficult, but in my opinion he is bound to Arda. So
as long as Arda is there, he is there too. When it comes to Ungoliant (Shelob's mother)
I could imagine, that she is bound to darkness. As long as there is darkness and shadow, there
is Ungoliant devouring herelf.
The fate of Shelob is also difficult. I would say her body can die, her spirit could be
diminished or bound to her mother' fate. Same with her offspring, but maybe they would be
only beasts and stop to exist.
You see in many cases fate and sometimes purpose play a big role and are very important if
you want to understand what happens after a beings "death".
Except for men all others are bound to Arda and the universe surrounding it. As long as
those exist, they have a place and even a fate in them.
Thank you for watching.
This video got again far longer, than I expected, but I also answered the question in a lot
of detail. Therefor I reduced a bit of work load during editing. I still hope you liked
it. Let me know in the comments. Also consider pressing the like button. And if you have
more lore questions for future videos let me know too. I will most likely post a new
poll for the next video's topic in the community tab too. The Twitter voting last time was
not that successful, but I was really surprised how many people voted on Youtube.
Not sure, what video will be next. Maybe a gaming related video and another answering
lore questions from the comments video will come too.
Again thank you for watching and good bye.
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