Well, From what I understand thats half correct. The Ainur (Valar and Maiar) can't die. Period. The body/shape they are in can perish, as seen by Saruman, Gandalf, and Sauron, but their spirit will live on. Normally they would return to Valinor to be reimbodied/reimbody themselves (although, as seen by Sauron, they can do it themselves elsewhere, albeit very slowly - when he slowly builds up his form in Mordor after his "death" in the fall of numenor). Goodly Maiar do this, and I think gandalf was not so much reborn as sent back to Middle Earth instead of returning to valinor as normal. The corrupted Maiar, on the other hand, are rejected and instead are swept away (see Saruman's death - his spirit rises up in a cloud and looks west, but is blown away and dispearses) to rejoin their master Melkor in the Void. So, in the last battle talked about in some Tolkien works, likely the Balrogs, Saruman, and Sauron will likely reappear to fight by Melkor's side when he finally breaks free of the Void.
Elves are a different matter. Their gift as the the firstborn is that they cannot die in the conventional means. Of course their body can die in war or grief or diease, but their spirits are gathered in the halls of Mandos in Valinor. They cannot leave the world. They, unlike the Maiar, have no power to shapeshift/form a new body, and can be reimbodied only if the Valar do it for them. This is what would have happened to Glorfindel. A powerful elven lord innocent of the Kinslaying was sent back to aid the elves remaining in Middle Earth. I would suspect Glorfindel would be one of few like that. Certainly none of the royal line of the Noldor were innocent of the Kinslaying, and I doubt other heros of the first age, such as Ecthelion, were either.
Only men have the gift of death, the only race to be able to be released from the circles of the world, and elves envy them for that freedom, though the men themselves view it as more of a curse
Edited by Zyzzyva, 04 May 2008 - 03:14 AM.
Despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope. Well, let folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy! For he is very wise, and weighs all things to a nicety in the scales of his malice. But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this, we shall put him out of reckoning.
-Gandalf