Arwen Undómiel
| House / Order | House of Telcontar (by marriage); House of Elrond; descended from Lúthien |
|---|---|
| Race / Culture | Elf (Half-elven, of the line of Lúthien) |
| Status | Slain (died as a mortal) |
| Origin | Rivendell; later Minas Tirith and Lothlórien |
| Born | T.A. 241 |
| Died | F.A. 121, in Lothlórien |
| Weapon | |
| Fate | Chose mortality to wed Aragorn; after his death faded and died alone in Lórien |
| Portrayed by | Liv Tyler |
Arwen Undómiel, called the Evenstar of her people, was the daughter of Elrond of Rivendell and the most beautiful of the last generation of the Eldar in Middle-earth. Of the Half-elven line, granddaughter of Galadriel and descendant of Lúthien Tinúviel, she chose a mortal life for love of Aragorn and became Queen of the Reunited Kingdom.
Her tale, told fully in the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, is a deliberate echo of the ancient love of Beren and Lúthien — the second and last union of Elf and Man, by which the blood of the Eldar passed into the line of kings.
Origins
Arwen was born in T.A. 241, daughter of Elrond Half-elven and Celebrían, and so granddaughter of Galadriel and Celeborn of Lothlórien. Through her father she descended from Eärendil and from Lúthien herself, the fairest of all the Children of Ilúvatar. She was held to be the likeness of Lúthien come again, and was named Undómiel, "Evenstar," as the last and loveliest of her kindred. She dwelt long in Rivendell and at times in Lothlórien with her mother's people.
Biography
The meeting and the betrothal
- Main article: The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen
Aragorn, fostered in Rivendell, first saw Arwen when he was twenty and she many centuries old, and loved her at once. Years later they plighted their troth upon the hill of Cerin Amroth in Lothlórien. But their union was bound by a hard doom: Elrond would not give his daughter to any man less than a king of both Gondor and Arnor, and Arwen, in choosing Aragorn, must accept the Doom of Men — mortality — and be sundered for ever from her father and her people, who would pass over Sea.
The War of the Ring
Through the long years of Aragorn's labours Arwen waited, and wove for him a great standard bearing the emblems of Elendil's house — the White Tree, the Seven Stars, and the crown. This banner, brought south by the Grey Company, she sent to him on the eve of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and it was unfurled when Aragorn revealed himself as the rightful king. She is said to have strengthened his resolve and confirmed her choice in the dark hour of the war.
Queen and ending
With Sauron overthrown and Aragorn crowned King Elessar, Arwen came to Minas Tirith and wed him at Midsummer in T.A. 3019. She gave up her immortality and her place among the Eldar; her father Elrond departed over Sea, and they never met again. To Frodo, wounded beyond healing, she gave her own place on the ship into the West, that he might find peace.
Arwen reigned beside Aragorn for some six score years and bore him a son, Eldarion, and several daughters. When at last the King laid down his life in F.A. 120, Arwen could not be comforted. She went out from Minas Tirith to the fading land of Lothlórien, now empty of its people, and there upon Cerin Amroth she lay down and died, the last of the Evenstar's kindred to taste the bitterness of the mortal gift she had chosen.
Character
Arwen is grave, gentle, and of surpassing beauty, the living image of an older and more sorrowful grace. Her great act is one of renunciation: she trades the deathlessness of the Elves and reunion with her kin beyond the Sea for a single mortal lifetime with the man she loves. In this she completes the pattern of Lúthien, and her final loneliness in the empty wood is the price the tale exacts for so great a choice.
Relationships
- Aragorn — her husband and king, for whom she became mortal.
- Elrond — her father, from whom her choice sundered her for ever.
- Galadriel — her grandmother, Lady of Lothlórien.
- Frodo Baggins — to whom she gave her own passage into the West.
- Lúthien — her foremother, whose fate she chose to repeat.
Appearances
- The Fellowship of the Ring (briefly, at Rivendell)
- The Return of the King (at the wedding; and Appendix A, "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen")
In Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), Arwen was portrayed by Liv Tyler. The films greatly expand her role, giving her Glorfindel's part in rescuing Frodo at the Ford of Bruinen and weaving her fate into the main narrative; in the book her story is told chiefly in the Appendix.
Quotes
But I am the daughter of Elrond. I shall not go with him now when he departs to the Havens; for mine is the choice of Lúthien, and as she so have I chosen, both the sweet and the bitter.