I just finished up the Silmarillion and an idea that confused me was that the heirs of Earendil could choose their race, as when Arwen chooses to be mortal for Aragorn, but the Numenorean king, descended from Elros, attempts to sail to Aman to gain immortality, but doesn't that imply that the heirs of Elros didn't have the same choice?
40993
Earendil and Elwing were given the choice of kindreds after their journey to Valinor, This choice was extended to their sons (specifically sons, not daughters or grandchildren)  Elrond chose the race of the Eldar and his brother Elros chose to be counted amongst the Edain. Thus far Manwë's proclamation has been fulfilled.  There are some inconsistencies here:   Arwen was given the choice, but Elladan and Elrohir remained as Eldar in Imladris Tar-Vardamir was not given the choice The offspring of Imrazor and Mithrelas in Dol Amroth dont seem to have been given a choice   I can think of only one explanation, that the Mannish blood is dominant over the blood of the Eldar, thus, As Vardamir was the offspring of two mortals he did not fall under Manwë's proclamation despite being the son of a half elven.  However this does not seem to explain the other inconsistencies, Is it possible that Elladan and Elrohir and also the princes of Dol Amroth weren't considered important enough by Manwë or Eru to give them the choice.  Also as a side note Tolkien states there were only three unions between man and elf, but this seems to ignore Turin/Finduilas and Imrazor/Mithrelas  My question is, Why was Arwen given the choice and not the sons of Elros?
87692
I understand that the Istari - the only other Maiar besides the Balrog to come into close proximity to the Ring - are constrained within a mortal body and subject to its mortal weaknesses, which renders them vulnerable to the Ring's domination and corruption. However, what is to stop Gandalf from returning to his true form, picking up the Ring, and just walking all the way to Mount Doom? Sauron is too weak at the time; he would have been able to do nothing but watch helplessly and pray his mortal armies can defeat a Ring-bearing Gandalf.  Is Gandalf's decision to abide by the Valar's will to the end the only thing holding him back from this particular option? Are there enchantments in place to disable his ability to revert to Maia form, such that the option was never there to begin with? Or would he, even in Maia form and free of mortal weaknesses, still be vulnerable to domination and corruption by the Ring?  The One Ring is forged with the essence of Sauron to dominate and rule the minds of lesser beings. However, Sauron is only a Maia - albeit the highest-ranking in Morgoth's following. Fellow Maiar would be his equal (at least in rank), while the Valar are certainly superior in power to him. If an Ainu becomes a Ringbearer, will he/she eventually fall to Sauron's will too, or at least succumb to the corruption of the Ring's dark power?
109427
I never made it through Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien, but it may have the answer. We know there were good men and bad men in Middle-earth and there were good Wizards and bad Wizards there too...  Did Tolkien ever provide a example of a good Orc in any of his writings?
55486
On the last Hobbit movie, after the Battle of the Five Armies, Legolas tells Thranduil that he won't be coming home. The latter tells him to go to find the infamous son of Arathorn, that goes by the name of Strider.  But, the Battle of the Five Armies was fought on T.A. 2941 and Aragorn was only born on T.A. 2931.  Aragorn did not leave Rivendell until 20 years old.   How could Aragorn be such an infamous rogue in the age of only ten and still in Rivendell??  Sources: ,  and .
64237
Why didn't Gandalf use his eagles to fly over Mount Doom and drop the ring? I know he feared what he would do if the ring overpowered him, so why not just give Frodo an eagle? And, if there would be too much risk in flying the ring to Mordor, couldn't the eagles fly them part of the way?  Why risk it with such a long walk; far less risky to fly over most of the journey.
102980
In Middle-earth, Elves were born as Elves, Hobbits as Hobbits, and so on. Were the Wizards born as Wizards, or were they young men that somehow evolved as they matured into Wizards?
