Arwen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
||||||||||||||||||
Arwen Undómiel is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. She appears in his best-known novel, The Lord of the Rings, usually published in three volumes. Arwen is one of the Half-elven who lived during the Third Age.
In Sindarin Arwen's name signifies noble woman (S. 'ar'=noble, 'wen'=maiden). Her second name or epessë, Undómiel means Evenstar (Evening star) (Q. 'undómë'=dusk, 'él'=star) Therefore she is also called Arwen Evenstar.
Contents |
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Literature
Arwen was the youngest child of Elrond and Celebrían; her elder brothers were the twins Elladan and Elrohir. Through her father, she was the granddaughter of Eärendil the Mariner (the second of the Half-elven), great-granddaughter of Tuor of Gondolin, and therefore a direct descendant of the ancient House of Hador. Arwen was also a descendant of King Turgon of the Noldor through her great-grandmother, Idril. Through her mother, she was the granddaughter of Lady Galadriel and the great-granddaughter of Finarfin. Éomer of Rohan said that the Lady Arwen was more fair than the Lady Galadriel of Lórien, but Gimli son of Glóin thought differently. Through both of her parents Arwen was a direct descendant of the ancient Elven House of Finwë. Furthermore, Arwen was a descendant of Beren and Lúthien Tinúviel, whose story resembled hers. Indeed, Arwen was held to be the reappearance in likeness of her ancestress Lúthien, fairest of all the Elves, who was called Nightingale (Tinúviel).
Arwen was a very distant relative of her husband Aragorn. Aragorn's ancestor, Elros Tar-Minyatur, the first King of Númenor, was her father Elrond's brother, who chose to live as a Man rather than one of the Eldar. Elros died in S.A. 442, some 3,240 years before Arwen was born.
Arwen eventually became Queen of the Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor when she married Aragorn, who was of the line of the Kings of Arnor. After 122 years of royal marriage, Arwen died of a broken heart a year after the death of Aragorn.
After the War of the Ring ended, Arwen and Aragorn produced the future heir of the throne, Eldarion.
By Arwen and Aragorn's marriage, the long-sundered lines of the Half-elven were joined. Their union also served to unite and preserve the bloodlines of the Three Kings of the High Elves (Ingwë, Finwë, and the brothers Olwë and Elwë) as well as the only line with Maiarin blood through Arwen's great-great-great grandmother, Melian, Queen of Doriath, and also on Aragorn's side, through the line of kings of Arnor and Númenor to Elros, Elrond's brother, whose great-great-grandmother was also Melian.
As told in "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen", found in Appendix A to The Lord of the Rings (after the third volume, The Return of the King), during Aragorn's twentieth year he met Arwen for the first time in Rivendell, where he lived under Elrond's protection. Arwen, then over 2700 years old, had recently returned to her father's home after living for a while with her grandmother Galadriel in Lórien. Aragorn fell in love with Arwen at first sight. About thirty years later, the two were reunited in Lórien; at that time, Arwen reciprocated Aragorn's love; then they "plighted their troth" (promised themselves to each other) on the mound of Cerin Amroth.
Arwen's first appearance in The Lord of the Rings proper was at Rivendell, when the Hobbits arrived there, and Aragorn was seen with her — the first hint of their relationship. Later, when the Fellowship of the Ring came to Lothlórien, Aragorn remembered their earlier meeting and paused in reverence on Cerin Amroth.
Arwen entered the story again when, before taking the Paths of the Dead, Aragorn was met by a group consisting of Dúnedain (his people, from the North), and Arwen's brothers, Elladan and Elrohir. They brought to him a banner of black cloth: a gift made by Arwen, and a sign that encouraged him to take the difficult path. When the banner was unfurled at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields to reveal the emblem of Elendil in mithril, gems, and gold, it was the first triumphant announcement of the King's return.
Finally, Arwen arrived at Minas Tirith after Aragorn had become king of Gondor and Arnor, and they were married.
