Letter 325 (J.R.R. Tolkien) to Roger Lancelyn Green 1971 - concerning those who leave Middle-Earth

 from pages 410-11 of THE LETTERS OF J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by H. Carter) Houghton Mifflin

17 July 1971

The 'immortals' who were permitted to leave

Middle-Earth and seek Aman - the undying lands of

Valinor and Eressea, an island assigned to the

Eldar - set sail in ships specially made and hallowed

for this voyage, and sterred due West towards the 

ancient site of these lands.  They only set out

after sundown; but if any keen-eyed observer

from that shore had watched one of these ships

he might have seen that it never became

hull-down but dwindled only by distance until

it vanished in the twilight: it followed the

straight road to the true West and not the

bent road of the earth's surface.  As it vanished

it left the physical world.  There was no return.

The Elves who took this road and those few

mortals who by special grace went with them,

had abandoned the History of the world

and could play no further part in it.

The angelic immortals (incarnate only

at their own will), the Valar or regents under God,

and others of the same order but less power

and majesty (such as Gandalf) needed no

transport, unless they for a time remained

incarnate, and they could, if allowed or commanded,

return.

As for Frodo or other mortals, they could

only dwell in Aman for a limited time - whether

brief or long.  The Valar had neither the power 

nor the right to confer immortality upon them.

Their sojourn was a 'purgatory', but one of peace

and healing and they would eventually pass away. . .