The undying lands: Elven heaven or not?

[Scatha]

The undying lands, where nearly all the elves went at the end of the third era, is this as close as one can get to an elven heaven?

According Tolkien, this is the place where only elves (and a couple of exceptions) are allowed to go, when weary from life on middle earth. Here they can spend the rest of their days under the watchful eyes of the valar.

Would this be heaven for the elves?

[Gandalf The Grey]

Insofar as the Blessed Realm entails the everlasting perfect preservation of the ideal, I would daresay yes. :)

From Tolkien's Letter #131:

The chief power (of all the rings alike) was the prevention or slowing of decay (i.e. `change' viewed as a regrettable thing), the preservation of what is desired or loved, or its semblance -this is more or less an Elvish motive.

I'd venture that the carving out of hidden kingdoms in Middle Earth with what aid could be had from the Three Rings shows a longing for what was incomplete and/or insufficient in the Bent World, yet attainable beyond.

* bows for the Guildmembers' suffering my presence here as rather an outsider *

Gandalf the Grey

[Nóm]

I think the answer depends upon what is ment by heaven.

If the word is used pretty much synonymously with paradise, then yes it probably is. Aman was Arda Unmarred, which the elves were originally designed to live in... and only there can they live more according to their right nature. As Gandalf The Grey as shown, the matter of preservation is one of the reasons for this. The rate of aging in Aman was the same as that slow aging of the elves. Just the same I think that "home" might be an even better word than heaven or paradise. Yet, I'm a big believer that the elves should not have been taken to Aman when they were... and should have stayed in Middle-earth enriching it while they could.

One might also say that Aman was heaven in the sense that after elves died many accepted the summons to Mandos, which was in Aman, and that after they are released from his Halls they stay in Aman rather than returning to Middle-earth. So heaven as a place to go after death, might fit a little. Even so they were very much alive after leaving Mandos and so were not really in any kind of after-life at all... just a return to life.

[Maeglin]

Just out of curiosity now that I read Nom's post.....did any of the Elves refuse the summons of Mandos? And if so, what happens to them? I'm not sure if this was mentioned in the Sil anywhere, and if it is.....well its been a long time since I read it so I wouldn't remember.

[Ancalagon]

I do not beleive Valinor to equate to Elvish heaven in the sense that its existence is finite. In my estimation it would equal 'Eden' if parallels are to be drawn; a place set aside by the creator where Elves live out their last days in utopian existence. However, it must be considered that this Utopia lasts only as long a Arda itself. Tolkien must have toyed with the irony of this, that Arda should be inherited by the Seconborn, who in turn held in their hands the doom of Arda...when Men finally destroy Arda, so also do Elves and all those Maiar whom reside with them, complete their cycle. I wonder how Men will do this? Will they poison Arda so her veins no longer sustain life or will we implode with atomic energy provided by very minerals we have mined from her? The question then must always be on the minds of the Firstborn; how long have we left?

When I considered this question I thought of it rather as a temporary residence for the immortal, who like Men will eventually find themselves by the side of their creator. Meanwhile, they simply sit and wait in Valinor to end. The Elvish equal of an 'Elephants graveyard!'

[Ancalagon]

Regarding the summons: The fëa is single, and in the last impregnable. It cannot be brought to Mandos. It is summoned; and the summons proceeds from just authority, and is imperative; yet it may be refused. Among those who refused the summons (or rather invitation) of the Valar to Aman in the first years of the Elves, refusal of the summons to Mandos and the Halls of Waiting is, the Eldar say, frequent. It was less frequent, however, in ancient days, while Morgoth was in Arda, or his servant Sauron after him; for then the fëa unbodied would flee in terrror of the Shadow to any refuge - unless it were already committed to the Darkness and passed then into its dominion. In like manner even of the Eldar some who had become corrupted refused the summons, and then had little power to resist the counter-summons of Morgoth.
But it would seem that in these after-days more and more of the Elves, be they of the Eldalië in origin or be they of other kinds, who linger in Middle-earth now refuse the summons of Mandos and wander houseless in the world, unwilling to leave it and unable to inhabit it, haunting trees or springs or hidden places that once they knew. Not all of these are kindly or unstained by the Shadow. Indeed the refusal of the summons is in itself a sign of taint.
It is therefore a foolish and perilous thing, besides being a wrong deed forbidden justly by the appointed Rulers of Arda, if the Living seek to commune with the Unbodied, though the houseless may desire it, especially the most unworthy among them. For the Unbodied, wandering in the world, are those who at the least have refused the door of life and remain in regret and self-pity. Some are fillled with bitterness, grievance, and envy. Some were enslaved by the Dark Lord and do his work still, though he himself is gone. They will not speak truth or wisdom. To call on them is folly. To attempt to master them and to make them servants of one own's will is wickedness. Such practices are of Morgoth; and the necromancers are of the host of Sauron his servant.
Some say that the houselsess desire bodies, though they are not willing to seek them lawfully by submission to the judgement of Mandos. The wicked among them will take bodies, if they can, unlawfully. The peril of communing with them is, therefore, not only the peril of being deluded by fantasies or lies: there is peril also of destruction. For one of the hungry Houseless, if it is admitted to the friendship of the Living, may seek to eject the fëa from its body; and in the contest for mastery the body may be gravely injured, even if it be not wrested from its rightful habitant. Or the Houseless may plead for shelter, and if it is admitted, then it will seek to enslave its host and use both his will and his body for its own purposes. It is said that Sauron did these things, and taught his followers how to achieve them. HoME v. 10, p.223-224.

I think this statement generally tackles the issues of refusal quite well.

[Scatha]

Thanks for the input, Anc. :)