Stories of Arda Home Page
About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search

Dreamflower's Musings  by Dreamflower 3 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 12 on 4/16/2013
It is good to see this perspective of the various relationships Tolkien developed in his epic. I grieved for Arwen that in the end she found it difficult to accept that among mortals there is an end, in this world, to our happiness just as there is to our grief, when we leave this life to embrace that which comes next. Yet that she recognized that Frodo needed to leave this world in order to heal properly to prepare for the next was, I believe, the act she needed to make to seal her own choice of embracing mortality.

She was sacrificing her long-held virginity to become Elessar's wife; in doing so she perhaps sanctified that Frodo most likely knew as an unmarried male, sending him to her mother's care in place of herself, perhaps trusting that Celebrian would be able to help guide him through a similar healing process to that which she had experienced after her own terrible wounding at the hands of Sauron's creatures.

Thanks for this thought-provoking essay.

Author Reply: Tolkien was very fond of parallelism, and some of it is obvious (for example the parallelism between Merry and Pippin's storylines, or the connections between Beren and Luthien and Aragorn and Arwen, or even between Bilbo's adventures and those of Frodo, just to name a few) but some are much more subtle and do not jump out at the reader immediately, (like the parallels between Pippin and Faramir, or those between Faramir and Eowyn, or those between Finduilas and Gilraen).

But yes, there were definitely those parallels between Frodo and Arwen that you mention in addition to the ones I cover in my essay.

VirtuellaReviewed Chapter: 12 on 8/18/2012
Very interesting essay, and I am reminded of a story of yours I read years ago on the same theme, one which I found very beautiful.

Author Reply: Probably "The Token"-- it was three ficlets about Arwen with her mother, Bilbo and then Frodo, and dealt with the possible origin of the "white gem".

I'm glad you liked the essay-- I wanted to examine the relationship of Arwen and Frodo in a story-external way for a change, since I think that it was a literary decision Tolkien made.

AntaneReviewed Chapter: 12 on 8/17/2012
I love this essay, my dear! I have had much the same thoughts of Arwen's insight to Frodo's wounds myself. I think he and Celebrian had much in common and when they met she would be instrumental in his healing and show him that he could indeed heal and have peace again. Fleming Rutledge's book in one of my very favorites. Sorry I've had no time to fit in an essay myself.

Namarie, God bless, Antane :)

Author Reply: Thank you! Have you read my poem "White Stone" written for last year's B2MeM? It reflects much of what I say in this essay.

Return to Chapter List