Arwen. The Lady of Rivendell

Arwen barely appears in the films and even less in the books. As you may know, Arwen is the daughter of Elrond, the Lord of Rivendell, which makes her Lady of Rivendell. Arwen is described as a woman in a power position and really beautiful. In addition to that, as you can see in the family tree in this website, she is, on her mother’s side, Galadriel’s granddaughter. Arwen’s full name is Arwen Undómiel. As this work explains, the name Arwen means “noble maiden” and Undómiel means “Evenstar.” In fact, in the films, she is in possesses the Evenstar jewel, which she gives to Aragorn as a proof of her love for him. Moreover, the etymology of her name (noble lady of the evening star) is also very significant because, at some point, Gimli is arguing with Éomer who is fairer, and the dwarf finally says “You have chosen the Evening; but my love is given to the Morning.” This is a reference to Arwen and Galadriel. And so, as her name points out, Arwen represents the evening, whereas Galadriel represents the morning.

Arwen in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Like Éowyn, she is in love with Aragorn, the difference is that Aragorn does love her back. Although they both love him, they take different roles. As this paper points out, Arwen’s role is passive in comparison with Éowyn’s. While the latter goes into battle with Aragorn, Arwen awaits for his return from the war. And that is why we say that Arwen’s role is passive. If we take Arwen’s role into account, we can conclude that she is a highly accurate representation of chivalric novels’ lady: the lady who patiently awaits for her lover to return from his battles to offer her love to him. And so, we could state that is what more or less happens, once Aragorn returns from the War of the Ring, they are able to marry because he reclaims his position as king of Gondor. However, Arwen does not marry his love without facing the consequences. In fact, during the films, she is faced with an impossible choice: her father or her love. This choice means that, if she is to marry Aragorn, she must abandon her life as an elf, which means to become mortal and to be separated from her kind forever. On the other hand, if she is to remain the rest of her life as an immortal elf, she should have to abandon Aragorn, not only not getting married with him, but also not seeing him never again. So, she finally choses to stay with Aragorn. However, Elrond explains that she is not to marry him until he proves himself worthy, which is done once he claims Gondor throne’s back. And so, they finally get married, and Arwen becomes Queen of the Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor. And so, when the elves part on the ship to the West, to the immortal’s land, she offers her place to Frodo, so that the wounds that he received along the journey may be healed.

As we have seen, Arwen’s role through the story is not that of a woman who contributes that much to the fellowship’s success. On the contrary, she patiently waits for the war to end to fulfil her role as queen. Even more important, she must do so sacrificing one part of herself, which is her family. However, her love is clue because it gives strength and hope to Aragorn in the midst of battle.