Arwen - Lord of the Rings

Arwen Undómiel, daughter of Elrond, was almost 3,000 years old when she first met Aragorn, who was then just 20. She was called Arwen the Fair, Lady of Imladris and of Lórien, and the Evenstar of her people.

For Aragorn, it was love at first sight, but though Elrond loved him like a son, he cautioned Aragorn about the hard years ahead: "Many years of trial lie before you. You shall neither have wife, nor bind any woman to you in troth, until your time comes and you are found worthy of it." And, truly, Elrond was grieved already at the thought that he might be parted from his daughter when the time finally came for him to leave Middle-earth.

So Aragorn left Rivendell, traveling for 30 years under many names and guises, fighting against Sauron and all foes. Tolkien says "Thus he became at last the most hardy of living Men, skilled in their crafts and lore, and was yet more than that, for he was elven-wise, and there was a light in his eyes that when they were kindled few could endure. His face was sad and stern because of the doom that was laid on him, and yet hope dwelt ever in the depths of his heart, from which mirth would arise at times like a spring from the rock."

Seeking rest, he came to Loth Lórien at age 49 (but being much longer-lived than men today, he was not yet even at his peak of vigor). Arwen was there, too, visiting her mother's kin and "as he came walking towards her under the trees of Caras Galadon laden with flowers of gold, her choice was made and her doom appointed."

Aragorn told Arwen that if she were to cleave to him, she must renounce her immortality. And Arwen agreed to this, though grieved because she loved her father very much. Elrond was distraught when he heard they had plighted their troth. He told Aragorn that he would give up his daughter for no less than "the King of both Gondor and Arnor". [Arnor was the lost northern kingdom, where Strider and his kin served as Rangers to protect the people.]

Following the War of the Ring, Arwen and Aragorn were wed and spent 120 years "in great glory and bliss" before Aragorn knew his time was short and he must die. Arwen pled with him to live awhile longer for "she was not yet weary of her days, and thus she tasted the bitterness of the mortality that she had taken upon her."

As an immortal, Arwen could then have passed over Sea, had there been any ships left to carry her - but there were none. In her grief, she returned alone to an empty and bereft Lórien. Wandering through the winter, she pondered her life and her time with Aragorn. Before the hint of spring, she laid herself upon the hill Cerin Amroth, where she and Aragorn had long ago declared their love, and there she died.

She did not share in the hope of men, having not been raised to it, though Aragorn tried to comfort her before his end, saying "In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory."

Did she come to believe that before the end? We do not know. Let us hope that she and Aragorn met again in that fair green land beyond our ken.

The above story is taken from "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" in Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings.