[Kalimac]

It's a bit late so this will probably be slightly muddled. I agree that Arwen is a bit of a cipher in LOTR proper but the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen says a lot about her by implication.

Comparing her and Aragorn with Beren and Luthien isn't off at all; I think what your friend is doing is imagining that for someone to have "spark" (assuming that means an interesting and strong character) they have to be very physically active. It's true that these days, "strong women" in books and movies tend to be Xena-like; martial-arts or swordsmanship goddesses who also tend to be a bit lippy. Eowyn is very, VERY distantly related to this image, in the sense that she's a shield-maiden, and more interested in physical, fairly masculine pursuits, as well as being openly stubborn (resisting Aragorn's instructions to stay behind, complaining about it, etc - and she was certainly within her rights to do so, so don't think I'm knocking this angle too much). Luthien is also vaguely related to this image, in the sense that she goes out and takes action on her own.

Arwen is a different sort of person; like a lot of women (and men) physical action is not her metier. She doesn't slob around all day, but physical activity/warfare is not an end in itself for her. Who knows why this is - maybe she's just not inclined, maybe her father and elder brothers were very protective (especially considering what happened to her mother). Her strength is in patience, and if your friend thinks that this means she's weak or without spark, ask him how long he could spend waiting for something which he wanted but which he knew he might not receive - WITHOUT breaking down or trying to make a grab for the thing before it was the right time. Arwen loves Aragorn, but for a long time she's in serious doubt as to whether they'll ever be able to act on this; Elrond's stipulation that they could marry when Aragorn regained his kingdom must have seemed about as likely to her as Beren succeeding in getting a Silmaril must have seemed to Luthien. She doesn't want to hurt either her father or Aragorn, and the only way to avoid completely crushing one or the other is to wait in a sort of suspended animation until the condition is fulfilled or until Aragorn dies, one or the other.

Why doesn't she help him go out and regain his kingdom? Well, what on earth could she do? She's only one Elf, and besides, like Beren and the Silmaril, there's a strong presumption that this is something he has to do on his own. Aragorn is probably much happier - and more strengthened - by knowing that Arwen is waiting for him to the end than by knowing that she has broken faith with her father to run off with him before the time was right. (Not to mention the whole immortality factor - she had to have guts to give that up, especially after having had all those years to ponder the consequences).

Hope this made some sort of sense (I guess this was kind of long after all [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] ). BTW, Luthien isn't quite the right parallel in one way - Elrond was vastly superior to Thingol, from what I can remember - he deserved allegiance from his daughter.

[ November 28, 2002: Message edited by: Kalimac ]