Hot take: I cannot stand the âTale of Aragorn and Arwen.â It makes Aragorn and Arwen look like terrible people, but even worse, Tolkien did not intend for Aragorn and Arwen to be terrible people. Which means that the story is just⊠poorly written. I know Iâve praised Tolkienâs use of understatement as an artistic choice, but here he simply fails to communicate.
Letâs start with the character assassination of Arwen. At least Aragornâs entitled attitude is foreshadowed in the main text of LotR, but poor Arwen gets her entire personality (such as it is) flipped upside down. Iâm talking about this scene where Aragorn is dying and she suddenly discovers that death is, like, bad:
âBut I say to you, King of the NĂșmenoreans, not till now have I understood the tale of your people and their fall. As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last. For if this is indeed, as the Eldar say, the gift of the One to Men, it is bitter to receive.â
Now, Arwen barely exists in the novel, but the two character traits she gets are SMART and EMPATHETIC. Then, with these three short sentences in the appendices, Tolkien says lol no Arwen is DUMB and SELF-ABSORBED, ackchually. I know some people like Arwen becoming more complex or morally grey or whatnot, but I find this quote jarringly inconsistent with her character in the novel.
First impressions are important, and the first time Arwen appears in LotR we are told that âthought and knowledge were in her glance, as of one who has known many things that the years bring.â So right away, the main thing Tolkien wants us to know about Arwen is that she is smart and thoughtful, in addition to being beautiful. After all, sheâs the daughter of the greatest lore master in Middle Earth, and sheâs had over 2,000 years to browse Elrondâs library and ponder lifeâs mysteries. Her longest scene in LotR, the only scene where she gets to speak, is all about her empathy:
âBut the Queen Arwen said: 'A gift I will give you. For 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 Luthien, and as she so I have chosen, both the sweet and the bitter. But in my stead you shall go, Ring-bearer, when the time comes, and if you then desire it. If your hurts grieve you still and the memory of your burden is heavy, then you may pass into the West, until all your wounds and weariness are healed. But wear this now in memory of Elfstone and Evenstar with whom your life has been woven!'
And she took a white gem like a star that lay upon her breast hanging upon a silver chain, and she set the chain around Frodo's neck. 'When the memory of the fear and the darkness troubles you,' she said, 'this will bring you aid.â
Arwen is the reason Frodo goes to the Grey Havens. No one else sees him and his pain quite this clearly. Even Sam is shocked when Frodo leaves, thinking that he was going to âenjoy the Shire for years and years.â But Arwen gets him. Instantly. Her mother left Middle Earth after suffering great torment, and Arwen makes that connection and offers Frodo the same healing that her mother chose.
Why does Arwen wear a necklace that apparently has some kind of magic trauma-soothing powers? Does it help her when she is feeling sad about Celebrian? Is it a parallel to the Elessar, the healing stone that Aragorn carries (his Elfstone, her Evenstar)? In any case, giving it away to Frodo reinforces Arwenâs generous, thoughtful nature. She takes after her father: kind as summer, skilled at healing. For I am the daughter of Elrond.
This deeply empathetic Arwen seems too imaginative for the smugness of âas wicked fools I scorned them.â If Arwen LITERALLY didnât try to understand how the Numenorians felt until her husband was dying in front of her, thatâs⊠horrifying. Did Arwen really shrug off the deaths of Eowyn and Faramir and all the humans she knew in Gondor, in addition to any humans she met over centuries of living in Rivendell? Did she never feel pity for her own infant children who were born âdoomed to dieâ? When Arwen chose death for herself, she also chose it for her children!
The idea that Arwen couldnât figure out why the Numenorians were sad about dying is just ridiculous, especially because Arwen never has anything positive to say about mortality, ever! Aragorn is the one who pushes her to renounce her immortality, and she hesitates for a long time before saying, âI will cleave to you, DĂșnadan, and turn from the Twilight. Yet there lies the land of my people and the long home of all my kin.â And Elrond straight up tells Aragorn, âI fear that to Arwen the Doom of Men may seem hard at the ending.â There is no indication that Arwen has a rosy view of mortality!
To me, Arwenâs words about the Numenorians feel like sloppy writing. I imagine Tolkien meant something like âlosing you is even worse than I imagined,â not âI am a spoiled elf princess who has never questioned the Elf Catechism until this exact moment.â
Or no. Itâs worse than that. The entire story is imbued with this idea that Arwen has no life outside of Aragorn! Tolkien never explains how Aragorn grew up in Rivendell without learning that Elrond had a daughter. Seriously, he is 20 at their first meeting and he asks her if Elrond has kept her âlocked in his hoardâ? Classy! And when Aragorn dies, Arwen immediately leaves her children and loved ones behind to go die alone in Lothlorien. Because thereâs no way she could carry on for a few more years and enjoy her grandkids, apparently.
And this is a trope with Tolkien! Thereâs Rian, who leaves her newborn son behind to go die on her husbandâs grave, and Melian, who peaces out to Valinor the second her husband is killed (instead of staying around to govern Doriath). Eowynâs mother dies of grief after her husband is killed in battle. Itâs a very icky double standardâthe male characters tend to soldier on after their wives die (Finwe, Turgon, Denethor, Theoden).
The idea that Aragornâs death is the first one that has really mattered to Arwen and that she has nothing to live for without him is just⊠sexism! Thatâs all it is.
