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05-27-2002, 08:30 AM | #1 |
Shade of Carn Dûm
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: The shoulder of a poet, TX
Posts: 388
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Reincarnation
After Glorfindel was destroyed by the Balrog, he went to the Halls of Mandos and was then "recycled" back into life. Does anyone know how this happened? I'm just curious, but did he have a second set of parents, coming back as a baby, or did he just appear somewhere as an adult and go on with whatever he had been doing when he left?
Does Tolkien ever specify how the Valar reincarnate the Elves in one of his letters? I would appreciate it if someone could explain this to me. It seems like it would be an important part of ME's mythology.
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05-27-2002, 09:46 AM | #2 |
Late Istar
Join Date: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,224
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This is discussed in great depth in HoMe X, Morgoth's Ring. To make a long story short, Tolkien originally decided that Elves were reborn in their descendants. In this version, Glorfindel would have had new parents and gradually remembered his former life. Tolkien later decided that this was inconsistent with the metaphysics of Arda, however. He changed the mythology so that Elves are not reborn, but reincarnated. Since each fea (soul) corresponds precisely to a single hroa (body), the Valar are capable of making an exact replica of the body of an Elvish soul. So in the later version, Glorfindel appeared as an adult.
Elves were, naturally, reincarnated in Valinor. HoMe XII, The Peoples of Middle-earth, discusses Glorfindel's return from Valinor. It seems that Tolkien's latest idea was that Glorfindel was sent, like the Istari, to aid the free peoples of Middle-earth against Sauron; there are varying accounts of when exactly he returned, but it seems to have been during the Second Age. |
05-27-2002, 11:00 AM | #3 | |||||
Animated Skeleton
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: my little blooming garden
Posts: 45
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here are a bunch of quotes from HoME that may help you out.....
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hope these helped rather than confused [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] twinkle [ May 27, 2002: Message edited by: twinkle ]
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“For if joyful is the fountain that rises in the sun, its springs are in the wells of sorrow unfathomable at the foundations of the Earth.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion |
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05-27-2002, 12:30 PM | #4 |
Shade of Carn Dûm
Join Date: May 2002
Location: East of the Misty Mountains
Posts: 339
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Er'hem... twink, you're confusing me. But there are inconsistincies (sp?) in the books in relation from LOTR to the Silm.
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05-27-2002, 12:49 PM | #5 |
Animated Skeleton
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: my little blooming garden
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GW....the quotes were all from HoME concerning the reincarnation as well as the appearance of Glorfindel in Gondolin and later in LOTR....
it partly discusses wether or not Glorfindel of LOTR and Gondolin were identical, therefore tying in with the reincarnation question.... but as to the original question of the thread, Aiwendil beautifully summed up what i tried to show in the quotes, just beat me to the punch [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] twinkle
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“For if joyful is the fountain that rises in the sun, its springs are in the wells of sorrow unfathomable at the foundations of the Earth.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion |
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