>Martin wrote: >>I wrote: >>IIRC, that's not quite correct. Elvish immortality wasn't due >>specifically to reincarnation. They could reincarnate and return if they were killed--Glorfindel from THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING is an example of this--but if they didn't die by violence, they didn't die. Elves were not subject to natural aging or disease. > Glorfindel in LOTR isn't the same Glorfindel as the one in the > Silmarillion. > AFAIK there's no reincarnation at all in Middle Earth. According to Tolkien's letters and the Histories of Middle Earth, he is. The Elves can certainly reincarnate, though I don't know if that's the proper term--rebody might be better--according to HoME, as one of Feanor's punishments for his rebellion is that he is only Elf who is not allowed to do this, and must remain in the Halls of Mandos until the end of the world. Humans, on the other hand, cannot reincarnate or rebody, or any of that stuff, because they move beyond the Circles of the World at their death. -Dennis