Hi, Cara! Thanks for your comments! I haven't had a chance to read your essay yet. I'm very pressed for time at the moment but I'll try to make time for it this weekend. If not, I'm on vacation soon, so should find time for it then. :)
I did not have access to all of the HoME when I wrote this, so I did miss a couple of things. I do have PoME now and have for some time but I've never had opportunity to look in there to see what it says and how it can be applied to this topic. At the time I wrote this, I was basing much of this off the conclusions of a few Tolkien professors/scholars that I know from around the web. Before they opened their big fat mouths, I was happily one of those people who believed that of course Frodo and Sam are reunited, because why not? Unfortunately, once I started doing my own research, everything I found pretty much confirmed what they'd said. (Of course, there can always be arguments in favor of a reunion, and I support those arguments wholeheartedly! My philosophy: since Tolkien didn't outright say a reunion never happened, then it's always possible with enough tweaking of what we do know.)
I adore that Epilogue. It's my favorite part of the HoME. Of course, this is a much younger Sam here than the Sam who eventually sails, more than enough time to come to terms with the possibility that Frodo might not be there. In my fanon, the Epilogue takes place before Arwen tells him that Frodo might not be there.
The time debate is sketchy at best. In the appendixes, we learn that an Elven year = about 300 something regular years - but it's still the same amount of time that passes. They just count it differently. I try not to get into the a year in Aman = ?? years on Arda logic because there's just no way of determining if that's a correct assumption or not. And what does it mean that one year there is x years here when one of their years already equals 300-someting of our years? It gets confusing very quickly! I take the approach that even if their spring takes one of our years, it's still a year. It's still the same amount of wear and tear on the body. While the Elves certainly aren't bothered with time, that has nothing to do with mortals, and especially not mortals in Aman. I think Sam's being a little naive there, but I do love that he's trying to philosophize like an Elf might.
I do think that Frodo could have chosen to live as long as he wanted in Aman, if he were able to obtain that ability. Would he use that option? Tolkien equates this to a similar stretching of a mortal's natural lifespan as the effects of bearing the Ring. They cannot obtain more life, they can only stretch that life thinner than it was meant to be. After his experience with the Ring, Frodo wouldn't do that simply to wait for Sam, when he couldn't even be guaranteed that Sam would even come.
Oh boy, it's getting late and I could go on and on, but then I'd be useless at work tomorrow. ;) I look forward to reading your essay, and I'll try to hunt down that one you mentioned from PoME.
Re: delighted!
I did not have access to all of the HoME when I wrote this, so I did miss a couple of things. I do have PoME now and have for some time but I've never had opportunity to look in there to see what it says and how it can be applied to this topic. At the time I wrote this, I was basing much of this off the conclusions of a few Tolkien professors/scholars that I know from around the web. Before they opened their big fat mouths, I was happily one of those people who believed that of course Frodo and Sam are reunited, because why not? Unfortunately, once I started doing my own research, everything I found pretty much confirmed what they'd said. (Of course, there can always be arguments in favor of a reunion, and I support those arguments wholeheartedly! My philosophy: since Tolkien didn't outright say a reunion never happened, then it's always possible with enough tweaking of what we do know.)
I adore that Epilogue. It's my favorite part of the HoME. Of course, this is a much younger Sam here than the Sam who eventually sails, more than enough time to come to terms with the possibility that Frodo might not be there. In my fanon, the Epilogue takes place before Arwen tells him that Frodo might not be there.
The time debate is sketchy at best. In the appendixes, we learn that an Elven year = about 300 something regular years - but it's still the same amount of time that passes. They just count it differently. I try not to get into the a year in Aman = ?? years on Arda logic because there's just no way of determining if that's a correct assumption or not. And what does it mean that one year there is x years here when one of their years already equals 300-someting of our years? It gets confusing very quickly! I take the approach that even if their spring takes one of our years, it's still a year. It's still the same amount of wear and tear on the body. While the Elves certainly aren't bothered with time, that has nothing to do with mortals, and especially not mortals in Aman. I think Sam's being a little naive there, but I do love that he's trying to philosophize like an Elf might.
I do think that Frodo could have chosen to live as long as he wanted in Aman, if he were able to obtain that ability. Would he use that option? Tolkien equates this to a similar stretching of a mortal's natural lifespan as the effects of bearing the Ring. They cannot obtain more life, they can only stretch that life thinner than it was meant to be. After his experience with the Ring, Frodo wouldn't do that simply to wait for Sam, when he couldn't even be guaranteed that Sam would even come.
Oh boy, it's getting late and I could go on and on, but then I'd be useless at work tomorrow. ;) I look forward to reading your essay, and I'll try to hunt down that one you mentioned from PoME.