May 20, 2002

Thoughts on Arwen
Galadhrim

My personal analyzation of Arwen:

I think she's an incredible character.

She gives strength to Aragorn in his fight against Sauron. Indirectly, I mean. The thought of her gives him strength. And that's good, cuz if Aragorn ran out of strength, where would Middle-Earth as we know it be???

Also, the love between Aragorn and Arwen is pure, not disgusting or perverted. She encourages Aragorn to be at his best, claim his throne... etc., etc.

Tolkien doesn't really develop a lot of female characters... Sure, they come along here and there, but think about it. There are very few women in LOTR. The two that Tolkien developed the most were (I think) Eowyn and Galadriel. I think there was another, but I forgot.

However, while Tolkien definitely doesn't develop Arwen alot, we know enough about her to know she is a very important figure in Rivendell, the "Evenstar" of her people. They [her people] look up to her. We know that she was gorgeous. And we know that she and Aragorn meant alot to each other.

From later LOTR history (look in the appendices in the back of "Return of the King") we discover that she gave up her immortal life (as she does in the movie) to live with Aragorn.

And we know that she and Aragorn marry each other in the "Return of the King."

And in the Fellowship, when they are in Lorien, I am pretty sure without looking in the book that Aragorn says some Elvish line that includes "Undomiel", part of Arwen's name somewhere in there. Also, there is some vague discussion between Aragorn and Galadriel, who is, besides Queen of Lorien, the Grandmother of Arwen, about what Galadriel gan give Aragorn as a gift. Aragorn replies something like,"you know that which I would have," and Galadriel says something like,"that is not in my power to give, but you have my blessing blah blah blah..." which, I get the impression in the book, means Arwen. Though Galadriel is Arwen's Grandmother, it is not in her power to "give" Arwen away. I'm glad... I HATE the notion of women being treated as objects... Bleh! But, that proves that Aragorn desires Arwen and that she gives him strength. So Arwen's character is developed indirectly, but I think it would have been great if Tolkien had gone into a little more depth with Arwen... But I like how they did that in the movie.