Longevity v. Immortality

Tolkien considered the central theme of The Lord of the Rings to be Death. Surprised? So was I. But Kreeft (in The Philosophy of Tolkien) includes a quote from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien to support this claim. And it seems that Tolkien himself was somewhat surprised when he realized the centrality of death in his story upon rereading his manuscript. The next time you re-read LOTR make note of the constant contrasting of real and false immortality, the immortality of the elves versus the longevity of Gollum or the Ringwraiths. Yes, this contrasting is subtle. If it were not, LOTR would be more of an allegory and much less popular and powerful a story.