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Originally Posted by davem
It would probably have cluttered & confused it, as it did with the movie, because that's not what Tolkien is about in LotR. He explored those themes in Beren & Luthien. A writer can't possibly say everything he wants to say in a single story without losing control of it & having it 'leap on to its horse & gallop off in all directions'. 'Aragorn & Arwen' contains important background for the story of LotR, but if the events in it were brought into the foreground (as Tolkien realised) they would detract from the central story - which is Frodo's, not Aragorn's.
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Well, I would disagree with the first statement, but that is a discussion for another place.
I do not see why the tale of Aragorn and Arwen could not have been weaved into the story rather more than it is without cluttering and confusing it. I am not saying that he should have made her the Xenarwen that film Arwen is often (unfairly, in my view) accused of being. But rather more of a presence than she has could perhaps have enriched to the story without cluttering it. As it is, her almost total absence (from the substantive tale itself) has the opposite effect. My experience is that I had no sense at all, the first few times that I read LotR, of who she was. To such an extent that, when I first saw the action figures in the shops (my first real experience of the films), some 15 years after having last read the book, I thought that she was a character specifically created for the film. In those circumstances, to the young reader that I was then, she loses such significance as Tolkien may have intended.
But the main point, I suppose, is that you are really saying that the story is perfect as it is, as Tolkien intended it, and that we have to "make do" with what we are given. Of course, we have to accept the collection of words that Tolkien gave us and our presence on this forum shows, by definition, that we are not dissatisfied with them. But to leave it at that is to suggest that there should be no further discussion on the issue. Which is an approach that I disagree with. It should not stop us (if we be so inclined) considering what the story might have looked like with Arwen playing a greater role. Whether it might have worked without detracting from the central story of the Ring. And how it might have added to the story (in addition to how it might have detracted from it). To do so is not to suggest that Tolkien should have written the story differently, but simply to explore alternative themes - or those which may only be subtly expressed in the story as it is.
I know that you will probably disagree with me on this, but it's not
all about what Tolkien intended, but also what we experience from the text and what we can gain by sharing our experience with others and listening to their own experience.