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"Again she fled, but swift he came,
Tinuviel! Tinuviel!
He called her by her elvish name;
And there she halted listening.
One moment stood she, and a spell
His voice laid on her: Beren came,
And doom fell on Tinuviel
That in his arms lay glistening."
ABOUT THE CHARACTER: Arwen was born the only daughter of Elrond, the Lord of Rivendell, with older twin brothers, Elladan and Elrohir. She is half-Elven, Sindar and Noldor, with a sprinkling of Maia. She divided her time between Rivendell and Lothlorien, where her grandparents reside. About five centuries before the events of the book, Celebrian, her mother, was captured and tortured by orcs, leaving her permanently scarred, so she sailed across the sea to find healing in the Undying Lands. This planted a deep longing in Elrond and Arwen to sail to the West and be reunited with her.
But then she met Aragorn, a young man from an exiled race, who was impudent enough to love her. She didn't think much of him at first, although she recognized that he was no ordinary man, that he held hope in his right hand and healing on his left. When next they met in Lothlorien, thirty years later, she saw that he alone held the key to her happiness, and that without him, eternity would be empty and vain. Arwen was torn between her wish to be reunited with her mother and the rest of her kin and the choice to be unbound from Arda and to pass into the undiscovered country beyond its borders, with the one she loves above all else.
She decided then, on Caras Galadhon, that she would pledge her life to him, choose the gift of Men over immortality. Some calls her selfless for it, but she isn't devoid of self-interest. She is wise enough to know that if she gives up her claim on eternity, she would have joy beyond the circles of the world, and she places her full faith in this, that when Arda Marred is healed, every tear will be wiped away and she will be with her beloved for all times. This isn't to say that Arwen made no sacrifice, because she did, only that she was wise enough to know that immortality was worthless when compared to Aragorn.
Arwen's greatest strength is her long-suffering faith in Aragorn. She believes in him unflinchingly, toiling day and night at her loom to craft him a banner worthy of chasing away the shadows of Mordor, worthy or a King. Even when he himself doubts his ability to win the war and to reunite the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor, she never did. Of course she has her failings. She still has fears and doubts, and her wisdom is by no means infinite, and she may still falter even when she knows what she should do. Arwen is proud of her lineage as a highborn elf, and she has her vanity, being quite aware of her great beauty. Then she has her ignorance, not understanding fully the the pains and pleasures of mortals, their endless longing for immortality.
She loves, honestly and unguardingly, her family and all those around her, though she may not understand them truly to love them as they need her to. One thing she does perfectly is love Aragorn; she knows the deep longings of his heart and she completes him as he her. She is also attuned to the suffering of those scarred by pain and grief because she has tended to her mother in her last days in Middle Earth. Later, near the end, Arwen was among the first to recognize the disquiet in Frodo, the hollow left there by the Ring, which will only grow as the years wore on.
Though she isn't yet a queen, she already is one in character; she needs no glittering jewels to be one, but instead clothes herself in strength and dignity. She has though and knowledge in her gaze, being Elrond's daughter, and recognizes the lessons of the past, the needs of the present and the hopes of the future.
More history and background at Arwen at The Thain's Book. And, of course, tropes: Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette, Bittersweet Ending, The Dulcinea Effect, Everything's Better With Princesses, Grey Eyes, The Lady's Favour, Love Interest, Mayfly December Romance, Really Seven Hundred Years Old, Everyone is Related, Token Romance, Death by Despair, Prophecies are Always Right, and World's Most Beautiful Woman.
ABILITIES: Compared to other elves, Arwen is not one gifted in a particular skill. Though in appearance she bears a striking resemblance to Luthien, Arwen is not known for her skill in singing or dancing or weaving spells like her ancestress. She does, however, take pleasure in embroidering, having woven her hope for her beloved into his banner of victory.
When compared to men however, several more differences can be pointed out. First being her immortality; she falls ill from no disease and she may heal from wounds otherwise mortal for men. She is thus more invested in what gives her, and most elves, pleasure, that is the arts. They have no need to worry over survival and so they revel in whatever is beautiful instead. She may be known for her beauty, but being a daughter of Elrond, she is not lacking in wisdom either.
