J. R. R. Tolkien repeatedly dealt with the theme ofdeath and immortality in Middle-earth. He stated directly that the "real theme" ofThe Lord of the Rings was "Death and Immortality."^{[T 1]} InMiddle-earth,Men are mortal, whileElves are immortal. One of his stories,The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, explores the willing choice of death through the love of an immortal Elf for a mortal Man. He several timesrevisited the Old Norse theme of the mountain tomb, containing treasure along with the dead and visited by fighting. He brought multiple leading evil characters inThe Lord of the Rings to a fiery end, includingGollum, theNazgûl, the Dark LordSauron, and the evil WizardSaruman, while inThe Hobbit, the dragonSmaug is killed. Their destruction contrasts with the heroic deaths of two leaders of the free peoples,Théoden ofRohan andBoromir ofGondor, reflecting the early medieval ideal ofNorthern courage. Despite thesepagan themes, the workcontains hints of Christianity, such as of theresurrection of Christ, as when the Lord of the Nazgûl, thinking himself victorious, calls himself Death, only to be answered by the crowing of a cockerel. There are, too, hints that the Elvish land ofLothlórien represents anEarthly Paradise. Scholars have commented that Tolkien clearly moved during his career from being oriented towards pagan themes to a more Christian theology.

J. R. R. Tolkien was a scholar of English literature, aphilologist andmedievalist interested in language and poetry from theMiddle Ages, especially that ofAnglo-Saxon England and Northern Europe.^[1] His professional knowledge ofBeowulf, telling of a pagan world but with a Christian narrator,^[2]helped to shape his fictional world of Middle-earth. His intention to create what has been called "a mythology for England"^{[T 2]} led him to construct not only stories but a fully-formed world,Middle-earth, withlanguages,peoples, cultures, andhistory. Amonghis many influences were his ownRoman Catholic faith, medieval languages and literature,including Norse mythology.^[1] He is best known as the author of thehigh fantasy worksThe Hobbit andThe Lord of the Rings, both set in Middle-earth.^[3]

Tolkien set out his view of "Death and Immortality" inThe Lord of the Rings in a 1956 letter;Verlyn Flieger andDouglas Anderson describe this theme as "the Escape from Deathlessness":^[4]

The real theme for me is .. Death and Immortality: the mystery of the love of the world in the hearts of a race [Men] 'doomed' to leave and seemingly lose it; the anguish in the hearts of a race [Elves] 'doomed' not to leave it, until its whole evil-aroused story is complete. But if you have now readVol. III and the story of Aragorn [and Arwen], you will have perceived that.^{[T 1]}

The scholar of fantasy Charles W. Nelson writes that this seems surprising at first sight, given the prominence of other themes like "loyalty, love, [and] the importance of compassion and selflessness".^[5] But, he comments, alongside the major battles, there are "intense scenes of particular deaths which impress the reader with their impact".^[5] He gives as instancesSam Gamgee's reaction to the death of a warrior inIthilien, andBilbo's "moving" final farewell toThorin Oakenshield as the Dwarf-leader dies. He argues, too, that a central event inThe Hobbit is the death of the dragonSmaug,^{[5][T 3]} while the novel sees the threetrolls turned to stone, and the deaths of manygoblins and their King.^[5] As forThe Lord of the Rings, Nelson writes, the dead are well represented by "the Barrowwights, the Dead whom Aragorn leads out of the White Mountains, the dead elves and men [who] Frodo sees in theDead Marshes with their mysterious candles, and theBlack Riders who are among the living dead."^[5] The deaths of major characters, including Boromir, Denethor, Gollum, Saruman, Sauron,Théoden, andWormtongue all form "significant scenes", while Gandalf both dies and returns from the dead.^[5]

Mortality is confronted in the first chapter ofThe Lord of the Rings, as Bilbo Baggins states that he feels he needs "a holiday, a very long holiday... Probably a permanent holiday: I don't expect I shall return." Giovanni Carmine Costabile comments that Bilbo means he will go toRivendell to rest; but that it is also ametaphor for death.^{[6][T 4]}

Immortality, too, is represented in multiple ways inThe Lord of the Rings. The Elves are immortal, while other races like the Dwarves and the Ents are long-lived. There is, as Nelson states, "a complex system ofotherworlds and eternal dwellings" for when members of the various races leave Middle-earth. And theOne Ring tempts and corrupts partly through its promise of immortality.^[5]

