Commentary on Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth

This is not presented as an argument of any cogency for Men in their present situation (or the one in which they believe themselves to be), though it may have some interest for Men who start with similar beliefs or assumptions to those held by the Elvish king Finrod. It is in fact simply part of the portrayal of the imaginary world of the Silmarillion, and an example of the kind of thing that enquiring minds on either side, the Elvish or the Human, must have said to one another after they became acquainted. We see here the attempt of a generous Elvish mind to fathom the relations of Elves and Men, and the part they were designed to play in what he would have called the Oienkarmë Eruo (The One's perpetual production), which might be rendered by 'God's management of the Drama'. 

There are certain things in this world that have to be accepted as 'facts': 

I: The existence of Elves: that is of a race of beings closely akin to Men, so closely indeed that they must be regarded as physically (or biologically) simply branches of the same race. 

A: The Elves appeared on Earth earlier, but not (mythologically or geologically) much earlier; 

B: they were 'immortal', and did not 'die' except by accident. Men, when they appeared on the scene (that is, when they met the Elves), were, however, much as they now are: they 'died', even if they escaped all accidents, at about the age of 70 to 80.  

II: The existence of the Valar: that is of certain angelic Beings (created, but at least as powerful as the 'gods' of human mythologies), the chief of whom still resided in an actual physical part of the Earth. They were the agents and vice-regents of Eru (God). They had been for nameless ages engaged in a demiurgic labour completing to the design of Eru the structure of the Universe (Eä); but were now concentrated on Earth for the principal Drama of Creation: the war of the Eruhín (The Children of God), Elves and Men, against Melkor. Melkor, originally the most powerful of the Valar, had become a rebel, against his brethren and against Eru, and was the prime Spirit of Evil. 

With regard to King Finrod, it must be understood that he also starts with certain basic beliefs, which he would have said were derived from one or more of these sources: his created nature; angelic instruction; thought; and experience. 

1. There exists Eru (The One); that is, One God Creator, who made (or more strictly designed) the World, but is not Himself the World. This world, or Universe, Finrod calls Eä, an Elvish word that means 'It is', or 'Let It Be'.  

2. There are on Earth 'incarnate' creatures, Elves and Men: these are made of a union of hröa and fëa (roughly but not exactly equivalent to 'body' and 'soul'). This, he would say, was a known fact concerning Elvish nature, and could therefore be deduced for human nature from the close kinship of Elves and Men. 

3. Hröa and fëa he would say are wholly distinct in kind, and not on the 'same plane of derivation from Eru', (See Note 1) but were designed each for the other, to abide in perpetual harmony. The fëa is indestructible, a unique identity which cannot be disintegrated or absorbed into any other identity. The hröa, however, can be destroyed and dissolved: that is a fact of experience. (In such a case he would describe the fëa as 'exiled' or 'houseless'.) 

4. The separation of fëa and hröa is 'unnatural', and proceeds not from the original design, but from the 'Marring of Arda' which is due to the operations of Melkor. 

5. Elvish 'immortality' is bounded within a part of Time (which Finrod would call the History of Arda), and is therefore strictly to be called rather 'serial longevity', the utmost limit of which is the length of the existence of Arda. (See Note 2) A corollary of this is that the Elvish fëa is also limited to the Time of Arda, or at least held within it and unable to leave it, while it lasts. 

6. From this it would follow in thought, if it were not a fact of Elvish experience, that a 'houseless' Elvish fëa must have the power or opportunity to return to incarnate life, if it has the desire or will to do so. (Actually the Elves discovered that their fëar had not this power in themselves, but that the opportunity and means were provided by the Valar, by the special permission of Eru for the amendment of the unnatural state of divorce. It was not lawful for the Valar to force a fëa to return; but they could impose conditions, and judge whether return should be permitted at all, and if so, in what way or after how long.) (See Note 3)

7. Since Men die, without accident, and whether they will to do so or not, their fëar must have a different relation to Time. The Elves believed, though they had no certain information, that the fëar of Men, if disembodied, left Time (sooner or later), and never returned. (See Note 4)

The Elves observed that all Men died (a fact confirmed by Men). They therefore deduced that this was 'natural' to Men (that is, it was by the design of Eru), and supposed that the brevity of human life was due to this character of the human fëa: that it was not designed to stay long in Arda. Whereas their own fëar, being designed to remain in Arda to its end, imposed long endurance on their bodies; for they were (as a fact of experience) in far greater control of them. (See Note 5)

Beyond the 'End of Arda' Elvish thought could not penetrate, and they were without any specific instruction. (See Note 6) It seemed clear to them that their hröar must then end, and therefore any kind of re-incarnation would be impossible. (See Note 7) All the Elves would then 'die' at the End of Arda. What this would mean they did not know. They said therefore that Men had a shadow behind them, but the Elves had a shadow before them. 

