Arda Healed
the Healing of Arda; the hope of the world's end
Definition
Arda Healed (in the mythology’s later theology, “Arda Remade” or “the Healing of Arda”) is the promised condition of the world after the Dagor Dagorath: the mending of the marring of Melkor and of all the sorrows of the ages — when the Silmarils are recovered (from air, earth and sea), the Two Trees rekindled, the dead of the Children arise, and the world is remade as Eru first intended, “without defect” — the Quenta’s closing: — its words.
The Doctrine
- Against the long defeat: The mythology (from the outset) insists that despair is not its end — “the long defeat” of the Eldar is balanced by the promise that no good thing made is lost; the theme appears from the Ainulindalë (the third theme re-wove all evil) to the Athrabeth.
- In the Athrabeth: In the debate of Finrod and Andreth, “Arda Healed” is the specific name of the hope — that the very marring of flesh and world shall be undone, and even the dead Men shall return; Finrod’s “hope” — it is tied to Eru’s design beyond the Valar’s knowledge.
- The agents: The healing is carried by the end’s great acts — Morgoth’s death (by Túrin), the broken Silmarils restoring the light, the Second Music sung before Eru.
Significance
Arda Healed is the eschatological horizon that frames the otherwise tragic whole — Tolkien’s “happy end” transposed to the end of time; it is the reason the legendarium, for all its sorrow, is ultimately a comedy in the medieval sense (the world redeemed), and it supplies the deepest meaning of the sciences of light, the Silmarils and the Trees.