Tolkien visste inte, och så långt jag kan säga, klargjorde jag verkligen inte punkten.
I brev 338 (skickad 1972) diskuterar han Ents slutgiltiga öde:
I think in Vol. II pp. 80-81 [The song of the Entwives] it is plain that there would be for Ents no re-union [with the Entwives] in 'history' — but Ents and their wives being rational creatures would find some 'earthly paradise' until the end of this world: beyond which the wisdom neither of Elves nor Ents could see. Though maybe they shared the hope of Aragorn that they were 'not bound for ever to the circles of the world and beyond them is more than memory.'
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien 338: To Fr. Douglas Carter (Incomplete). June 1972
Den kritiska delen av citatet är frasen "jordiskt paradis". Tolkien använder den här frasen två gånger i sina bokstäver, men den av relevans diskuterar Aman i Letter 181:
The passage over Sea is not Death. The 'mythology' is Elf-centred. According to it there was at first an actual Earthly Paradise, home and realm of the Valar, as a physical part of the earth.
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien 181: To Michael Straight (Draft). January or February 1956
Dessa avsnitt tyder på att Ents kommer inte gå till Aman, som vid denna punkt är djupt icke -Earthly. Ytterligare stöd för denna teori kommer frasen "jordiska paradiset" upp i ett tidigt utkast till fallet av Númenor:
For as yet the Balai were permitted by Eru to maintain upon earth upon some isle or shore of the western lands still untrodden (it is not known for certain where; for Eärendel alone of Men came ever thither and never again returned) an abiding place, an earthly paradise and a memorial of that which might have been, had not men turned to Meleko. And the Númenóreans named that land Avallóndë the Haven of the Gods
History of Middle-earth IX Sauron Defeated Part 3 The Drowning of Anadûnê (ii) "The Original Text of The Drowning of Anadûnê" Paragraph 16
"Balai" är en slags proto-Valar 1 , och detta "jordiska paradis" som beskrivs är Aman före världens förändring; senare i texten skriver Tolkien av Changing (notera att Tolkien ändrade "Balai" till "Avalai" någon gång före hans död, men han gick inte tillbaka och korrigerade den på alla ställen):
Manawë being grieved sought the counsel at last of Eru, and the Avalai laid down their governance of Earth. And Eru overthrew its shape, and a great chasm was opened in the sea between Númenor and Avallondë and the seas poured in, and into that abyss fell all the fleets of the Númenóreans and were swallowed into oblivion. But Avallondë and Númenorë that stood on either side of the great rent were also destroyed; and they foundered and are no more. And the Avalai thereafter had no local habitation on earth, nor is there any place more where memory of an earth without evil is preserved; and the Avalai dwell in secret or have faded into shadows, and their power is minished.
History of Middle-earth IX Sauron Defeated Part 3 The Drowning of Anadûnê (ii) "The Original Text of The Drowning of Anadûnê" Paragraph 47
Även om det finns många skillnader i denna tidiga version av sagan, tycks det tyder på Tolkiens uppfattning om ett "jordiskt paradis".
1 Christopher Tolkien ägnar en del av sin kommentar till ämnet, och jag kommer inte att helt reproducera den här, men en särskilt relevant bit är:
Who then are the Avalai? Looking no further than the present text, the name must be said to represent the whole 'order' of deathless beings who, before the coming of Men, were empowered to govern the world within a great range or hierarchy of powers and purposes. Looking at it in relation to the earlier narrative, The Fall of Númenor, the distinction between 'Gods' and 'Elves' is here lost.