“We are as we are, and ye are as we find you” (Or, Finrod Elfsplains the Gift of Ilúvatar): The ‘Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth’ as Core Text in Tolkien’s Legendarium

The "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" is a highly problematic text that directly challenges, if not overturns, the eschatology of Tolkien’s legendarium. In combination with the "Tale of Adanel," we are confronted with the possibility that, in the beginning, the Atani were also deathless and that mortality was a punishment, calling into question the nature of the ‘gift of Ilúvatar’.