The four passages described above are Arwen's only appearances in the story as it stands, not counting The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen. Judging only by visibility, Arwen is mostly a minor character in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings proper, but she nevertheless appears in detail in its Appendices. Also, she plays a role in the plot which is disproportionate to the number of scenes in which she appears. When Éowyn fell in love with Aragorn it was his fidelity to Arwen that prevented him from reciprocating. This motivated Éowyn's subsequent heroism during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, which had major repercussions for the defence of Middle-earth. Arwen served as inspiration and motivation for Aragorn, who had to become King before he could wed her.
Arwen gave up her life in 121 of the Fourth Age, at Cerin Amroth in Lórien, one year after the death of Aragorn. At the time, she was 2,901 years old. The story of Arwen's death is told in Appendix A (v), "Here Follows Part of the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen." In this tale, Arwen told Aragorn, on his deathbed, that the last ship that could have borne her over the sea had already sailed. After Aragorn died, she went to Lórien and made her final resting place on Cerin Amroth, passing with the fading Elf realm.
[edit] Adaptations
Arwen does not appear in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, nor in the 1980 Rankin-Bass adaptation of The Return of the King.
In Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Arwen is played by Liv Tyler. Many additional scenes pertaining to Arwen are inserted, practically all of which deviate from the novel and some of which seem inspired by the Tale. Contrary to the novel in which Arwen is relegated to the sidelines, she is much more visible in Jackson's films.
In the first film, Arwen sneaks up to find Aragorn and single-handedly rescues Frodo Baggins from the Black Riders at Bruinen, thwarting them with a sudden flood, summoned by an incantation. In the book, it was Glorfindel who put Frodo on horseback and sent him alone to flee the Nazgûl, and Elrond and Gandalf who arranged the flood. In the book, Frodo makes his own stand against the Ringwraiths; in the movie Arwen defends him. During this flight, Arwen wields the sword Hadhafang, stated to have once been wielded by her father in film merchandise. This sword is actually the sword of Idril Celebrindal, Arwen's great-grandmother. This sword, however, does not appear in the books at all; in fact, in the books, Arwen is never mentioned as armed (but she could have armed and defended herself at need; see below).
Following the aforementioned scenes, the deviations include a scene in which Aragorn is injured and has a dream about Arwen (who kisses him), a scene where Arwen has an argument with her father about leaving for Valinor, and a scene where she (with Figwit) actually departs for Valinor and then suddenly returns when she has a vision of her future son, Eldarion. (Surprising to her, not because a union with Aragorn could produce a child, but rather that her father had only prophesied death in her future.)
Throughout the War of the Ring, Elrond begs her to accompany her kin to the Undying Lands because he does not wish to see another of his family die, but after she initially embarks for the Grey Havens to sail away, she returns to Rivendell and thereafter refuses to leave Middle-earth because of the love she bore for Aragorn.
Also, in the film version of The Return of the King Arwen rides back from the road to the Grey Havens. Elrond takes the reforged Narsil, now Andúril, to Aragorn at Dunharrow, and tells him that her fate has become bound with the One Ring, and that she is dying. In the books, Narsil was reforged before the Fellowship left Rivendell, and Arwen's life is never linked to the struggle to destroy the Ring. The movies also portray that through her love to Aragorn, she became human, an important factor also within the book, in which Arwen echoes the choice and fate of her ancestor Lúthien to become a mortal woman.
The trilogy invents a jewelled pendant called the Evenstar which Arwen gives to Aragorn as a reminder of their love. The Evenstar pendant also appears in Electronic Arts' The Battle for Middle-earth series of real-time strategy games. It gives powers, purchased by power points, to the forces of good, as opposed to the One Ring which gives powers to the forces of evil. In the books, Arwen gives a similar necklace to Frodo before he leaves Minas Tirith.
