[Dilettante]

Aldarion and Erendis! A pair of lovers doomed to never be happy. In that it rather reminds me of Tristan and Isolde. Although here, rather than being kept apart, these two can't seem to stay together. They want to be together and yet they are afraid to and they are afraid in being together they will have to surrender what they love.

I love the tale of Aldarion and Erendis, despite it's sadness. Back when I first read it, a friend and I were discussing which one of them was at fault. I decided they were both at fault. Aldarion could have not run off to sea for years at a time, flagrantly rebelled against his father, or chopped down trees in the sight of Erendis when he knew it pained her. But then, he was plagued by sea-longing, so he may have been fated to fail from the beginning.

Erendis, on the other hand, could have tried harder to be interested in the things that pleased Aldarion rather than stomping off every time he did something she did not approve of. Relationships work best when both parties at least attempt to be interested in what the other person enjoys. Neither Aldarion nor Erendis did this. They just went along their happy way and it was just too bad if the other one didn't like it. Also, Erendis' almost pathological fear of the sea is a bit silly. What did the sea ever do to her? Especially considering the Valar protected the ships of the Numenoreans. She could have tried harder to love Aldarion and the things he loved rather than loving "herself with Numenor as a setting". Which she very much did. While I think Aldarion loved the sea more than Erendis, Erendis loved herself more than Aldarion and more than she claimed to love Numenor.

The most poignant thing to me, was when the tale described how Aldarion was following Erendis around Numenor and tending to the land and planting trees was the time he had been most content. And that he did not realize how happy he was then until many years later when he was old and looking back on his life.