Yet for all that, what sets her truly apart from all others is her great and unfaltering hope in Aragorn, in the ultimate victory of good over evil, no matter how great the darkness may seem. She trusts in him, not his fighting prowess, his lineage or his experience, and this moral strength of mind, more than even her beauty, is what sets her apart.
WHAT THEY LOST: She lost the ability to recall Aragorn's face or voice. She remembers the moments they shared together, but can never put together his appearance. She knows the facts; black hair, grey eyes, but cannot recall the image. She remembers the things he said to her, but only as recited words. This would trouble her because he is basically her lifeline, and replaying those memories are what keeps her going.
THIRD-PERSON SAMPLE: Arwen could not remember the day her work began. It came at first as an idea, a seed planted in her heart that she should make him a gift worthy of a King. It began as days of poring over books and scrolls; a Numenorean history, illustrations of ancient banners, apprentice texts for gem-smiths. Her hands and feet moved on their own, stealing into the library in the dead of the night, flipping through yellowed pages to quell the disquiet in her heart.
Already she has paid the price of mortality. Time had seemed to her as one eternal day, though it came to her now in successions. A season, and two, and three, without him by her side. She felt the days cling to her like frost onto a branch; a burden on her mind.
She then asked her father for the use of a small house hidden between the steep hills of Rhudaur, its wooden walls lined with old age, rays of sun peeking between the gaps. None ventured here.
Arwen worked in the evenings and on day when revelries distracted the residents and constant guests of Rivendell. She hid her work from him, during his brief visits, locked it in a great casket inside the small house. She wore the key around her neck, and he understood.
"Bitter is the dark path ahead, and these brief interludes my only joy," he said to her, fingers interlaced with hers, holding her like a lifeline. She took in the pain and grief more sternly carved into his features.
Arwen would kiss him and call his name, "Estel."
She has seen the winged crown on his head, the shining sceptre in his hands. Though others may see a mortal man, like a tiny sapling beside a birch of many years, like a wisp of smoke that fades in a moment, she saw a king whose valor even death and his company will not destroy.
Feel free to contact me here with comments, criticisms, questions, plot ideas and everything else~
Tinuviel! Tinuviel!
He called her by her elvish name;
And there she halted listening.
One moment stood she, and a spell
His voice laid on her: Beren came,
And doom fell on Tinuviel
That in his arms lay glistening."
ABOUT THE CHARACTER: Arwen was born the only daughter of Elrond, the Lord of Rivendell, with older twin brothers, Elladan and Elrohir. She is half-Elven, Sindar and Noldor, with a sprinkling of Maia. She divided her time between Rivendell and Lothlorien, where her grandparents reside. About five centuries before the events of the book, Celebrian, her mother, was captured and tortured by orcs, leaving her permanently scarred, so she sailed across the sea to find healing in the Undying Lands. This planted a deep longing in Elrond and Arwen to sail to the West and be reunited with her.
But then she met Aragorn, a young man from an exiled race, who was impudent enough to love her. She didn't think much of him at first, although she recognized that he was no ordinary man, that he held hope in his right hand and healing on his left. When next they met in Lothlorien, thirty years later, she saw that he alone held the key to her happiness, and that without him, eternity would be empty and vain. Arwen was torn between her wish to be reunited with her mother and the rest of her kin and the choice to be unbound from Arda and to pass into the undiscovered country beyond its borders, with the one she loves above all else.
She decided then, on Caras Galadhon, that she would pledge her life to him, choose the gift of Men over immortality. Some calls her selfless for it, but she isn't devoid of self-interest. She is wise enough to know that if she gives up her claim on eternity, she would have joy beyond the circles of the world, and she places her full faith in this, that when Arda Marred is healed, every tear will be wiped away and she will be with her beloved for all times. This isn't to say that Arwen made no sacrifice, because she did, only that she was wise enough to know that immortality was worthless when compared to Aragorn.
Arwen's greatest strength is her long-suffering faith in Aragorn. She believes in him unflinchingly, toiling day and night at her loom to craft him a banner worthy of chasing away the shadows of Mordor, worthy or a King. Even when he himself doubts his ability to win the war and to reunite the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor, she never did. Of course she has her failings. She still has fears and doubts, and her wisdom is by no means infinite, and she may still falter even when she knows what she should do. Arwen is proud of her lineage as a highborn elf, and she has her vanity, being quite aware of her great beauty. Then she has her ignorance, not understanding fully the the pains and pleasures of mortals, their endless longing for immortality.