[edit] Reaction
Arwen had a very small role in the books outside of the Appendix (Tolkien conceived the character late in the writing; Aragorn was originally supposed to marry Éowyn, as related in The History of Middle-earth). In addition to making Arwen a more visible character, the change employs the principle of "economy of characters". Characters like Glorfindel (the Elf who, in the book, helps Frodo by lending him his horse and later aiding his companions in driving the Nazgûl into the water), who appear once and perform only a few tasks, are often excised from film interpretations. Since Arwen's character has a much more important role within the entire plot, in that she provides inspiration and motivation for Aragorn's heroism, it was thus decided to give her the role of rescuing Frodo from the Ring Wraiths. Indeed although she appears in fleeting scenes, her powerful love for Aragorn (to the extent that she chose to give up her immortality and "cleave" herself to him as a mortal woman) and impact on his life pervades the Lord of the Rings, expressed perhaps in the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen and his incapability to return Éowyn's love for him, since he was already engaged to Arwen and hoped to marry her some day, if he could return the true Monarchy to Gondor and become its King.
In earlier copies of the script (when the movies were supposed to be filmed in two parts under a different production company), Arwen actually fought in the Battle of Helm's Deep and personally brought the sword Andúril to Aragorn. However, both Liv Tyler and the writers felt that the character's involvement in Helm's Deep was inappropriate, and left her out of the sequence.
These changes have met with mixed reactions. Many fans were upset because they seemed to pander to the lowest common denominator—that in order to make Arwen a "worthwhile" or "strong" character, she had to be a warrior—while in the books, her strength stems from her brave choice to forsake immortality and live a mortal life with Aragorn, which did not involve martial skill. Furthermore, there is already a skilled female warrior present in the story—namely Éowyn, but she first appears in the second part of the film trilogy. Some fans felt it odd to make it a point to insert a female warrior into a story which already had a prominent one, because this detracts from Éowyn's bravery in riding to battle. However, in the second and third films in which Éowyn appears, Arwen's martial abilities are toned down and her role is shaped somewhat to be as it is presented in the book and the Tale, to make way for Éowyn and her slaying of the Witch-king.
Some criticize The Lord of the Rings for including few named female characters and thus accuse Tolkien of sexism. However, in the essay Laws and Customs among the Eldar, which appears in Morgoth's Ring, Tolkien writes that male and female Elves are in fact viewed in Elven society as equals, save for the fact that only the females are capable of childbearing and are thus viewed as literally holding the future of their people in their hands. It is for this reason that they traditionally refrain from going to war (although they are still trained in all the aspects of combat taught to male Elves), usually occupying themselves during wartime as healers. As the text itself states:
- In all such things, not concerned with the bringing forth of children, the neri and nissi (that is, the men and women) of the Eldar are equal—unless it be in this (as they themselves say) that for the nissi the making of things new is for the most part shown in the forming of their children, so that invention and change is otherwise mostly brought about by the neri. There are, however, no matters which among the Eldar only a nér can think or do, or others with which only a nís is concerned. There are indeed some differences between the natural inclinations of neri and nissi, and other differences that have been established by custom (varying in place and in time, and in the several races of the Eldar). For instance, the arts of healing, and all that touches on the care of the body, are among the Eldar most practised by the nissi; whereas it was the elven-men who bore arms at need. And the Eldar deemed that the dealing of death, even when lawful or under necessity, diminished the power of healing, and that the virtue of the nissi in this matter was due rather to their abstaining from hunting or war than to any special power that went with their womanhood. Indeed in dire straits or desperate defence, the nissi fought valiantly, and there was less difference in strength or speed between elven-men and elven-women that had not borne child than is seen among mortals. On the other hand many elven-men were great healers and skilled in the lore of living bodies, though such men abstained from hunting, and went not to war until the last need.(Morgoth's Ring, "The Second Phase", Laws and Customs Among the Eldar).
However, this does not negate Tolkien's heavier emphasis on male characters and their actions in the particular work being adapted; thus, Arwen's greater visibility in the films is seen (or criticised) by some fans as an attempt to create gender balance for modern viewers.
[edit] External links
- Arwen at the Internet Movie Database
- Arwen Evenstar at the Tolkien Gateway
- Arwen at The Thain's Book
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