The medievalistVerlyn Flieger writes that nobody knows where Men go to when they die and leave Middle-earth, and that the nearest Tolkien came to dealing with the question was in his essayOn Fairy-Stories. There, "after speculating that since 'fairy-stories are made by men not by fairies', they must deal with what he called the Great Escape, the escape from death. He went on to the singular assertion that 'the Human-stories of the elves are doubtless full of the Escape from Deathlessness'."^{[7][T 5]} Flieger suggests that two of the "human stories" of Tolkien's Elves really focus on this kind of escape, theTale of Beren and Lúthien andThe Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, where in both cases a half-elf makes her escape from deathlessness.^[7] The Tolkien scholarTom Shippey comments that "the themes of the Escape from Death, and the Escape from Deathlessness, are vital parts of Tolkien's entire mythology."^[8] In a 1968 BBC television broadcast, Tolkien quoted French philosopherSimone de Beauvoir and described the inevitability of death as the "key-spring ofThe Lord of the Rings".^[9][a]

In "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen", Tolkien exemplifies this theme, as the ElfArwen falls in love with a mortal Man,Aragorn, and despite her father's opposition, eventually marries him, giving up her immortality in the process.^{[T 6]} The creatorIlúvatar offers Aragorn the "gift" of choosing the time of his death;^[11] the scholarJohn D. Rateliff has contrasted this with the way theElves cling to the past, and are inevitably swept away with it.^[12]

Tolkien's Elvesremain unwearied with age. They can recover from wounds which would be fatal to a Man, but can be killed in battle. Spirits of dead Elves go to theHalls of Mandos inValinor, a sort ofEarthly Paradise, for anafterlife. After a period of rest that serves as "cleansing", their spirits are clothed in bodies identical to their old ones.^{[T 7]} If they do not die in battle or accident, Elves eventually grow weary of Middle-earth and desire to go to Valinor;^{[T 8]} they often sail from the Grey Havens, where Círdan the Shipwright dwells with his folk.^{[T 9][T 10]} Eventually, all Elves that remain in Middle-earth undergo a process of "fading", in which their immortal spirits overwhelm and "consume" their bodies. This renders their bodily forms invisible to mortal eyes, except to those to whom they wish to manifest themselves.^{[T 11][T 12]}

The situation with Tolkien's Dwarves is unclear. InThe Hobbit, the dyingThorin says "I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers, until the world is renewed."Douglas Anderson, commenting on this inThe Annotated Hobbit, writes that this may reflect the Dwarves' own beliefs – that they had an Elf-like afterlife, but that it does not accord with what Tolkien wrote inThe Silmarillion or elsewhere in his legendarium.^[13]

When the tiredFellowship reaches the idyllic Elvish land ofLothlórien, the land with "no stain", it is obliged to cross two rivers. Shippey writes that they first wash off the stains of ordinary life by wading the RiverNimrodel. He compares this perfect place to the Earthly Paradise that the dreamer speaks of in theMiddle English poemPearl. Then the Fellowship have to cross a rope-bridge over a second river, theSilverlode, which they must not drink from or touch, and which the evilGollum cannot cross. What place can they have come to then, he wonders: could they be "as if dead"?^[15][16] Shippey comments that the Fellowship "undergoes a kind of death in getting there", noting that the fact they are not allowed to touch the water seems to carry meaning.^[16] The travellers notice, too, thattime seems to pass differently in Lothlórien.^{[T 13]} He comments that

A determined allegorist (or mythiciser) might go on to identify the Nimrodel withbaptism, the Silverlode with death.^[16]

Shippey at once states that this suggestion is counteracted by Sam Gamgee's earthy practicality, making the rivers "tactical obstacles and not symbols for something else." All the same, he writes, the suggestion is there, making the passage, and the novel as a whole, work simultaneously on multiple levels ofNorthrop Frye's classification ofliterary modes.^[16]

Tolkien repeatedly adapts the Norse motif of the mountain tomb. The medievalistMarjorie Burns writes that while Tolkien does not precisely follow the Norse model, "his mountains tend to encase the dead and include settings where treasure is found and battles occur."^[17]

