Quote:
Originally Posted by Elanor Gardener
I didn't consider that. Is that how Arwen could send Frodo in her place? (I wondered how that could be allowed too!)
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Not having the Letters and other resources at hand, I am taking this from memory, but...
Arwen, according to Tolkien, didn't send Frodo in her place, as if she had a ticket on the boat that she handed to him (more or less Tolkien's words!). The passage of any mortal into the West was something that had to be approved of by the Valar, and Gandalf, as was said, was their representative and acted on their behalf, with their approval, in sanctioning this idea. Galadriel's ban was initially that of all the Noldor who rebelled and left Aman in defiance of the Valar. At the end of the First Age, she felt that she had done nothing that needed pardon and refused to return; having done that, she believed her exile to be permanent (which was not necessarily so), and was allowed to return because of all she had done during her time in Middle-earth, especially her refusal to take the Ring. This permission would have been passed on to her through Gandalf.