[Diamond18]

Well, I don't know...Galadriel seems so perceptive and wise that I find it hard to believe that anything would escape her notice. But then again, we don't know what Arwen's thoughts were on the matter at that point, so we don't know what there was for Galadriel to perceive!

But even if Arwen thought herself indifferent, Galadriel's foresight could have been great enough to see that it was Aragorn and Arwen's fate to fall in love and marry, and that it was Arwen's fate to become a mortal and die. As we see by the way Galadriel turns down the Ring and accepts "dimishing" as a result, Galadriel was not one to stand in the way of fate.

I can see her acting in that manner because she knew it had to be done. It was the will of Ilúvatar. Now, it might seem a bit shallow for Arwen to fall in love simply because he looked good...but this is a short tale in an appendix and not a fully developed romance novel! I'm sure a lot of it had to do with fate and the will of Ilúvatar, and not just a bath, a shave and some new clothes. Those were simply icing on the cake.

It does make sense to say that Galadriel was just being hospitable, but the way Tolkien writes it gives it more importance, in my mind. He didn't say that Aragorn got new clothes from the Elves of Lothlórien, he mentioned Galadriel specifically as giving them to him.

[ October 26, 2002: Message edited by: Diamond18 ]