They’d have to pass through not one, but TWO metaphysical barriers. There’s the wall between the living and the dead, of course. But there’s also the mists between Aman and Middle-Earth that separate the Blessed Realm from the ‘real world’ and keep it apart and inaccessible.
Hell, it’s hard enough for the spirits of the dead dwarves to make it there!
This is just an silly/odd idea, but I like to think that if a dwarf deliberately dropped something into Gimlin-zaram (say, a hammer, or a pen?), it would immediately sink without trace beneath the glowing water. No other change or sign to show its passing.
The next time that dwarf saw Mahal, that hammer or pen would be in His great hand, and he would give off a slight air of mild annoyance. He would give it back with pointedly deliberate movements.
“Please refrain from littering, my child. Please use the bins provided.”
The idea of Mahal somehow gathering litter is hilarious, but this is now making me question far too many things. Like what happens if you tie a string to the pen and lower it into the waters? Does the string snap when the pen disappears from sight or would it just keep feeding into the waters until you have no string left? Is there a bottom to the pool?
Could one pull the pen back up from the pool by the string if it did stay intact?
Could one theoretically swim in the pool? Like if instead of sitting on a bench and staring into the pool, you just jumped into it? Has anyone done that? Would your clothes get wet if you did somehow manage? What would happen if you dropped the pen while you were someplace on Middle Earth? Could someone else from the Hall find the pen later if they went to the exact same spot or does the pen disappear once it’s no longer touching a dead dwarf and Mahal has a dead dwarf litter radar and is going to have to go find this pen because you can’t just leave afterlife pens lying around on Middle Earth. That’s how you break the barrier between the living and dead, children. Could Gandalf pick up the pen and use it or can he only look but not touch? Does he send Mahal a message via god wifi to pick up this pen that Thorin dropped in Bilbo’s room because someone’s going to trip over it and cause a zombie uprising?
I’m going to go to the store before I start wondering about cross dimensional travel and death in the Tolkien universe and whether there’s like invisible litter all over Middle Earth from a bunch of dead dwarves.
But you guys…think of the angst….Thorin figuring out it is possible and leaving Bilbo little gifts with notes on them on his bedside table. Bilbo holding the gifts, smiling and sobbing all at once because his Dwarf is a tremendous sap.
okay but seriously, Ever since i read sansûkh i keep thinking about Legolas his Grieving process when Gimli’s death tears them apart.
And now i’m sobbing because i keep seeing legolas cut off all his hair because that’s how dwarves grieve and he doeSN’T HAVE A BEARD SO HE CUTS OFF ALL HIS HAIR BECAUSE GIMLI WAS HIS HEART AND SOUL AND NOW HE IS ALOOOOOONE.
that wasn’t very jolly of you D:
(thank you, I’m very grateful you like the idea!!!)
Now I can’t stop thinking about this. I know that there’s art around here somewhere of Tauriel with short hair following Kili’s death… but its carefully coiffed and maintained.
Elves are super careful about their hair, but what if Legolas can’t be arsed to care when his beloved is gone? What if he kneels by the water and slices off handful after handful, heedless of the uneven and ragged edges? Tears pooling in his eyes and sliding down his cheeks until the his vision blurs and the water reflects back golden with his hair. What if when he is done, his hair isn’t even long enough to brush his neck, and he’s nicked himself with the knife in his grief?
“The River had taken Boromir son of Denethor, and he was not seen again in Minas Tirith, standing as he used to stand upon the White Tower in the morning. But in Gondor after-days it long was said that the elven-boat rode the falls and the foaming pool, and bore him down through Osgiliath, and past the many mouths of Anduin, out into the Great Sea at night under the stars.
For a while the three companions remained silent, gazing after him. Then Aragorn spoke. ‘They will look for him from the White Tower,’ he said, ‘but he will not return from mountain or from sea.”
Aw Yiss 