I’ve Got Bad News About Lord Of The Rings’ Undying Lands

thegamer.com:

The end of the Lord of the Rings is bittersweet. After our four hobbits have been through so much, Frodo leaves them all behind and boards a boat to the Undying Lands, known as Aman to the elves. “Don’t go where I can’t follow,” Sam tells him in The Two Towers after Frodo has been attacked by Shelob. A book later, Frodo does exactly that.

A brief snippet of good news before we get to the bad, young Samwise can actually follow Frodo to the Undying Lands due to the fact he briefly bore the Ring. And he does, taking up the elves’ offer after he and Rosie have had their fun in Middle-earth. By fun I mean shagging. Seriously, the prolific pair had 13 children, did they not have a telly? Anyway, he follows Frodo and Bilbo to the West, and Gimli later joins them.

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Before we look into what happens over in the Undying Lands, we need to ask why. Why are these mortals allowed into the lands of the Valar? It’s a little complicated, but we can work it out from Tolkien’s notes. But firstly, there’s precedent.

Eärendil and Elwing arrived in Valinor during the First Age to ask for the Valar’s (they’re gods not dissimilar to the Greek pantheon) help in defeating Morgoth. They are a special case, however, both being half-elven. Eärendil is descended from Tuor and Idril Celebrindal (the latter of whom is of the Ñoldorin flavour of elves), and Elwing Beren and Lúthien (the latter of whom is a Sindarin elf). Still, the Ñoldor were exiled from Aman, so Eärendil had no place to be in Valinor from either of his heritages.

Mandos, the Vala who cares for the spirits of the dead, suggests that the usual fate for mortals who make the journey West is