Their dilemma was this: the thought of existence as fëar only was revolting to them, and they found it hard to believe that it was natural or designed for them, since they were essentially 'dwellers in Arda', and by nature wholly in love with Arda. The alternative: that their fëar would also cease to exist at 'the End', seemed even more intolerable. Both absolute annihilation, and cessation of conscious identity, were wholly repugnant to thought and desire. (See Note 8)

Some argued that, although integral and unique (as Eru from whom they directly proceeded), each fëa, being created, was finite, and might therefore be also of finite duration. It was not destructible within its appointed term, but when that was reached it ceased to be; or ceased to have any more experience, and 'resided only in the Past'.  

But the Elves saw that this did not provide any escape. For, even if an Elvish fëa was able 'consciously' to dwell in or contemplate the Past this would be a condition wholly unsatisfying to Its desire. (See Note 8) The Elves had (as they said themselves) a 'great talent' for memory, but this tended to regret rather than to joy. Also, however long the History of the Elves might become before it ended, It would be an object of too limited range. To be perpetually 'imprisoned in a tale' (as they said), even if it was a very great tale ending triumphantly, would become a torment. For greater than the talent of memory was the Elvish talent for making, and for discovery. The Elvish fëa was above all designed to make things in co-operation with its hröa.  

Therefore in the last resort the Elves were obliged to rest on 'naked estel' (as they said): the trust in Eru, that whatever He designed beyond the End would be recognized by each fëa as wholly satisfying (at the least). Probably it would contain Joys unforeseeable. But they remained in the belief that it would remain in intelligible relation with their present nature and desires, proceed from them, and include them.  

For these reasons the Elves were less sympathetic than Men expected to the lack of hope (or estel) in Men faced by death. Men were, of course, in general entirely ignorant of the 'Shadow Ahead' which conditioned Elvish thought and feeling, and simply envied Elvish 'immortality'. But the Elves were on their part generally ignorant of the persistent tradition among Men that Men were also by nature immortal. 

As is seen in the Athrabeth, Finrod is deeply moved and amazed to discover this tradition. He uncovers a concomitant tradition that the change in the condition of Men from their original design was due to a primeval disaster, about which human lore is unclear, or Andreth is at least unwilling to say much. (See Note 9) He remains, nonetheless, in the opinion that the condition of Men before the disaster (or as we might say, the condition of unfallen Man) cannot have been the same as that of the Elves. That is, their 'immortality' cannot have been the longevity within Arda of the Elves; otherwise they would have been simply Elves, and their separate introduction later into the Drama by Eru would have no function. He thinks that the notion of Men that, unchanged, they would not have died (in the sense of leaving Arda) is due to human misrepresentation of their own tradition, and possibly to envious comparison of themselves to the Elves. For one thing, he does not think this fits, as we might say, 'the observable peculiarities of human psychology', as compared with Elvish feelings towards the visible world.  

He therefore guesses that it is the fear of death that is the result of the disaster. It is feared because it now is combined with severance of hröa and fëa. But the fëar of Men must have been designed to leave Arda willingly or indeed by desire — maybe after a longer time than the present average human life, but still in a time very short compared with Elvish lives. Then basing his argument on the axiom that severance of hröa and fëa is unnatural and contrary to design, he comes (or if you like jumps) to the conclusion that the fëa of unfallen Man would have taken with it its hröa into the new mode of existence (free from Time). In other words, that 'assumption' was the natural end of each human life, though as far as we know it has been the end of the only 'unfallen' member of Mankind} He then has a vision of Men as the agents of the 'unmarring' of Arda, not merely undoing the marring or evil wrought by Melkor, but by producing a third thing, 'Arda Re-made' — for Eru never merely undoes the past, but brings into being something new, richer than the 'first design'. In Arda Re-made Elves and Men will each separately find joy and content, and an interplay of friendship, a bond of which will be the Past.  

Andreth says that in that case the disaster to Men was appalling; for this re-making (if indeed it was the proper function of Men) cannot now be achieved. Finrod evidently remains in the hope that it will be achieved, though he does not say how that could be. He now sees, however, that the power of Melkor was greater than had been understood (even by the Elves, who had actually seen him in incarnate form): if he had been able to change Men, and so destroy the plan.