She loves, honestly and unguardingly, her family and all those around her, though she may not understand them truly to love them as they need her to. One thing she does perfectly is love Aragorn; she knows the deep longings of his heart and she completes him as he her. She is also attuned to the suffering of those scarred by pain and grief because she has tended to her mother in her last days in Middle Earth. Later, near the end, Arwen was among the first to recognize the disquiet in Frodo, the hollow left there by the Ring, which will only grow as the years wore on.
Though she isn't yet a queen, she already is one in character; she needs no glittering jewels to be one, but instead clothes herself in strength and dignity. She has though and knowledge in her gaze, being Elrond's daughter, and recognizes the lessons of the past, the needs of the present and the hopes of the future.
More history and background at Arwen at The Thain's Book. And, of course, tropes: Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette, Bittersweet Ending, The Dulcinea Effect, Everything's Better With Princesses, Grey Eyes, The Lady's Favour, Love Interest, Mayfly December Romance, Really Seven Hundred Years Old, Everyone is Related, Token Romance, Death by Despair, Prophecies are Always Right, and World's Most Beautiful Woman.
ABILITIES: Compared to other elves, Arwen is not one gifted in a particular skill. Though in appearance she bears a striking resemblance to Luthien, Arwen is not known for her skill in singing or dancing or weaving spells like her ancestress. She does, however, take pleasure in embroidering, having woven her hope for her beloved into his banner of victory.
When compared to men however, several more differences can be pointed out. First being her immortality; she falls ill from no disease and she may heal from wounds otherwise mortal for men. She is thus more invested in what gives her, and most elves, pleasure, that is the arts. They have no need to worry over survival and so they revel in whatever is beautiful instead. She may be known for her beauty, but being a daughter of Elrond, she is not lacking in wisdom either.
Yet for all that, what sets her truly apart from all others is her great and unfaltering hope in Aragorn, in the ultimate victory of good over evil, no matter how great the darkness may seem. She trusts in him, not his fighting prowess, his lineage or his experience, and this moral strength of mind, more than even her beauty, is what sets her apart.
WHAT THEY LOST: She lost the ability to recall Aragorn's face or voice. She remembers the moments they shared together, but can never put together his appearance. She knows the facts; black hair, grey eyes, but cannot recall the image. She remembers the things he said to her, but only as recited words. This would trouble her because he is basically her lifeline, and replaying those memories are what keeps her going.
THIRD-PERSON SAMPLE: Arwen could not remember the day her work began. It came at first as an idea, a seed planted in her heart that she should make him a gift worthy of a King. It began as days of poring over books and scrolls; a Numenorean history, illustrations of ancient banners, apprentice texts for gem-smiths. Her hands and feet moved on their own, stealing into the library in the dead of the night, flipping through yellowed pages to quell the disquiet in her heart.
Already she has paid the price of mortality. Time had seemed to her as one eternal day, though it came to her now in successions. A season, and two, and three, without him by her side. She felt the days cling to her like frost onto a branch; a burden on her mind.
She then asked her father for the use of a small house hidden between the steep hills of Rhudaur, its wooden walls lined with old age, rays of sun peeking between the gaps. None ventured here.
Arwen worked in the evenings and on day when revelries distracted the residents and constant guests of Rivendell. She hid her work from him, during his brief visits, locked it in a great casket inside the small house. She wore the key around her neck, and he understood.
"Bitter is the dark path ahead, and these brief interludes my only joy," he said to her, fingers interlaced with hers, holding her like a lifeline. She took in the pain and grief more sternly carved into his features.
Arwen would kiss him and call his name, "Estel."
She has seen the winged crown on his head, the shining sceptre in his hands. Though others may see a mortal man, like a tiny sapling beside a birch of many years, like a wisp of smoke that fades in a moment, she saw a king whose valor even death and his company will not destroy.
Feel free to contact me here with comments, criticisms, questions, plot ideas and everything else~