The problem with
Tolkien's works about
Arda are not that there are
no themes, but that there are so
many themes that it is difficult to sort them out or separate them one from another. In fact, it may not be possible to do that anyway since often they merge and then separate several times throughout the stories.
Tolkien's work is like a great tapastry and anyone who has ever looked closely at fabric will see that it is composed of threads, some going one way, others going at right angles to the first. All are woven together to form the whole. Some threads may vary in color or even in texture. Some may be woven "loosely" to make a gauze-like translucent fabric, others may be woven more tightly and be heavier, producing a thicker, opaque fabric. But all the threads are necessary to produce the finished fabric.
However, there are main "threads" running through Tolkien's work. Love is one and not just "love" in the sense that we generally consider that emotion. Love of self is just as strong - and sometimes stronger - than love of even the most adored companion.
Melkor becomes
Morgoth because he loves himself more than he loves anyone or anything else - and he is not the only one who does so.
Death and immortality is another main thread. Tolkien calls death man's "gift", not his punishment. Why? Because it is intimated (and certainly would have been part of Tolkien's own belief system) that man is able to grow ever closer to his Creator because he leaves this world and its limitations which opens countless possibilities. On the other hand, the
elves are forever doomed to live within the confines of this world
while this world lasts - and I think that this is the most important point. As the Fellowship is finally broken, Gadriel replies to
Treebeard's question as to whether they will ever meet again: "Not in
Middle-earth, nor until the lands that lie under the wave
are lifted up again. Then in the willow-meads of Tasarinan we may meet in the Spring. Farewell!"
Christians (or at least the Orthodox and R.Catholics) believe that at the time of the Last Judgment, the World will be made anew, the Kingdom of
God in which all that was fair and good will once again exist. After all, man was made for
this world and the world for man. The things that most of us love are the same as those things that the elves love and that they attempt to keep from being destroyed by the passage of time in the mortal lands. It was for this reason that the Elven Rings were made and not as means of gaining power over others or for strength in war.
It may be that at the end of all things, the sundering of the Children of Illuvatar may cease as the lands that presently lie under the wave are lifted up and all that was beautiful and good restored. But, of course, Tolkien makes no pronouncement on that and as far as the elves in his story are concerned, those of their kind who choose mortality are lost to them forever. And yet,
Galadriel's statement to Treebeard (a mortal creature) bears the promise that such may not be the case.