More strictly speaking, he would say that Melkor had not 'changed' Men, but 'seduced' them (to allegiance to himself) very early in their history, so that Eru had changed their 'fate'. For Melkor could seduce individual minds and wills, but he could not make this heritable, or alter (contrary to the will and design of Eru) the relation of a whole people to Time and Arda. But the power of Melkor over material things was plainly vast. The whole of Arda (and indeed probably many other parts of Eä) had been marred-by him. Melkor was not just a local Evil on Earth, nor a Guardian Angel of Earth who had gone wrong: he was the Spirit of Evil, arising even before the making of Eä. His attempt to dominate the structure of Eä, and of Arda in particular, and alter the designs of Eru (which governed all the operations of the faithful Valar), had introduced evil, or a tendency to aberration from the design, into all the physical matter of Arda. It was for this reason, no doubt, that he had been totally successful with Men, but only partially so with Elves (who remained as a people 'unfallen'). His power was wielded over matter, and through it. (See Note 10) But by nature the fëar of Men were in much less strong control of their hröar than was the case with the Elves. Individual Elves might be seduced to a kind of minor 'Melkorism': desiring to be their own masters in Arda, and to have things their own way, leading in extreme cases to rebellion against the tutelage of the Valar; but not one had ever entered the service or allegiance of Melkor himself, nor ever denied the existence and absolute supremacy of Eru. Some dreadful things of this sort, Finrod guesses, Men must have done, as a whole; but Andreth does not reveal what were Men's traditions on this point. (See Note 9)

Finrod, however, sees now that, as things were, no created thing or being in Arda, or in all Eä, was powerful enough to counteract or heal Evil: that is to subdue Melkor (in his present person, reduced though that was) and the Evil that he had dissipated and sent out from himself into the very structure of the world. 

Only Eru himself could do this. Therefore, since it was unthinkable that Eru would abandon the world to the ultimate triumph and domination of Melkor (which could mean its ruin and reduction to chaos), Eru Himself must at some time come to oppose Melkor. But Eru could not enter wholly into the world and its history, which is, however great, only a finite Drama. He must as Author always remain 'outside' the Drama, even though that Drama depends on His design and His will for its beginning and continuance, in every detail and moment. Finrod therefore thinks that He will, when He comes have to be both 'outside' and inside and so he glimpses the possibility of complexity or of distinctions in the nature of Eru which nonetheless leaves Him 'The One'. (See Note 11) Since Finrod had already guessed that the redemptive function was originally, specially assigned to Men, he probably proceeded to the expectation that 'the coming of Eru', if it took place, would be specially and primarily concerned with Men: that is to an imaginative guess or vision that Eru would come incarnated in human form. This, however, does not appear in the Athrabeth.

The argument is not, of course, presented in the Athrabeth in these terms, or in this order, or so precisely. The Athrabeth is a conversation, in which many assumptions and steps of thought have to be supplied by the reader. Actually, though it deals with such things as death and the relations of Elves and Men to Time and Arda, and to one another, its real purpose is dramatic: to exhibit the generosity of Finrod's mind, his love and pity for Andreth, and the tragic situations that must arise in the meeting of Elves and Men (in the ages of the youth of the Elves). For as eventually becomes plain, Andreth had in youth fallen in love with Ægnor, Finrod's brother; and though she knew that he returned her love (or could have done so if he had deigned to), he had not declared it, but had left her — and she believed that she was rejected as too lowly for an Elf. Finrod (though she was not aware of this) knew about this situation. For this reason he understood and did not take offence at the bitterness with which she spoke of the Elves, and even of the Valar. He succeeded in the end in making her understand that she was not rejected out of scorn or Elvish lordliness; but that the departure of Ægnor was for motives of 'wisdom', and cost Ægnor great pain: he was an equal victim of the tragedy.  

In the event Ægnor perished soon after this conversation when Melkor broke the Siege of Angband in the ruinous Battle of Sudden Flame, and the destruction of the Elvish realms in Beleriand was begun. Finrod took refuge in the great southern stronghold of Nargothrond; but not long after sacrificed his life to save Beren One-hand. (It is probable, though nowhere stated, that Andreth herself perished at this time, for all the northern realm where Finrod and his brothers, and the People of Bëor, dwelt was devastated and conquered by Melkor. But she would by then be a very old woman.

Finrod thus was slain before the two mariages of Elves and Men had taken place, though without his aid the marriage of Beren and Lúthien would not have come to pass. The marriage of Beren certainly fulfilled his prediction that such marriages would only be for some high purpose of Doom, and that the least cruel fate would be that death should soon end them.