Why did Arwen do that??

[Mister Underhill]

It is a hallmark of Tolkien’s most admirable characters that they are not crippled by sentimentality. This is especially true of Aragorn and his kith and kin. They feel sorrow at misfortune and partings and the ending of good things, but they are not ruled by it. Any number of examples may be cited. Aragorn, only moments after Gandalf has fallen, quickly rallies: “Let us gird ourselves and weep no more! Come! We have a long road, and much to do.” When Aragorn laments, “Then bitter will my days be, and I will walk in the wild alone,” his mother Gilraen doesn’t sugarcoat it for him: “That will indeed be your fate.” And when Gilraen later announces that she will soon die, does Aragorn hang around for the bitter end? No. He goes away with heavy heart – but he goes away. These characters do not fear death, though they may lament it, nor do they cling desperately to life – their own or another’s – when its season has passed.

I’m not sure where I’m heading with all this, so I’ll just blurt out some thoughts and impressions and hope that some coherent observations appear:

It is recorded that Aragorn and Arwen’s marriage lasted for 120 years. I think we may safely assume that their children are all over 100 years old – no spring chickens; doubtless parents and probably even grandparents themselves, with families and lives of their own. The grief of the parting of parents and children is mitigated by the long preparation for it, and by the fact that all involved have had long and (no doubt) full relationships. In terms of sheer time, Arwen has, by any yardstick, fulfilled her obligations as a mother to her children. As an aside, Squatter, I’d argue that Eldarion’s duties and obligations as the new king would probably make it easier rather than more difficult for him to deal with the loss of his parents.

In HoME XII, there’s a slightly different line from Aragorn in which he makes a much clearer distinction between sorrow and despair: “In sorrow we must go, for sorrow is appointed to us; and indeed by sorrow we do but say that that which is ended is good. But let us not go in despair.” Does Arwen give in to despair – indeed, die of despair? I don’t think we can say “yes” with certainty. She doesn’t immediately lay down and die. The wording – “...she went out from the city of Minas Tirith and passed away to the land of Lórien, and dwelt there alone under the fading trees until winter came” – suggests to me a season of reflection and of making peace with her fate before death comes.

We might question the very idea that Arwen has a choice to linger for decades in Middle-earth. A series of quotes suggest that Aragorn’s and Arwen’s fates are bound in a very literal sense:

...yet it was not [Arwen's] lot to die until all that she had gained was lost.

Aragorn: 'Lo! we have gathered, and we have spent, and now the time of payment draws near.'

And for all her wisdom and lineage she could not forbear to plead with him to stay yet for a while. She was not yet weary of her days, and thus she tasted the bitterness of the mortality that she had taken upon her.

Aragorn: 'And on the hill of Cerin Amroth when we forsook both the Shadow and the Twilight this doom we accepted.'

“In sorrow we must go...”

There are a lot of we’s in there. Aragorn may be using the “royal ‘we’”, or he may mean “we mortals”, or – he may mean that when it’s time for him to go, it’s time for them both to go. This makes for an alternate reading of the idea that Arwen is “not yet weary of her days”. She doesn’t want to go yet, but knows that once Aragorn dies, she soon must follow him. From this point of view, the whole sentence suggests that her bitterness stems from the thought of her own impending death – not merely from Aragorn’s death. She also speaks of the gift of Men being “bitter to receive”. This discussion has assumed that she’s referring to Aragorn’s death, but to “receive” the gift is to die. Perhaps she refers to her own.

On the other hand, there does seem to be, as I’ve mentioned, at least a bit of a grace period for her to get herself in order. The ability to choose the time and place and circumstances of one’s death rather than lingering on while the infirmities and indignities of old age assail the body is a blessing which many of us may only begin to appreciate as we grow older. To everything there is a season – and Tolkien’s noblest characters know when their season is ended and have the grace to leave when it is. Indeed, every model Arwen has to follow has taken this road: Elrond, her father, Galadriel, her mother-figure, and Aragorn, her husband, all willingly pass from Middle-earth to their respective afterlives, leaving behind loved ones. Why should we begrudge Arwen this same path?

Overly long, rough and rambling, but not without grist for the mill...

[ September 09, 2003: Message edited by: Mister Underhill ]