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Arwen's Heart by Bodkin	214 Review(s)
Sneha	Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 7/22/2013
I think this is the best Arwen story I have ever read. I was tired of her being depicted as a weeping female with none of the wisdom or dignity of the Eldar. I loved how you showed her to be a strong person without making it cross the bounds Tolkien set for her. I loved her interactions with her brother, you made her seem so real! And their romance was so subtly depicted without too much fluff. And the ending was the best! My heart grieved for Elrond and it was soothed. I have read a lot of lotr fanfiction until their was almost nothing left to read. I wanted a good fic before I left the fandom, your story has left a delightful feeling and now I am satisfied. Thank you for such a wonderful story.

undomiel205	Reviewed Chapter: 9 on 3/20/2011
Wow this story is amazing!! It got me hooked from the beginning but this chapter is my fave so far, it has so much emotion in it. I especially love the conversation between Aragorn and the twins, it shows how much both sides care for Arwen and that they would do anything for her. However there is one thing I don't really understand. If Arwen did really know about her destiny does this mean that she was prepared to marry a man that possibly she might not even love, and thus forsake immortality and her family, simply out of duty? Does this mean that (before she fell in love with him) she was prepared to marry Aragorn because of duty? It would make me really sad if it really is so. I have always believed that Arwen never really thought much of becoming a mortal until she saw Aragorn in Lothlorien again where she fell in love with him for who he was and not because duty dictated her to do so. And then realising she loved him so much she could't live without him she chose to become mortal. However, you have written this story so beautifully and convincingly that now my beliefs are starting to crumble. Please explain to me how and why she decided to marry him (I'm sorry if this is in the story and you are forced to write it again but English is not my first language and I might have not understood the story fully) Anyways I would like to say again that your story is wonderful and it's a gem within LOTR fanfic. I also really liked, in the previous chap. i think it was, that Aragorn had been faithful to Arwen and never been intimate with women. I think it portrays his character perfectly and I have always had the same opinion on it and believed that his first time was indeed with Arwen on their wedding night. Keep up with the good work and keep on delighting us with your stories :)

curiouswombat	Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 9/25/2010
Somehow, although this has been on my to-read list for a long time, I had forgotten about it until today. I have just read it all, over one afternoon and evening, and just want to say thank you for such a lovely, insightful, look at Arwen. I feel that I know her so much better now.

aragorn/arwen 4evr	Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 2/16/2009
this is sooo beautiful!!! i love this fic!

Sphinx	Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 7/31/2008
I havent read LOTR fic in a while. But I felt like it, and I wanted Celeborn, and I dug this out. What a beautiful story. Your Arwen is one of the first real convincing takes I have seen on the character. And in spanning the years and choices and dilemmas, you've produced a story that simmers in the background of LOTR, yet never really took the limelight. Thank you. Because the plot bunnies resurface. :) Apologies for not logging in. Sphinx

Dreamflower	Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 9/17/2006
Oh, wow! I read this all in one gulp this morning, and am now feeling completely sated. This is an absolutely beautiful story. Arwen's strength and loyalty, of which we are offered only brief glimpses in canon, are here fleshed out completely believably. Yes, I can see in this Arwen a devotion and a love that could accept a destiny beyond her comprehension, and endure a forty-year betrothal, decades spent in a strang place among strange people, and finally, an acceptance of a fate beyond her ken. And the end--it made perfect sense, for to be beyond the bounds of Arda is to be beyond all time, where time is irrelevant, and to wait means nothing at all. A brilliant job! Author Reply: Thank you, Dreamflower! I'm so pleased you enjoyed it - I really had fun with this story, although the end was rather tough. At the start I thought I would leave it at the wedding - but it just didn't work, because that's not how Arwen's story ended. I started it because I got tired of incidental-Arwen - Elrond's daughter had to have more to her than just being a reward! Plus she was far better trained to rule than poor Aragorn, who spent so many years wallowing in mud on his own. I think she, like Elrond, understood fate and destiny - and, like him, she was able to embrace it. Fate didn't make her love of Aragorn any less - more, if anything. She was dedicated to him. And I was glad to reunite her with all her family - it did make sense, once you started to think about it, even if it did make me feel rather dizzy.

Stefania	Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 6/14/2006
Bodkin, I am enjoying the textures of your story as much as the character development. Your prose evokes a brittle beauty for me. Arwen is such a well drawn character and a heroine I can really emphasize with. I also am really delighted with Celeborn, the minor character who shouts out to me. And what a beautiful evocation of Aragorn's first spotting of Arwen and its parallels to Luthien and Beren. I'm glad I discovered "Arwen's Heart." - Stefania Author Reply: Thank you, Stefania. I am very pleased you are enjoying it! This chapter was an excuse to indulge in some of the descriptive writing that Tolkien's story evokes. It is such a beautiful scene to imagine! I like Arwen and feel she sometimes gets short-changed in stories. She is a strong female, with experience and determination - and many of her qualities went into supporting Aragorn through a very difficult period. There is more to her than some medieval Lady sitting in safety sewing a banner for her Lord. And I just love Celeborn! Such a tough character - so confident in his own worth that he has no difficulty at all dealing with Galadriel. I hope you continue to enjoy the rest of the story.

x	Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 4/6/2006
Not much to say really. I was overly impressed and am so glad i found this story. The characters are consistent in character which made the story touching and the depth was incredible. It also gave me an insight on a few things behind the scenes of 3rd age middle Earth which will help me in writing my story. Dont worry, i wont be copying you but you have proved helpful and your story telling ability is excellent. Great story, well wrote, great job. I'll look out for more of your work. Author Reply: Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I really wanted to portray an Arwen who was strong and determined and yet remained within the boundaries Tolkien had set her - while providing an inspiration sufficient to make Estel grow into Elessar. I'm glad you think the scenes I've shown will help you develop your story. (Nilmandra's History Lessons are fantastic for providing masses of background knowledge, too. If you haven't read them yet, do!) Good luck with your work.

