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alexsigg — Mandos - The Harvest Moon
#mandos #namomandos #silmarillion
Published: 2016-07-26 17:35:34 +0000 UTC; Views: 1404; Favourites: 31; Downloads: 0
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He looks creepy, more like Melkor/Morgoth to me. I know Namo-Mandos was the Judge of the Dead but seems fair to me. Creature on the picture looks evil to me.
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Could be a spirit of an orc? Some think that orcs go to Mandos too.
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Interesting idea.. I heard theories of orcs it fits much better than souls of elves. Or maybe he is scary for souls of evil man and elves (=kinslayers)?
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Could be that one is a kinslayer. It's Halls of Mandos though - plural - that might mean that there's a hall for each kinds of souls.
I know some details about those places though. None of the spirits are forced to come there after death. It's rather an invitation or summons to which most elves at least choose to answer to. Those that don't come to Námo end up as ghost like form for some reason, either sorrow or taint. That's why it's warned that communicating with them might not be a good idea.
So I guess if orcs or kinslayers are willing to go and face Námo who is very strict by nature, that probably means that they do regret something and want it settled. Why else would they?
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Very interesting perspective. Have you even seen the movie "What dreams may come"?. The basic concept was that all soul has its own heaven or hell as huge as thr whole universe. Personally I got the same view of the Halls of Mandos.
The choice of facing the judgment of Namo or to remain lonely ghost is tough. For me, some was harsh but fair judge. Sons of Feanor had a good reasons to be afraid of Valar. I am not sure if elves could choose whether to remain as the ghost or to land in the Halls of Mandos. I might be wrong, but I thought after death they were supposed to remain in the Halls to the end of the world unless released as Glorfindel or Finrod. At least this was the version from the Silmarilion as far as I am concerned. I don't know if this remained true for the HoME.
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In HoME there's a concept of their rebirth. At first Tolkien thought that they could be reborn literally, and then memories could return to them little by little, but then it was changed to re-embodiment, where their bodies would be rebuilt exactly as they were with memories intact. Their souls are potent enough to have a memory, like an immaterial DNA for building their material DNA, if you catch my meaning.
Also, if the body was intact enough, the spirit could be returned to it too with minor fixes. That's what was done with Míriel, but she didn't find that her life was in Tirion or Valinor anymore, and so she willingly returned to Vairë in Mandos with her body. She became Vairë's handmaiden there (Vairë held her in great esteem and stood up for her), being renamed Fíriel and she never returned to the company of the living. Also, because Finwë had two wives, the Valar had a long debate what should be done with him. He chose to remain in Mandos to avoid causing too much complications to his family. So Finwë, Míriel and Fëanor ended up having a strange kind of family reunion there.
I don't think too many of the Elves were denied to be re-embodied, unless their sins were great, such as Fëanor's. In HoME Valar are discussing over the matter, and Eru personally said that the rebirth should happen, but "how" was rather the actual question. As far as I know, Finrod was the first to be re-embodied, and quite soon after he arrived, but then again he was a very pure soul, like a martyr. I guess whether it's allowed or denied depends a lot on their life deeds.
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As I haven't read HoMe its always great for me to learn more. Finwe was problematic, but if consider the rebirth as common situation then why not. Feanor on the other hand.. he was muss murderer after all. If we consider Aman as the place for bliss but also justice he and all his sons need to pay for killing innocent elves, at least from my perspective. Finwe was for me poor king and father but this is not the crime to be blinded by love towards own child. Mistake definitely but not the crime.
The idea of second life is problematic I agree. For me, this makes a perfect sense that re-embodied elves become kind of tabula rasa with memories erased and true chance to start the new life.
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I'm going to play devil's advocate here.
Imagine that the one person you love above all else ... the one you look up to, respect, and worship ... is murdered in cold blood and no one cares.
Because this is pretty much what happened to Feanaro. His father was everything to him, and Melkor slew him. The Valar all knew Melkor was a problem, and they refused to do anything about him, and even after he murdered Finwe and stole the Silmarils they *still* refused to lift a hand. The Silmarillion sort of touches on it, but HoME goes into better detail about this whole screwed up situation.
Wouldn't that be enough to push even the sanest person over the edge? Hell, it would me (if I had any sort of relationship with my father). Feanaro was clearly not in his right mind when he became Kinslayer. So I blame the Valar for not wanting to do anything about Melkor.
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I agree that Feanor had right to be angry with Valar as they failed to notice threat Melkor was. Nevertheless, Teleri did no harm to him but refused to give their ships, products of their hands he had no right for to support his revenge. He was upset and clearly almost insane when swore Oath but even if I can feel compassion here murdering innocent is a crime. To kill soldier of enemy's army during the war is a duty towards compatriots. Killing innocent people for revenge is murder. Feanor committed once kinslaying and made his sons to commit two more. In all cases they killed innocent elves only because they opposed their ideas.
To make matters worse, Feanor behaved terribly towards his step mother and brothers long before even Melkor was unchained. He loved his father and definitely grieved him, but this was a selfish love. He wanted his father to be his and his only and didn't want father to find happiness with Indis and their kids. Definitely, this was a tough situation. Definitely there was more than one side to blame. Feanor wanted father to be his and his only, whereas Finwe let Feanor did whatever he wanted. Feanor was a genius and sometimes there is a thin border between greatness and insanity.
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collecting souls, yep, it's scary in its own way
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