In The Two Towers Elrond shows Arwen a vision of what her life with Aragorn would be like. He being mortal would age and die and she would be left a widow, still young and beautiful and grief stricken by his death.
Do you think this did come to pass or not? Arwen chose a mortal life so would that mean she would age at the same rate as a human or would she age but much slower than humans(but quicker than elves)?
Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .
According to the appendices, the latter. She died 121 years after the events of The Lord of the Rings (one year after Aragorn died).
Don't listen to the negative ones; their arguments are irrational.
That's interesting. Thank you so much TompaDompa. So that vision we saw could be the truth except she doesn't live on for decades after his death.
Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .
Yes Maddy; except for the gap of time, what happened to Arwen in the end is depicted in The Two Towers film.
Here is the text (from the LOTR Appendix) which I think is quite beautiful.
"Estel, Estel!" she cried, and with that even as he took her hand and kissed it, he fell into sleep. Then a great beauty was revealed in him, so that all who after came there looked on him with wonder; for they saw the grace of his youth, and the valor of his manhood, and the wisdom and majesty of his age were all blended together. And long there he lay, an image of the splendour of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world.
But Arwen went forth from the House, and the light of her eyes was quenched, and it seemed to her people that she had become cold and grey as nightfall in winter that comes without a star. Then she said farewell to Eldarion, and to her daughters, and to all whom she had loved; and she went out from the city of Minas Tirith and passed away to the land of Lórien, and dwelt there alone under the fading trees until winter came. Galadriel had passed away and Celeborn had also gone, and the land was silent.
There at last when the mallorn-leaves were falling, but spring had not yet come, she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by the men that come after, and elanor and nimphredil bloom no more east of the sea.
https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Appendices_to_The_Lord_of_the_Rings
BB ;-)
it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈}
BB reading that made tears come into my eyes. That is such a moving and beautifully written tale. Again it makes me wish that Tolkien had written more about the characters and events in Middle Earth.
I notice it says Galadriel and Celeborn had passed away but what of Elrond? That makes it even sadder if Arwen lost Aragorn and all her family too.
Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .
I believe it's mentioned somewhere that Elrond did pass over the sea as well. That was why he was opposed to her marrying Aragorn--he knew that he would be parted from her forever.
She did still have her children, though.
It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to--W.C.Fields
I believe it's mentioned somewhere that Elrond did pass over the sea as well. That was why he was opposed to her marrying Aragorn--he knew that he would be parted from her forever.
That only makes the vision scene even more sad, not only does he not want her to suffer the loss of Aragorn but he doesn't want to lose her himself. Yes you're right she may still have had her children but I meant her elven family.
Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .
by Maddy;
"That only makes the vision scene even more sad, not only does her want her to suffer the loss of Aragorn but he doesn't want to lose her himself."
Definitely a moment leading to sad emotions.
And it touches on a major theme in Tolkien's mythology which he explored quite a bit in "The Silmarillion"; immortality, death and the afterlife.
- The afterlife for the Middle-earth Elves was clearly known. They will either go to Valinor on boats (like those shown at the end the film "Return of the King") or if an Elf was killed, their spirit could travel from Middle-earth to Valinor.
But Humans or Dwarfs could not go to Valinor (with very few exceptions).
- The afterlife for Humans was not known. Tolkien was a devout Catholic but his Middle-earth was a pre-Christian world. Middle-earth is like the legend of Atlantis, a far off mythical time before history.
- Bottom line; there was always opposition by some Elves towards intermarriage with Humans because it meant that an Elf would become mortal. And one big reason that was a problem was because the afterlives of Humans and Elves was different.
* From the Human side this afterlife difference led to other issues.
Most of the most powerful Humans, the Numenor (who had an Elf ancestor), were jealous of the Elf afterlife because it was known. While the Human afterlife (if it existed) was unknown.
This led to the belief that if Humans could get to Valinor, they would continue on forever.
Such beliefs even resulted in an attempt by some of the Numenor to get to Valinor which had terrible consequences.
- Another problem came with a Human falling in love with an Elf. If the Elf did not return this love, the Elf remained immortal. The Human would then grow old and whither while the Elf remained almost unchanged. That could be heartbreaking.
* The bitterness of these differences and the resulting conflicts explains why eventually the Elves almost always lived apart from Humans (and Dwarves).
BB ;-)
it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈
Not only did Elrond pass over into Valinor, Elrond and Arwen, when they met after he departed from their wedding, both knew that they would never meet again, as Arwen would pass from the Circles of the World and Elrond would remain.
Look- it's trying to think!