[Kalimac]

Orual, hmmm...I think he's compressing things a little bit; the only answer I can think of to his first statement is "What war?" Aragorn fell in love with Arwen approximately eighteen years before Frodo was born; the Ring at that point was hidden in the Shire and being used solely to hide from fearsome threats like the Sackville-Bagginses (God, I love that name [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]). There were more minor battles and skirmishes going on, of course, but no enormous "Middle-Earth In Peril" War of the Ring going on. The Necromancer had been driven out of Dol Guldur not too long before; as far as ME was concerned, it may have looked like the beginning of a rather hopeful time. Aragorn spent most of that time as a Ranger, fighting with the Rohirrim, etc, preparing for the day when he would reclaim his throne. It's hard to see how Arwen could have helped with this - it's his throne, not hers - think of it as being rather like an intense course of study; she could be as encouraging as she liked, but in the end Aragorn and Aragorn alone was the one who had to succeeded or fail in his ventures (or his exams, to continue the simile).

As for why she didn't suddenly gird herself with a sword when the War of the Ring came along - she probably saw it (among other things) as the crisis point of Aragorn's solitary quest; this was his hour, and it wouldn't be so much that he wouldn't want her to help as that she couldn't, simply by the fact that she wasn't him and he had to stand or fall on his own merits. Besides, as has been pointed out, what could she DO exactly? Inspire him? She did that ably enough by being in his memory - and probably moreso for the fact that he was able to hold the idea of her as something wonderful to return to and to live for, rather than someone who had to be feared for and guarded every second.

Lastly - well, it's true that she could have done the same deed that thousands of girls in folksongs have done and disguised herself to accompany him, like Eowyn. No good. Apart from the fact that she would be breaking faith with her father, and all the previous problems with Aragorn fearing for her etc., what if she got killed, or he did? In the first case, it would be a Pyrrhic victory, since Aragorn makes it clear in ROTK that he'll marry Arwen or nobody (and if she's not available, there will be no heirs). In the second, she would have lost both her husband and her immortality, gotten the worst of both worlds. It's hard to imagine Arwen going off like that *without* marrying him, or indeed of his allowing her to go with him in that situation without marrying her. But it would be too soon, and the consequences would probably have been horrendous.