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Originally Posted by Lalwendë
At the risk of sounding all "hey man" stories like that of Aragorn and Arwen show how something as seemingly simple as a human relationship can transcend all those human created mental boundaries of race, colour and religion.
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Well, it wasn't simply their relationship at play; seeing that they are Man and Elf, the intrusion of the One is implied even more strongly in their case than in general:
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Originally Posted by Letter #153
Immortality and Mortality being the special gifts of God to the Eruhini (in whose conception and creation the Valar had no part at all) it must be assumed that no alteration of their fundamental kind could be effected by the Valar even in one case: the cases of Luthien (and Tuor) and the position of their descendants was a direct act of God. The entering into Men of the Elven-strain is indeed represented as part of a Divine Plan for the ennoblement of the Human Race, from the beginning destined to replace the Elves.
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Originally Posted by Rikae
I think that maybe religion and society/fathers etc. play a similar role for Tolkien's couples in a sense, by setting up challenges for the couple whereby both their love and honor are tested
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I can only be reminded of Tolkien's life itself, where he had to wait for
three years, until he finished school, at 21 years of age, before he could see his beloved again. He did this in order to avoid "disobeying and grieving (or deceiving) a guardian who had been a father to me, more than most real fathers".
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Originally Posted by Letter #43, emphasis original
For very nearly three years I did not see or write to my lover. It was extremely hard, painful and bitter, especially at first...But I don't think anything else would have justified marriage on the basis of a boy's affair; and probably nothing else would have hardened the will enough to give such an affair (however genuine a case of true love) permanence. On the night of my 21st birthday I wrote again to your mother – Jan. 3, 1913. On Jan. 8th I went back to her, and became engaged, and informed an astonished family.
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