May 28, 2003

Speaking of Valinor... Why Does Arwen Die?
Niphredil

Do you think Arwen was not able to sail West because she had married a Numenorean? It always bugs me when I read about Aragorn’s death when he asks her to “repent and go to the Havens and bear away into the West the memory of our days together that shall be evergreen but never more than memory” to which Arwen responds “ Nay, dear Lord, that choice is long over. There is now no ship that would bear me hence, and I must indeed abide the Doom of Men, whether I will or I nill.” There is a ship she could go on, Legolas builds one in Ithilien. So I always thought it was because the Valar wouldn’t let her enter the Undying Lands.

Do you think this is because of their history with the Numenoreans? The fact that they attacked Aman which led to the Undying Lands being “removed for ever from the circles of the world” and to Numenor being “thrown down and swallowed in the sea”. If it is, boy, do they hold grudges.