jules	Reviewed Chapter: 6 on 4/4/2006
We may have to agree to disagree on the matter of Elrond, but maybe I should explain my description of him as ‘arrogant’. It’s funny, but the point you brought up in your review response in his defence is one of the main problems I have with him – “He been has managing these affairs for a long time”. He has indeed – together with Galadriel and Gandalf, he has been managing and manipulating the lives of generations of dunedain (and, to an apparently lesser extent, the other free peoples). Doubtless it has all been with the most noble of intentions, but there is still something quite patronising about it. (I confess I have a similar problem with the inferences in the book and in a lot of fanfictions that all of the wisdom to be found in Middle Earth left on a grey ship at the end of the 3rd Age – the idea that of course the eldar were superior to men and therefore they had a right to move the chesspieces.) I do believe Elrond genuinely loved Aragorn, but I’m afraid the way I see it he tried his best to keep A&A apart. I agree that they would never have fallen in love if Arwen had been around when Estel was growing up, but somehow I don’t think that was Elrond’s intention when he packed Arwen off to Lorien and kept her very name from being mentioned around Estel. I can of course sympathise with the unfairness of the situation from Elrond’s point of view, but to me it still smacks of hypocrisy to raise Estel/Aragorn up under the imperative of duty and destiny, but (in my view at least) take concerted action to prevent his own daughter’s part in that destiny. While Gandalf at least appears to have been involved in ordering the dunedain world (it’s not clear whether Galadriel cared all that much about them either way), he seems to be much more accepting of destiny in general (perhaps because he does not become too attached to any of his chesspieces, except for Bilbo & Frodo?). And as for Galadriel, she certainly did nothing to keep A&A apart, and arguably she helped it along – she could have denied Aragorn access to Lorien, or kept him oblivious to Arwen’s presence, instead she decked him out like an elf lord and all but presented him up to her. That aside, I have to say that your Elrond is on the whole quite a likeable chap – once he accepts the inevitability of their bonding, he becomes quite a decent advocate for Aragorn, leaving Arwen in no doubt about the depth and purity of Aragorn’s love for her (in ch 12), and reassuring Aragorn (in ch 13) that he is worthy. I guess it is a testament to the shades of grey Tolkien wrote into his grand tale - we wouldn’t still be debating motives and characterisations 50-odd years on if it was all black and white. Cheers, jules Author Reply: I suppose in many ways the Elves must have felt like parents when dealing with the Secondborn. They've always 'been there, seen it, done it'. 'Tried that and it didn't work'. But then, as a parent, it is very difficult seeing your children learning from hard experience lessons you could have passed on - if only they wanted to listen. You could say - (although I won't convince you!) - that in trying to keep Aragorn and Arwen apart, Elrond was giving into his human side! He raised Estel to be the best Man he could be - and kept Arwen out of his way. And if destiny meant them to be together, then let destiny look after getting them in the same place at the same time! Galadriel, on the other hand, didn't mind shoving fate in the direction she thought it needed to go. She offered it a hand - and then let it take care of itself. Elrond could be considered - if you wanted to think of it that way - as having been damaged by his own experiences. Father - gone when he was so young he doubtless didn't remember him. Mother - flung herself off a cliff to avoid murderers. Brought up by said murderers - probably Stockholm syndrome there. Lost his home - at least twice. (Sirion and the whole of Beleriand.) Experienced war young - lost his closest friend and surrogate carer in a later war. Lost his wife to torment and despair that made her choose to leave him (no matter it was to save her life). Sons descended into emotional instability for a while. No wonder he was suffering from separation anxiety and a desperate desire to protect what he had left. The Elves were right to sail at the end of the Third Age. They didn't have all the answers - but they did have a lot more experience than Men - and in the end you just have to let people live their own lives and make their own mistakes. I'm still fond of Elrond - whom I see as a chap trying hard to do his best in a situation where most of the decisions were very difficult to call. The complexity of Tolkien's world - and the amount that is just sketched out or offered with tantalising wisps of information - is what makes it such a great place to play. Thank you.

jules	Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 4/4/2006
The concept of ‘no time’ is a little hard to get your head around (not just for Arwen), but it does make for a neat happy ending. It seems particularly fitting that having lived lives dictated by duty and responsibility (which has been an overwhelming theme of your story) they are both now free – Arwen has “shed the shadow of years and loss and duty”, and Aragorn is “young and joyful and free of the marks of a lifetime of responsibility”. So they are still each other’s beloved, yet neither of them are the same as they were when they were together. And it does seem fairer somehow that the big family reunion doesn’t have to wait until the end of days. This story has been a truly rewarding read, Bodkin. You said you wanted to portray an Arwen who was more than just window dressing, and you have certainly managed that – your Arwen is the epitomy of the strong woman behind the man, a true heroine. Thank you for sharing her with us. Author Reply: The idea of 'no time' is more than a little dizzying. But, if they are beyond the bounds of time, isn't that what that should mean? And it does offer a neat solution! If, beyond the circles of the world, Aragorn and Arwen had slotted into another time-scale, they would both have ended up with lives 'dictated by duty and responsibility' again - they are just that sort of people! Timelessness gives them a freedom simply to be themselves. And they are beyond the end of days. And yet not. At the same time. (It doesn't bear too much thinking about, actually. You start to feel as if you've taken too much wine.) Thank you. I am glad you enjoyed it. I wanted a strong Arwen, who didn't need to take on a masculine role and wield a sword in battle to have a role and affect the outcome - and I'm glad you think it worked. It's been a pleasure.

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