The Gift Of Iluvatar In Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us,” (LotR 51). Death is a necessary evil, an end to life. It’s what we do with our life that is most important. In Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” mortals who acquire immortality end up facing many harsh realities. In the creation of Middle Earth, Iluvatar creates the Ainur (Holy Ones) and the Children of Iluvatar. The Ainur are the first, and the most powerful beings created by Iluvatar; they are immortal. The Children of Iluvatar are men and elves. “Iluvatar made them (elves) more like in nature to the Ainur, though less in might and stature; whereas to Men he gave strange gifts” (Silmarillion 37). This gift is The Gift of Iluvatar or the gift of death (Silmarillion 37-39). Iluvatar gives this gift to Men because he doesn’t want them to be bound to Middle Earth forever (Silmarillion 38). He wants Men to be free to choose their own path and destiny. He uses these races to explore death, its positives and negatives. In the article “The Gift of Iluvatar,” Damien Casey says, “In Tolkien’s world, death is not a punishment, or the result of the Fall, but is in fact intrinsic to the nature of humanity and as such is a gift from God to humanity” (Casey 7). What Casey is trying to tell us is that Tolkien believes that death is not a curse, but a characteristic of humanity. Death is a
Is it simply just survival, or is it something more. “If your life is a good one, and worth living, it is not made better for having a greater duration” (Preston, Dixon 105). They are saying that the length of your life doesn’t matter as much as what you decide to do with your time. Life shouldn’t be about waiting and playing it safe. Life is too short to dwell on how much time you have left. By doing that you are already wasting the time you have. But going to extreme measures to lengthen life isn’t a good way to spend time either. Immortality is overrated; be thankful for the time you