When Darkness Became a Thing: How Fear Twisted the Gift of Ilúvatar

Melkor impressed upon the hearts of Men that death was a punishment—a severing from Iluvatar.

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Speaking of the beginning of days, The Silmarillion says that Ilúvatar gave Men “strange gifts.” First, he set eternity in their hearts so they would always desire to go beyond the visible world:

“But to the Atani I will give a new gift.’ Therefore he willed that the hearts of Men should seek beyond the world and should find no rest therein…