Quote:
Originally Posted by Gordis
But Mithrellas never had any choice - she wasn't of the children of Earendil and Elwing. She couldn't follow her husband beyond the Circles of the World.
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You misunderstand me. I am perfectly aware of who Mithrellas was! I meant that the marriage of Imrazor and Mithrellas doesnt fit in with the idea that Arwen
had to give up her elvish life to marry Aragorn and might indicate that theoretically she might have done otherwise . If a silvan elf could marry a mortal and remain Elvish (and presumably pass into the West or return to her own people after it seems unlikely that Arwen would have to if Elrond were prepared to delay his departure (and thus the time of choice ) while Aragorn lived.
If you consider the other Elven/mortal unions that were desired (by one party at least) but not realised (Andreth/Aegnor & Turin/Finduilas), then the sundering of fates that is the main argument against. I don't have Morgoth's Ring with me but in The Silmarillion, Gwindor says " It is not fitting that the Elder children of Iluvatar should wed with the Younger; nor is it wise for they are brief, and soon pass, to leave us in widowhood while the world lasts. Neither will fate suffer it, unless it be once or twice only, for some high cause of doom that we do not perceive. But this man is not Beren". Now admittedly Gwindor was not to my knowledge in the confidence of the Valar but he was on the money in other matters.
Fate did suffer the union of Imrazor and Mithrellas for no higher purpose that to illustrate the ennobling qualities of even lesser elven bloodlines and to provide in Imrahil (always a favourite minor character of mine) an example of how Denethor should have been both as a viceroy and kinsman to Faramir. I find it highly unlikely that such nobility should have in it's origins a forced marriage even if a silvan elf (unlike one Eldar) could survive such an event let alone bear children against her will.
Earendil gets the choice because he goes to Aman. Mandos (whose words, one imagines, have more clout in such matters than most) says, "Shall mortal man step living on the Undying lands and yet live?" The matter only is discussed and decided because of Ulmo's challenge. This begs the question, what did Mandos decide with regard to Dior (and most likely Elured and Elurin) when they arrived in his halls before this time when he was presumably acting on his own initiative. He seems to have the default position that it is the father's race that counts in which case Dior was mortal. Yet he had an Elven wife and it is reasonable to assume that if he had been given the choice he would have chosen to be of the Eldar for her sake at least as Earendil did for the sake of Elwing. I do think it is highly unlikely in the light of the concepts of marriage expressed in the Laws and Customs of the Eldar - and of his own Catholicism, that Tolkien would have allowed any who had the choice. to choose a different eternal fate to their spouse.
Yes it can be hard to actually carry out things we have long committed to however wholeheartedly and it must have been particularly hard for Arwen that she did not suffer the physical decline that reconciles the mind to death as release, and that Aragorn gave up his life of his own will but it would subvert the whole thing is she had some get out clause at that stage.
As for Elrond learning of Arwen's choice the next words reconcile it to the earlier reference "When Elrond learned the choice of his daughter, he... found the doom long feared none the easier to endure.... I fear that to Arwen the Doom of Men may seem hard at the ending." Arwen was born in the image of Luthien and to Elrond, farsighted beyond the usual Elvish intuition regarding their children, history repaeting must have always been a possibility - especially when she hadn't found a nice elf-boy to settle down with after a few thousand years...
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In the same paragraph Elrond says that Arwen "shall not diminish her life's grace for less cause". Elrond presumably knows the score and there is no possibility expressed that Arwen could marry Aragorn without choosing mortality. Aragorn also says to Arwen if she cleaves to him she must renounce the Twilight .
However though the choice is made it is only absolute when the condidtions are fulfilled and marriage has taken place for if Aragorn had died in the War of the Ring surely Arwen could have sailed West . After all Arwen's "I will cleave to you Dunadan..|" is expressing intent/desire.
The question of why the choice of mortality is binding on descendents while that of being immortal is not is also answered to my satisfaction at least in Appendix A "the Valar were not permitted to take from them (the Numenoreans) the Gift of Men. From the immortal perspective, release from the burden of immortal life was such a precious gift that anyone with the slightest entitlement to it should not be denied the opportunity. This certainly makes sense when you consider that Elrond's children were overwhelmingly immortal by bloodlines.