[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

You're probably right, Underhill. I thought I might be missing something with my reading of that story, and you seem to have put your finger on it with your comments about the age of Eldarion and his sisters at the time of their parents' death. To be quite honest this matter simply hadn't occurred to me, but now that you come to mention it, Aragorn does describe his son as "a man full-ripe for kingship", which by Númenórean standards would imply that he has to be at least sixty, and probably quite a lot older.

This neatly disposes of any practical rôle that Arwen may have had in Gondor, even if we do not assume that she was compelled to follow Aragorn into death. This point, though, seems to me less certain. You have detailed a number of possible readings, any one of which seems valid; but the following passage, apparently doomed to much quoting here, speaks more to me of the pain of parting than of anything else

And for all her wisdom and lineage she could not forbear to plead with him to stay yet for a while.

She was not yet weary of her days, and thus she tasted the bitterness of the mortality that she had taken upon her.

Obviously if she is doomed to follow Aragorn shortly afterwards then her being not yet weary of her days would still be relevant, but I cannot help but look to the preceding paragraph, which seems to imply more a desire not to be parted. To me this suggests that Arwen realises that she will want to follow Aragorn, that she will effectively be offered another choice (between however many years she has left to her and following close on her husband's heels), which she does not wish to make. As for her not dying until she has lost all that she has gained, this looks to me like a simple prophecy of her condition at the end of her life rather than a predicted condition of her death.

The chances are, though, that it is my reading that is aberrant. The day after I posted my comments above I came across a letter of Tolkien's that throws a lot of light on his ideas about death, and I'd been waiting for a good time to post it. This looks to be as good a time as any.

A divine 'punishment' is also a divine 'gift', if accepted, since its object is ultimate blessing, and the supreme inventiveness of the Creator will make 'punishments' (that is changes of design) produce a good not otherwise to be attained: a 'mortal' Man has probably (an Elf would say) a higher if unrevealed destiny than a longeval one. To attempt by device or 'magic' to recover longevity is thus a supreme folly and wickedness of 'mortals'. Longevity or counterfeit 'immortality' (true immortality is beyond Eä) is the chief bait of Sauron - it leads the small to a Gollum and the great to a Ringwraith.

A description of the equal folly of Míriel's attempt to die follows, and Tolkien continues in one of his characteristic footnotes:

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 would not threaten him: he would desire and ask to be allowed to 'go on' to a higher state. The Assumption of Mary, the only unfallen person, may be regarded as in some ways a simple regaining of unfallen grace and liberty: she asked to be received, and was, having no further function on Earth.

Letter #212 (draft continuation of a letter sent to Rhona Beare on 14th October 1958)

It would seem, then, that by the time of her death Arwen has fulfilled her purpose and can depart in peace and in her own time. I still believe that she hastens to follow Aragorn, but first she travels to visit the place of their meeting, which, it should be remembered, she will never see again. Perhaps this travelling is her way of taking leave of Middle-earth itself, just as she has taken leave of her family and people. Perhaps also what I have read as despair is simply a sadness born of the realisation that her days of life within the circles of the world are almost over.

However, my original devious purpose (that of inspiring the sort of debate that I associate with 'The Books') has succeeded, even if I've had to cede my central point. I can at least do so gladly, since the opposing view shows Tolkien and his characters in a far better light. Hopefully, though, there's more meat left on this particular bone for us to worry at.