[Iarwain]

I do agree that Elrond was "telling it like it is", however, I think that he could have been much kinder about it. Not to get started on the book to movie comparisons again, but Elrond always seemed to support Arwen's decision. After all he, Elrond Half-elven, was the long-term product of two such unions: Luthien and Beren, and Tuor and Idril. Anyway, I always got the impression that elves felt very differently about death than men. I recall that they looked at death as a gift; that men could leave the world, while they had to linger behind, waiting for the end. <P>Maybe I pulled this out of the air, but I recall something being said about the opinions of the Eldar on death in Akallabeth. Even in Ainuindale, the secondborn were given a special gift by Iluvatar; that is, the gift of death.