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The Gift of Ilúvatar, also known as the Gift of Men[citation needed] or Death[1], refers to a gift of Eru 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 Ilúvatar as articulated by Tolkien.
Theological view[]
The Gift of Ilúvatar was an act of the supreme being Ilúvatar that set the race of Men apart from the Elves. While the race of Elves would know the most bliss and contentment and would conceive more beauty than any others of the Children of Ilúvatar, it was decreed by this gift that Men would be the prime instruments of Ilúvatar within Arda.
Ilúvatar willed that the spirits/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 last due to 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.
Moreover, it is also a consequence of this true spiritual freedom of not being bound to either the ordinance of fate, or the confines of the World that the spirits of Men would not dwell long in Arda, and after what seemed a very short time to the immortal Elves, men would age, grow weary, and die.
However, a key aspect of this gift of living within Arda, for a short time, was a virtue instilled into mankind to be motivated to create destinies for themselves amidst the powers and chances of the world. They were able to shape their lives beyond the Music of the Ainur, which rules the fates of all other things in Arda. Men had the choice to live in tune with the themes of the Music that created Arda, to be indifferent to it, or live in defiance of it.
Ilúvatar understood that Men would not always use this gift of freedom in harmony with the world, and would stray often. But he knew that in their time, men would continue to order their lives within Arda and by their "operation everything should be, in form and deed, completed, and the world fulfilled unto the last and the smallest" (The Silmarillion). Thus Men would become the implements by which Ilúvatar's plans for Arda will be realized in the ages to come.
The Gift of Ilúvatar, as originally bequeathed, was not something that Men were to fear. Though they loved their lives within Arda, they relinquished their spirits gracefully, almost gladly, and seemed to pass into a peaceful sleep, never to wake again in this life. But their souls go to a place unknown to the wisest of Elves or even the Valar.
However, it is written that when the Second Music of the Ainur is played, after the Dagor Dagorath, the spirits of Men shall be included in this even greater theme, when all of the players will know and understand their part and its relation to the whole, and be tributary to its beauty and glory.
Avoidance[]
The shadow of the first Dark Lord brought with it a perversion of the original intent of the Gift of Ilúvatar, and brought fear out of hope, tainting the Gift. Men began to fear and despise it, and began to view it not as liberation, but as damnation. It brought about in the race of Men a kind of self-loathing and a denial of the basic nature of their being as the children of the All-Father Eru Ilúvatar. Instead they viewed themselves as flawed in some way and sought to resist this very intrinsic nature of their creation. The result of such actions brought about much anguish on the race of Men through the centuries of the history of Arda.
At least four characters in The Lord of the Rings are known examples of the dangers of either deliberately or unintentionally trying to avoid the Gift of Ilúvatar. Three of them, denying the Gift of Ilúvatar, are transformed into "monsters" by the sins that they have committed: all nine of the Nazgûl, the King of the Dead, and Sméagol. (Since Sméagol is a Hobbit-like creature, he is numbered among the Younger Children of Ilúvatar, and as such is entitled to the Gift of Ilúvatar.) The Nazgûl are made immortal, but also doomed, by the Nine Rings. The King of the Dead is transformed into a ghost or monster by the curse of Isildur, because he and his subjects broke an oath to fight against Sauron. Long after his natural death, he fulfills his oath, and is released from his condition by Aragorn. (This presumably also applies to the other Dead.) Sméagol is consumed by the One Ring; over the years, its influence transforms him from a Hobbit into the freakish Gollum.
Bilbo Baggins, like Sméagol, is a Hobbit rather than a Man, encountering Gollum in his cave and escaping with the Ring. Being a Hobbit of much better character than Sméagol, Bilbo better resists the negative effects of possessing the One Ring. He does not appear to age considerably, but has a sense of becoming "thin and stretched." Toward the end of his possession of the Ring, Bilbo begins to show some of the obsessive tendencies of Gollum — calling the Ring "my precious," and showing flashes of dark hostility when asked by Gandalf to give the Ring to his heir, Frodo. After the Ring's destruction, Bilbo's appearance begins to show signs of age and weariness.
Those Men with the greatest understanding treated death as the Gift it was originally intended to be, and when their time came, they gladly gave themselves up to it. We see this, for example, in the earlier Kings of Númenor, and Aragorn also accepted the Gift at the natural end of his life. For most Men, though, the Gift was tainted by Morgoth, and they came to fear it rather than embrace it. This fear reached its peak in the later years of Númenor, where even the long life given to the Númenóreans was not enough, and these Men did all they could to try to escape death altogether. In the end, this desperation led to Númenor's destruction when Ar-Pharazôn led a battle fleet to the Undying Lands, having been convinced by Sauron's lies that they held the key to the immortality of the Elves. This deception and treachery eventually saw the lifespans of Men return to more normal times. Even after millennia, the descendants of Númenor still possessed some extended lifespans beyond typical Men; these men became known as the Dúnedain.
