Also, who said that I identify with Saruman? (I don't.)

Gandalf said the Ring had less of a hold on Bilbo than it did on Gollum because Bilbo began his tenure as Ring Bearer with an act of pity; similarly, Aragorn began his reign with an act of mercy.

Denethor was in the process of commiting a heinous crime, and his servants were aiding and abetting. Fealty to Denethor, sworn or otherwise, was not the highest law of the land.

It could happen, or I refuse to give up hope that it could; but it would require integrity the likes of Aragorn.

Actually, I was really only thinking of LOTR and the context of this thread.

Though it is only in reading the work myself (with criticisms in mind) that I become aware of the dominance of the theme of Death. (Not that there is any original 'message' in that: most of human art & thought is similarly preoccupied.) But certainly Death is not an Enemy! I said, or meant to say, that the 'message' was the hideous peril of confusing true 'immortality' with limitless serial longevity. Freedom from Time, and clinging to Time. The confusion is the work of the Enemy, and one of the chief causes of human disaster. Compare the death of Aragorn with a Ringwraith.

"A mortal, Frodo, who keeps one of the Great Rings, does not die, but he does not grow or obtain more life, he merely continues, until at last every minute is a weariness. And if he often uses the Ring to make himself invisible, he fades: he becomes in the end invisible permanently, and walks in the twilight under the dark power that rules the Rings. Yes, sooner or later - later, if he is strong or well-meaning to begin with, but neither strength nor good purpose will last - sooner or later the dark power will devour him."

"You were beginning to fade," answered Gandalf. "The wound was overcoming you at last."

Frodo's pain had redoubled, and during the day things about him faded to shadows of ghostly grey. He almost welcomed the coming of night, for then the world seemed less pale and empty.

The topic of Letter 208 was the distinction between immortality and "serial longevity," and the crucial thematic point that "Death is not an Enemy" in the philosophical framework of the Eldar and the Edain. Aragorn, by voluntarily embracing death instead of senescence, thereby following the model of the early Númenórean kings before Tar-Atanamir, embodies this ideal. The Ringwraiths are mentioned as a contrast: humans who were supernaturally bound to the physical world by their Rings, but did not receive the eternal life they may have been promised by Sauron, but a terrible, stretched existence.

I strongly disagree that the use of the word fading in both the letter and the discussion of Frodo's wound is more important than the context of the letter itself, which is that Aragorn and the Ringwraiths represent polar opposite attitudes towards death.

When Tolkien told the reader to compare the death of Aragorn and a Ringwraith, I think he meant that the reader should take a close look at Aragorn's death and another close look at what is said about the Ringwraiths. The letter itself doesn't talk about Aragorn in specific terms beyond that one suggestion and doesn't say on which side of the line Aragorn really falls.

The Ringwraiths are undead, so by that logic they too must have died physically at some point.

The letter doesn't need to specify which side of the line Aragorn falls on, because Aragorn's death scene makes it abundantly clear which it is. But, as it happens, Tolkien did in fact make this explicit in a footnote to Letter 212: "It was also the Elvish (and uncorrupted Númenórean) view that a 'good' Man would or should die voluntarily by surrender with trust before being compelled (as did Aragorn). This may have been the nature of unfallen Man; though compulsion could not threaten him: he would desire and ask to be allowed to 'go on' to a higher state." (all italics in the original; bold emphasis mine)

This is not a minor point. The refusal of the Númenórean kings to voluntarily "go on" into death is one of the most important markers of their rebellion against the Valar (presented without comment on whether that rebellion was actually unreasonable). Aragorn, as the heir to and renewer of the legacy of the Faithful Númenóreans—see his byname Envinyatar—represents the opposite viewpoint. The irony of the scene is that Arwen, who spent most of her life with no reason to think she would ever not be immortal, comes around to sympathizing with the position of the rebellious Númenóreans, having previously scorned them, whereas Aragorn holds true to his belief that voluntarily dying is the right thing to do. His death is meant to represent the original Númenórean ideal, not something marred by sorcery.

I think it's considerably more likely that the Ringwraiths did not die before becoming wraiths, but instead represent an extreme case of the "stretching" that the Hobbit Ringbearers experienced. I can't recall offhand if Tolkien gave a definitive answer here, though.

"And only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death."