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Originally Posted by davem
In the new 'LotR: A Reader's Companion' Hammond & Scull cite Tolkien's unpublished letter to Eileen Elgar, begun 22 September 1963:
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Tolkien suggests that Arwen could have surrendered her life at the same time as Aragorn, but she was not yet prepared to do so. Although she had become mortal, by nature she was still Elvish, with the long view of life held by that immortal race, to whom 'the gift of the One to Men' ... is bitter to recieve.
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I would have greatly regretted such a dual death scene. It would remind me too starkly of the practice of suttee (also called sati), wherebye a widow was expected to immolate herself on her husband's funeral pyre. That does not seem a practice in keeping with the values of Middle-earth.