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The Gift of Ilúvatar refers to a gift of Ilúvatar to his Younger Children, which remains a source of some confusion for Tolkien enthusiasts. The concept includes both mortality, leading to death of old age, and free will. Below are two interpretations of the nature and extent of the Gift of Men as articulated by Tolkien.

Ilúvatar willed that the spirits or hearts of Men are not content within Arda, and find no rest therein, and therefore seek beyond the world and its confines. They are not bound to the Circles of the World, as the Elves and all other creatures of Arda are bound to the Earth. The spirits of Men truly leave the physical world, and do not return. Thus their fates are completely sundered from that of the Elves, who do not die until the world dies, unless slain by violence or ill chance, or by wearying at the last of the passage of centuries. But as the years grow long and Time wears, even the Valar will come to envy the Gift of Ilúvatar to the race of Men, that of liberation from the physical world, and the inevitability of loss and sorrows that must come with this existence within Arda.

Read More...

• The Silmarillion
• Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth
• The Nature of Middle-earth
• The Children of Húrin
• Beren and Lúthien
• The Fall of Gondolin
• The Hobbit
• The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
• The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings
• The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings
• The History of Middle-earth

Movies and television

• The Hobbit film trilogy
  • An Unexpected Journey
  • The Desolation of Smaug
  • The Battle of the Five Armies
• The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
  • The Fellowship of the Ring
  • The Two Towers
  • The Return of the King
• The War of the Rohirrim
• Tolkien (2019 film)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
• Looking for the Hobbit

External links
Other Lord of the Rings FANDOM sites

• LOTR Fanon - For The Lord of the Rings Fanon
• BFME Wiki - For The Battle for Middle-earth
• MERP Wiki - For Middle-earth Role Playing