XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien
From: jon.lennart.beck.its.my.name@mail.its.in.danmark
"Eruvatar" skrev i meddelelsen
news:4f56ddaa$0$493$c3e8da3$4db35a27@news.astraweb.com...
> In "The Lord Of The Rings" at the end of "The Return of the King"
> Saruman is knifed in the back by Wormtongue.His physical body turns to
> a wisp of smoke and then dissapates never to be seen in Middleearth
> again.But, did he die a mortal death or being one of the Maiar(Which I
> believe he was) did he return toAman in his old form or was he allowed
> to die a naturel(mortal) death due to his base treachery?Just wondering
> if anyone else had input,answers?
His fate seems to have been much like that of Sauron. Of all the beings
in Arda only Men would die and leave Arda altogether, before the Last Day.
All others, even the Valar, had to remain until then whether they willed or
they nilled.
Death in Tolkien's mythos (as according to his faith also in the real
world) is the severance of body and soul, with the former becoming
inoperational due to trauma or wear and the latter being the essence of the
person. In the mythos a soul could then be re-bodied, either forming a new
one by its own efforts or by the aid of the Valar. The former would require
that the soul have a good deal of innate power, some of which would be spent
in the deed. Dead Elves who heeded the summons of Mandos would experience
the latter, after a 'purgatory' in the Halls of Mandos, the length of which
would depend on how much reflection would be expected of them after whatever
evil deeds they had committed while incarnate. Fëanor had been so bad that
his stay in purgatory could be expected to last until the Last Day. Finwë's
first wife Míriel is the only Elf we know of who refused becoming
reincarnated. Her refusal caused Finwë to wish to remarry, much to the
consternation of the Valar who then granted permission on the condition that
Míriel stay dead so that Finwe have not two wives in the world
simultaneously... Glorfindel died nobly, sacrificing himself in battle
against a Balrog to save his companions at the fall of Gondolin. He was
apparently swiftly re-housed in Aman, and then, at some unspecified time
while there was still traffic from Aman to Middle-earth, he returned to help
fight against evil. It is not known if he came with the same ship or ships
that carried the Istari.
Sauron was threatened with death by Lúthien and Huan, and if this threat
had been carried out he would have been forced to return bodyless to
Morgoth, to his master's scorn. Later he died twice (in Akallabêth and on
the slopes of Orodruin) and twice formed new bodies, each time expending
much of the power that was his from his beginning. The third time he died,
with the Ring into which he had deposited much of his remaining power being
destroyed in the same event, he was become too powerless to form yet another
body, and was forced to spend the rest of eternity as the spiritual
equivalent of quiet flatulence, nothing more, but still bound to Arda. And
banned from Aman. Saruman was from his beginning much weaker than Sauron,
and unable to form a new body even once. The Balrogs were likewise unable
to re-incarnate, after most of them died in the War of Wrath or before and
apparently the last one on the peak of Zirak-zigil.
The same thing as with Sauron seems to have happened to Saruman when he
died. When his throat was slit his body crumbled into a very decayed
corpse. His spirit, observed for a moment as a rising smoke, turned towards
the West, towards Aman, but he was rejected: a wind from the West dissipated
the smoke, as it had the much larger smoke that marked Sauron's end. He was
not permitted to return, as punishment for his treachery. So within
Tolkien's conceit that the events in his mythos took place in our real
world, Sauron's and Saruman's spirits are still with us as are those of the
Balrogs, but they are powerless to deal with the world and us.
Hraban.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