52984
I know Aragorn is descended from Elros the half-Elf, and from what I've been able to find, there are somewhere between 64 and 99 generations separating Elros from Aragorn.  I can't do the math, I don't know how many generations actually separate them, and I don't know if Aragorn had any other Elves in his family tree.    So how much Elven blood flows through Aragorn's veins?  What percentage of his total DNA comes from Elves?
113799
In my D&amp;D 5e campaign one of the PCs who's a wood elf started dating a dark elf, and as a result she got pregnant and she is about to give birth. One of the other players had their PC die and he is considering playing as the child of the couple.  My question is, which race is the child going to be?
36229
Why were the people of Rhun and Harad allied with Sauron?  Did they join him out of fear, or did Sauron say he would give them something if they joined him?  I know the men of Dunland were angry at Rohan; did Rhun and Harad have something against Gondor?
66111
Please bear with me as I've never read any of the LOTR books or the Hobbit, only seen the movies so far...  But when the sunlight fades and the dwarves think they've lost their only chance to enter Erebor using the secret passage and the key, they turn around to head home. Why is it that the dwarves would be unable to enter Erebor the way they did years ago, using regular doors to get inside? I'm assuming that's how they entered Erebor years ago?
58026
In the Lord of the Rings I recall some mention of when Cirdan gives Narya to Gandalf when the Istari arrive in Middle Earth. I think it is in the appendices but I cannot recall exactly, but I remember something about him suspecting Gandalf's origins and giving him the ring to aid in the fight against Sauron.  Throughout the novel, we learn that Saruman is more powerful than Gandalf and is his superior in some way. I recall somewhere in the novel Gandalf himself confirms this when he describes Saruman as the head of his order (here I assume that when he refers to "his order" he means the Istari - please correct me if this is wrong).  This being the case, I wonder if Tolkien ever discusses in interviews or other works the reasons that Cirdan chose Gandalf over Saruman as the person to pass Narya onto. It would seem to me that without the knowledge of the events to come that Saruman would be the more natural choice if Cirdan was intent on passing on Narya to someone else.
44270
Among all the rings of power, the 3 rings possessed by Elves are special in that they (unlike Men's and Dwarves' and The one) were made by Elves and not Sauron.  Why?  As in,   Were they made before Sauron conceived of the idea of making the Rings and controlling them with the One? Were they made before Sauron knew HOW to make Rings of power, by Elves on his request so that he could learn the process? Were they made because Elves didn't trust him and preferred to roll their own modules instead of downloading from CPAN? Other?   Canon supported answers only, please.
69773
Who is the Lord, as referred to in the title? Frodo? Sauron? Someone else? Or is it more of an abstract title, not referring to a single person, like "He who wields the One Ring"?
103040
During my recent re-reading of The Two Towers I was struck again by a question that has bothered me since I was a youngling: What on earth is up with the Entwives?  Treebeard says they went away in the distant past and just... got lost?  Did Tolkien ever make mention of them again, or is this one of those unsolved mysteries of Middle Earth?
50849
As you know, this is the apocolyptic event which occurs at the end of LOTR. I've been searching non-stop but simply cannot find if any from say, War of the Ring will return. People like Gandalf, The Witch King. I know Sauron and Morgoth and the other Valar do, but It's more the likes of say Saruman. He specifically confuses me. Would they make use of Saruman? Would he be brought back? What confuses me about him though is, who would he serve? Morgoth or Manwe?
78285
This is coming from someone who has only briefly read the books a while ago and mostly remembers the film.  Elves are immortal. But they are depicted at different stages of aging. Do they just age up to a certain point and then stop? Or is the aging process just ridiculously slow?   Do they have a childhood? If so, do Elves reproduce similar to mortal men?
43131
If The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion took place in different ages than us, but on Earth, is there any suggestion in those works that some elements would or could have been immortal or invincible, and therefore lasted into our age (modern times)?   In works like History of Middle Earth did JRR ever hint at something that carried over into our times, beings or geographical features? Did he ever acknowledge a possible carry-over into modern day, or was it only the old ages he wrote about with no hint of the future (our present)?