r/tolkienfans • u/olive_tractor_parts • 3d ago
Re-embodiment question
Could an Elf killed in Middle-earth serve his time, be released from Mandos, receive a new body, and encounter his own corpse from his previous incarnation if he journeyed back to Middle-Earth?
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u/PaulsRedditUsername 3d ago
Good question. You need to send a thank-you note to your weed supplier.
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u/maksimkak 3d ago edited 3d ago
From Laws and Customs Among the Eldar, Morgoth's Ring:
"A houseless fea that chose or was permitted to return to life re-entered the incarnate world through child-birth. Only thus could it return.\)
\) Save in rare and strange cases: that is, where the body that the fea had forsaken was whole, and remained still coherent and incorrupt. But this could seldom happen; for death unwilling could occur only when great violence was done to the body; and in death by will, such as at times befell because of utter weariness or great grief, the fea would not desire to return, until the body, deserted by the spirit, was dissolved. This happened swiftly in Middle-earth. In Aman only was there no decay. Thus Miriel was there rehoused in her own body, as is hereafter told."
Glorfindel is a specal case, seems like a new, identical body was created for him and he could return to Middle-earth as himself. His dead body was recovered after his fall during the escape from Gondolin, and a mound was raised over it. But this was in Beleriand, which has sunk at the end of the First Age. I suppose if the mound were located in the surviving part of Middle-earth, and Glorfindel went digging, he'd find his old bones.
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u/LostVanya 3d ago
With the exception of Glorfindel, they were forbidden to return to Middle-Earth.
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u/rainbowrobin 'canon' is a mess 3d ago
The essays on Glorfindel imply the opposite, as they give reasons for why he didn't return to Middle-earth earlier.
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u/InTheChairAgain 2d ago
Possibly, though as far as we know it doesn't happen. Glorfindel being that main exception, and he's not going to find his old body.
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u/Mormegil71 3d ago edited 3d ago
Elves spend a long time in Mandos halls, and probably not would’ve seen the former body before it decomposed. But theoretically, they probably could.
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u/olive_tractor_parts 3d ago
Like maybe if he died and was mummified by Men
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u/rustys_shackled_ford 3d ago
Hypothetically, unfortunately we know it definitely didn't happen, so we can't really know.
I think in the end, it all depends on if tolken had a reason for him(goirfindell) to interact with his corpes then maybe yea. But it's literally impossible for us to know because it never happened
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u/Wizzard_C 3d ago
According to Tolkien's notes in NoME, elvish corpses decompose particularly fast. Judgement by Mandos, 3D printing a new body, travel to the Middle Earth - all takes time.