Burns writes that multiple monstrous or evil characters in Middle-earth die deaths that would befit "the [undead] afterwalkers of Old Norse sagas", being destroyed by fire sufficient to eliminate them completely. Gollum is, she writes, "a thieving, kin-murdering, treasure-hoarding, sun-hating, underground dweller who ought to be dead," much like theBarrow-wight.^[18] As Gollum states: "We are lost, lost... No name, no business, no Precious, nothing. Only empty. Only hungry; yes, we are hungry".^{[T 14][19]} Flieger suggests that Gollum is Tolkien's central monster-figure, likening him to bothGrendel and theBeowulf dragon, "the twisted, broken, outcast hobbit whose manlike shape and dragonlike greed combine both theBeowulf kinds of monster in one figure".^[20] Burns comments that Gollum has other attributes from the undead of Norse myth: supernatural strength, demanding that he be wrestled; he may appear to be black, but has "bone-white" skin; and he is brought to an end by fire, the final resort for "stopping the restless dead".^[19] In similar vein, theNazgûl, already wraiths, are destroyed at the same time as the One Ring, blazing in their final flight, "shooting like flaming bolts" and ending in "fiery ruin" as they are burnt out.^{[19][T 15]} Burns states that Tolkien creates "quite a pattern" for characters "who would take more than their due and who have aligned themselves with death", naming Sauron, Saruman, and Denethor as instances of those who come to a "final and well-deserved destruction".^[19]

Against the deserved obliteration of the adversaries,The Lord of the Rings sets the heroic deaths of two leading figures of the free peoples, KingThéoden ofRohan andBoromir ofGondor. Like KingTheodoric I of the Visigoths, Théoden dies leading his men into battle. He rallies his men shortly before he falls and is crushed by his horse. And like Theodoric, Théoden is carried from the battlefield with his knights weeping and singing for him while the battle still goes on.^[22] The scholar of religionPeter Kreeft writes that "it is hardnot to feel your heart leap with joy at Théoden's transformation into a warrior", however difficult people find the old Roman view that it is sweet to die for your country,dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.^[23] Shippey writes that Rohan is directlycalqued on Anglo-Saxon England,taking many features fromBeowulf. He states that Tolkien'slament for Théoden, written in Anglo-Saxon-stylealliterative verse, equally closely echoes the dirge that ends the Old English poemBeowulf, which celebrates the life and death of its eponymous hero.^[24][25]

Boromir, a member of the Fellowship of the Ring, falls to the temptation to try to seize the One Ring, intending to use it to defend Gondor. This at once splits the Fellowship, and leads to Boromir's death as Orcs attack. He redeems himself, however, by single-handedly but vainly defending Merry and Pippin from orcs, dying a hero's death.^[26] Scholars have stated that this illustrates the Catholic theme of the importance of good intention, especially at the point of death. As Gandalf states:^[26][27] "But he [Boromir] escaped in the end.... It was not in vain that the young hobbits came with us, if only for Boromir's sake."^{[T 16]} Boromir is given a boat-funeral,^{[T 17]} echoing early Germanicship burials, such as for the ancestral heroScyld Scefing inBeowulf, and later medieval ritual for noble funerals.^[28]

The Tolkien scholar Deidre A. Dawson writes thatElizabeth Whittingham's 2008 studyThe Evolution of Tolkien's Mythology reveals one especially strong pattern in the 12-volumeThe History of Middle-earth: Tolkien's "steady movement" from pagan archetypes towards aBible-inspired mythology. In particular, Whittingham's chapter on "Death and immortality among Elves and Men"^[29] compares theattitude to death of Tolkien's writings with those of classical and Norse myth and with Judeo-Christian theology, and studies Tolkien's reflections on where the soul goes after death. Whittingham analyses the "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" (published inMorgoth's Ring) as a sometimes hopeful, sometimes despairing look at whether death was given to mortals as a gift or as a punishment in consequence of a fall from grace, and whether Eru has abandoned both Men and Elves to their fate, or will bring about the healing of Arda."^[30]

Early in his career, Tolkien adopted the idea that Elves would bereincarnated if killed in battle. He applied the concept to just one Elf,Glorfindel, who was killed in theFall of Gondolin in theFirst Age. Glorfindel is seen again as an Elf-Lord inThe Lord of the Rings, lending Frodo his horse to escape the Nazgûl and reach the safety of Rivendell.^{[30][T 18]} Dawson writes that since Christian theology does not endorse reincarnation, Tolkien may have chosen to retain the concept to enable Elves to be both immortal and able to die in battle.^[30]

