I just had another (brilliant) thought strike me.
I'm sure at least some of you who were around here last year remember the initial brouhaha surrounding Arwen's expanded role in the film. Most of the criticism centered on the fact that she wielded a sword, but a great deal of people also had a beef with the fact that she was out "sneaking around" with Aragorn after-hours, obviously unattended, behaving in a manner "unbecoming" of an Elf of her stature.
But, according to the quote that
Helen provided, this sort of behaviour must be totally acceptable. Lúthien did it, and she was of much nobler stature than Arwen. So Peter Jackson is not entirely off the mark there, eh?
Which leads me to my next point: since what Lúthien did was in accordance with true love, and it was apparently her right to do it, and she wasn't in the wrong, then what right did Thingol have in doing what he did, especially if he
knew that Lúthien had already devoted herself emotionally
and physically to Beren. We know that Thingol is aware of this according to this quote:
Quote:
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"...shall such as these lay hands on you, and yet live?"
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Hmmm. For the first time ever the reprecussions of Thingol's involvement begin to make sense to me.
But now I am also getting myself confused. If Beren and Lúthien were wedded in the fashion that Helen's quote from HoME describes, is it also not safe to assume that Arwen and Aragorn did the same thing? I.e., that they were physically involved before the official marriage ceremony after the defeat of Sauron? But if they weren't, does Elrond have anything to do with that? And if he does, why? Because Aragorn was his adopted son, and thus owed his obedience to him? But does that also mean that Elrond, in all his wisdom, could not see true love (the kind described in HoME) right in front of him? But Galadriel could (hence the Cerin Amroth episode)?
Intriguing.