Translations[]
| Foreign Language | Translated name |
| Afrikaans | Geskenk van Ilúvatar |
| Albanian | Dhurata e Ilúvatar |
| Amharic | የኢሉቫታር ስጦታ |
| Arabic | هدية إيلوفاتار |
| Armenian | Իլուվատարի նվեր |
| Assamese | ইলুভাটাৰৰ উপহাৰ |
| Asturian | Regalu de Ilúvatar |
| Azerbaijani | İlúvatarın Hədiyyəsi |
| Basque | Ilúvatarren oparia |
| Belarusian Cyrillic | Падарунак Ілуватара |
| Bengali | ইলুভাতারের উপহার |
| Bosnian | Ilúvatarov dar |
| Bulgarian Cyrillic | Подарък на Илуватар |
| Catalan | Regal d'Ilúvatar |
| Chinese | 伊露维塔的礼物 |
| Croatian | Ilúvatarov dar |
| Czech | Ilúvatarův dar |
| Danish | Ilúvatars gave |
| Dari | هدیه ایلوواتار |
| Dutch | Geschenk van Ilúvatar |
| Esperanto | Donaco de Ilúvatar |
| Estonian | Ilúvatari kingitus |
| Faroese | Gáva av Ilúvatar |
| Filipino | Regalo ng Ilúvatar |
| Finnish | Ilúvatarin lahja |
| French | Don d'Ilúvatar |
| Frisian | Jefte fan Ilúvatar (Western) |
| Friulian | Regâl di Ilúvatar |
| Galician | Don de Ilúvatar |
| Georgian | ილუვატარის საჩუქარი |
| German | Gabe von Ilúvatar (Gift of Ilúvatar)
Gabe der Menschen (Gift of Men) |
| Greek | Δώρο του Ιλούβαταρ |
| Gujarati | ઇલુવતારની ભેટ |
| Hebrew | (Gift of Ilúvatar) מתנה של אילובאטאר
(Gift of Men) ה מתת של בני אדם |
| Hindi | इलुवातार का उपहार |
| Hungarian | Ilúvatar ajándéka |
| Icelandic | Gjöf Ilúvatar |
| Indonesian | Hadiah Ilúvatar |
| Irish Gaelic | Bronntanas Ilúvatar |
| Italian | Dono di Ilúvatar (Gift of Ilúvatar)
Fato degli Uomini (Fate of Men) |
| Japanese | イルーヴァタールの贈り物 |
| Kannada | ಇಲುವತಾರ್ನ ಕೊಡುಗೆ |
| Kazakh | Илйұватардың Сыйы (Cyrillic) Ïlyuvatardıñ Sıyı (Latin) |
| Korean | 일루바타르의 선물 |
| Kyrgyz Cyrillic | Илуватардын белеги |
| Latvian | Ilūvatara dāvana |
| Lithuanian | Ilúvataro dovana |
| Luxembourgish | Geschenk vun Ilúvatar |
| Macedonian Cyrillic | Подарок на Илуватар |
| Malagasy | Fanomezana an'i Ilúvatar |
| Malayalam | ഇലുവത്താറിൻ്റെ സമ്മാനം |
| Malaysian | Hadiah Ilúvatar |
| Maltese | Rigal ta' Ilúvatar |
| Manx | Gioot dy Ilúvatar |
| Marathi | इलुवातारची भेट |
| Nepalese | ईलुवतरको उपहार |
| Norwegian | Gave av Ilúvatar |
| Occitan | Don d'Ilúvatar |
| Persian | هدیه ایلواتار |
| Polish | Dar Ilúvatara |
| Portuguese | Presente de Ilúvatar |
| Punjabi | ਇਲੁਵਤਾਰ ਦਾ ਤੋਹਫ਼ਾ |
| Sardinian | Regalu de Ilúvatar |
| Scottish Gaelic | Tiodhlac Ilúvatar |
| Serbian | Илуватаров дар (Cyrillic) Iluvatarov dar (Latin) |
| Sicilian | Rigalu di Ilúvatar |
| Sinhalese | ඉලුවටාර්ගේ තෑග්ග |
| Slovak | Ilúvatarov dar |
| Slovenian | Darilo Ilúvatarja |
| Somali | Hadiyada Ilúvatar |
| Spanish | Don de Ilúvatar (Gift of Ilúvatar)
Don de los Hombres (Gift of Men) |
| Sundanese | Hadiah Ilúvatar |
| Swahili | Zawadi ya Ilúvatar |
| Swedish | Gåva av Ilúvatar |
| Tajik Cyrillic | Тӯҳфаи Илюватар |
| Tamil | இலுவதாரின் பரிசு |
| Tatar | Ильватар бүләге |
| Telugu | ఇలువతార్ బహుమతి |
| Thai | ของขวัญจากอิลูวาทาร์ |
| Turkish | Ilúvatar'ın Hediyesi |
| Turkmen | Ilúvataryň Sowgady |
| Ukrainian Cyrillic | Подарунок Ілуватара |
| Urdu | الوواتر کا تحفہ |
| Uzbek | Илуватар Совғаси (Cyrillic) Iluvatar Sovg'asi (Latin) |
| Venetian | Don de Ilúvatar |
| Vietnamese | Món quà của Ilúvatar |
| Welsh | Rhodd Ilúvatar |
| Yiddish | טאַלאַנט פון ילווואַטאַר |