Do Elves Dream of Eclectic Sleep? - Page 3
© Michael Martinez
The Elvish longing for release was not necessarily a part of their natural state. By the time the Valar discovered the Elves living in Cuivienen, they had already been harrassed by Melkor and his servants. Some of the Elves had vanished, and since Mandos himself apparently knew nothing of their fate, they must have been completely entrapped by Melkor in Utumno or some other dread prison. The Elves thus loss the innocence with which they had awakened before they even met the Valar.
The loss of innocence was the first step on a long road toward sorrow, a road filled with grief and loss. But sorrow and grief were not the same thing for the Elves. Grief, apparently passed, whereas sorrow did not. A grief might become extended and turn into sorrow, but the greater part of Elvendom seems simply to have grown into sorrow. Overcoming grief was something they did time and again.
For example, Tolkien explains in Letter 212 (actually a draft for a continuation of Letter 211 which was never sent) that "in the Elvish legends there is record of a strange case and Elf (Miriel mother of Feanor) that tried to die, which had disastrous results, leading to the 'Fall' of the High-elves....Miriel wished to abandon being...."
Miriel's death was so unusual the Eldar had to devise a new word to describe it. They had experienced physical death before, whereby some members of their race had succumbed to grief or violence and their bodies died. But the Eldar learned in Aman that their spirits were intended to pass to the Halls of Mandos and, after a time of reflection in which they would be healed of their griefs, they could and should be re-admitted to the ranks of the living.
Miriel did not wish to live again. She wanted to be dead, truly dead, and to have nothing more to do with the world. Miriel's choice, or stubborness, led to an important debate among the Valar, and to the establishment of a law which altered the natural course of Elven fate. The Valar were empowered by Iluvatar to mandate the permanent death of an Elf within the life of Arda. That is, they could refuse to let an Elf live again.
Miriel refused to accept life, even though she was all but ordered to live again. The Valar therefore reluctantly consigned her to the Halls of Mandos until the end of the Time of Arda. Finwe, her husband, thus became free to seek another wife. But after Finwe was murdered by Melkor, his spirit communed with Miriel's spirit in Mandos (and that was apparently a rare occurence). When Miriel learned of all that had befallen her people, she regretted her decision to stay dead, and appealed to the Valar. Finwe now agreed to remain dead, because he could not return to life and have two wives (a state which the Elves regarded as unnatural).
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