Anna Milon writes that Tolkien introduces two concepts in one of his letters, "serial longevity" and "hoarding memory" as "escapes" from both death and immortality.^{[T 19]} In her view, this means that immortality, normally defined as "exemption from death", is not death's opposite, as both can be "escape[d]". She comments that the two concepts represent Tolkien's attempts to avoid speaking of reincarnation, again because it was seen as unorthodox within Catholicism. Milon describes several states "between the living and the dead" produced by Tolkien's thinking about the boundaries of life and death, mortality and immortality.^[31]

Shippey notes that at the moment inThe Lord of the Rings when the WizardGandalf confronts the Lord of the Nazgûl at the gates of the city ofMinas Tirith, the Nazgûl calls himself "Death", supposing that his moment of victory had arrived. But instead there is aeucatastrophe, with the crowing of acockerel, reminiscent of the one that "crowed toSimon Peter just as he denied Christ the third time", and the arrival of the army of Rohan. Shippey writes that that Biblical event surely meant "that there was aResurrection, that from now on Simon's despair and fear of death would be overcome."^[32]

This is not the only hint of resurrection in the work. Several commentators have seen Gandalf's passage through theMines of Moria, dying to save his companions and returning as "Gandalf the White", as a symbol of the resurrection of Christ.^{[33][34][35][36]}

In another example, Frodo carries a burden of evil on behalf of the whole world, just asJesus carried his cross for thesins of mankind.^[37] Frodo walks his "Via Dolorosa" toMount Doom, just like Jesus who made his way toGolgotha.^[38] As Frodo approaches the Cracks of Doom, the Ring becomes a crushing weight, just as the cross was for Jesus.Sam Gamgee, Frodo's servant, who carries Frodo up to Mount Doom, parallelsSimon of Cyrene, who helps Jesus by carrying his cross.^[39] When Frodo accomplishes his mission, like Christ, he says "it is done".^[40] Just as Christ ascends toheaven, Frodo's life in Middle-earth comes to an end when he takes ship to theUndying Lands.^[37]

• Burns, Marjorie (2014)."Night-wolves, Half-trolls and the Dead Who Won't Stay Down". In Houghton, John Wm.;Croft, Janet Brennan; Martsch, N. (eds.).Tolkien in the New Century: Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey.McFarland. pp. 182–196.ISBN 978-1-4766-1486-1. Retrieved28 November 2021.
• Carpenter, Humphrey (1977).J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography. New York:Ballantine Books.ISBN 978-0-04-928037-3.
• Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (2023) [1981].The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition. New York:HarperCollins.ISBN 978-0-35-865298-4.
• Chance, Jane (2003).Tolkien the Medievalist.Routledge.ISBN 978-0-415-47348-4.OCLC 53706034.
• Flieger, Verlyn (2005).Interrupted Music: The Making of Tolkien's Mythology.Kent State University Press.ISBN 978-0-87338-824-5.
• Helen, Daniel, ed. (2017).Death and Immortality in Middle-Earth: Proceedings ofthe Tolkien Society Seminar 2016. Luna Press.ISBN 978-1-911143-33-8.
• Shippey, Tom (2001).J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. HarperCollins.ISBN 978-0261-10401-3.
• Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982].The Road to Middle-Earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology (Third ed.).HarperCollins.ISBN 978-0-261-10275-0.
• Solopova, Elizabeth (2009).Languages, Myths and History: An Introduction to the Linguistic and Literary Background of J. R. R. Tolkien's Fiction. New York City:North Landing Books.ISBN 978-0-9816607-1-4.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1937).Douglas A. Anderson (ed.).The Annotated Hobbit. Boston:Houghton Mifflin (published 2002).ISBN 978-0-618-13470-0.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954a).The Fellowship of the Ring.The Lord of the Rings. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.OCLC 9552942.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954).The Two Towers.The Lord of the Rings. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.OCLC 1042159111.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1955).The Return of the King.The Lord of the Rings. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.OCLC 519647821.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1964).J. R. R. Tolkien: Tree and Leaf. London:HarperCollins.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1977).Christopher Tolkien (ed.).The Silmarillion. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.ISBN 978-0-395-25730-2.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1993).Christopher Tolkien (ed.).Morgoth's Ring. Boston:Houghton Mifflin.ISBN 0-395-68092-1.

• Crossley, Robert (1985)."A Long Day's Dying: The Elves of J.R.R. Tolkien and Sylvia Townsend Warner". In Yoke, Carl B.; Hassler, Donald M. (eds.).Death and the Serpent: Immortality in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Greenwood Press. pp. 57–70.ISBN 978-0-313-23279-4.OCLC 10605246.

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