Arwen

[This analysis is the third in a series that examines the portrayal of female characters in The Fellowship of the Ring.]

 

The beautiful elf Arwen, King Elrond’s daughter, makes only a slight appearance in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Arwen gave up her immortality to be with Aragorn, a mortal man, in a love story described in Part 5 of Appendix A of The Return of the King.

In The Fellowship, Arwen is briefly mentioned during a celebration in the hall of Elrond’s home. Frodo was struck by her beauty.

 

“In the middle of the table, against the woven cloths upon the wall, there was a chair under a canopy, and there sat a lady fair to look upon, and so like was she in form of womanhood to Elrond that Frodo guessed that she was one of his close kindred.

Young she was and yet not so. The braids of her dark hair were touched by no frost, her white arms and clear face were flawless and smooth, and the light of stars was in her bright eyes, grey as a cloudless night; yet queenly she looked, and thought and knowledge were in her glance, as of one who has known many things that the years bring.

Above her brow, her head was covered with a cap of silver lace netted with small gems, glittering white; but her soft grey raiment had no ornament save a girdle of leaves wrought in silver.” (The Fellowship, Book Two, Chapter 1)

 

According to Tolkien Gateway, Arwen’s mother was Celebrian, who was herself the daughter of King Celeborn and Lady Galadriel. Celeborn and Galadriel ruled Lorien, an elven kingdom where Arwen sometimes lived. 

 

“So it was that Frodo saw her whom few mortals had yet seen; Arwen, daughter of Elrond, in whom it was said that the likeness of Luthien had come on earth again; and she was called Undomiel, for she was the Evenstar of her people.

Long she had been in the land of her mother's kin, in Lorien beyond the mountains, and was but lately returned to Rivendell to her father's house. But her brothers, Elladan and Elrohir, were out upon errantry: for they rode often far afield with the Rangers of the North, forgetting never their mother's torment in the dens of the orcs.

Such loveliness in living thing Frodo had never seen before nor imagined in his mind; and he was both surprised and abashed to find that he had a seat at Elrond's table among all these folk so high and fair.” (The Fellowship, Book Two, Chapter 1)

 

In my next analysis, I will discuss the depiction of Lobelia, Goldberry, Arwen, and Galadriel to analyze the overall portrayal of female characters in The Fellowship of the Ring.