Luthien and Arwen

[Eol]

I took some time and did some research and this is what I wrote up. This will be later put up on my webpage:


It should be addressed that Arwen is not immortal and does not lose her "immortality" when she marries Aragon. Arwen is not immortal and neither are the rest of the elves. They are subject to death as man is. The reference of "mortal" to men is that when they die and are not bound to anything as the elves are.

The firstborn of the Iluvatar are known as the Elves, then Man who are also born from the same source(Silmarillion, 41 paragraph 1). Because they are born from the same source they share similarities. Each were given different gifts according to what Eru had knowledge of.

"It is with this gift of freedom that the children of Men dwell only a short space in the world alive, and are not bound to it... Whereas the Elves remain until the end of days, and their love of the Earth and all the world is more single and poingant therefore, and as the years lengthen ever more sorrowful. For the Elves die not till the world dies, unless they are slain or waste in grief( and to both these seeming deaths they are subject)"(Silmarillion 42 last paragraph).

Since Elves are subject to death and are can be slain, they cannot be immortal. Being immortal means that you last forever and cannot be killed, while mortality signifies that you have to die sometime. The only difference between an elf dying and a human dying is that an elf is bound to the earth and will return when the Earth is reborn. "And dying they are gathered to the halls of Mandos in Valinor, whence they may in time return"(Silmarillion 42, end of last paragraph).

The term refering to "mortal men" is rather simple but easily confused. This term is merely used to refer to difference between an elf and a human without using either term. These differences lie with their lifespans and their gifts.

The question of whether Arwen is immortal is very simple, she is not immortal. The only thing that would signify her difference is that she did not follow her father. "Elrond grew weary at last and foresook Middle-earth, never to return" leaving with the rest of the elves. Arwen remained behind to become *as a* mortal woman, not *a* mortal woman (Return of the Kings, 426 Appedendix A:5 p 426 forty-first printing book edition). She remained with the rest of the Men and died outside of the haven in Lothlorien.


What do you think?