The Kings of Numenor

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

It gives them a choice, but it's not the same one that Elrond and Elros were given. Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen can go with Elrond beyond the circles of the world or remain in Middle-earth and live a mortal life. Where they are determines what happens to them, whereas Elrond had the fate of the Elves wherever he was, just as Elros was mortal wherever he happened to be living.

[Findegil]

Posted by The Squatter of Amon Rûdh

Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen can go with Elrond beyond the circles of the world or remain in Middle-earth and live a mortal life.

That what is said in the Appendix A and in Of the rings of power and the third age, but in one of the Letters JRR Tolkien revaled that he thought that Elladan and Elrohir had delaied their choice. If the brethern could do that, than the diverence between their choice and the one of Elrond and Elros is not really significant.

Respectfully
Findegil

[Osse]

I am now a bit confused... (and i need clarification... SQUATTER!)

Are the children of Elrond able to live the life of the Eldar only when around Elrond? Is it the physical movement away from Elrond that causes them to become truly mortal, or the idea of the movement? Or for that matter, has it been decided whether they actually do live an immortal life?? These are vastly important thing to verify before actually confronting the issue of the choices they do or do not make! For example, I was always under the impression that the choice made by Elros and Elrond was doubly important... it wasn't just themselves they were choosing for, but their bloodlines! Therefore, it wasn't the fact that Arwen didn't pass into the West with her dad that caused her to lose her immortality, but was her choice to wed a mortal and die with him. Is it written how the twins fared up? One can only assume that they either went Westwards with their father in the party that Frodo departed in, or tarried in Middle Earth, and were either destroyed or lived on until the end of the Elves in some other kingdom. It is simply put out...

Line of Elros = mortal
Line of Elrond = immortal

I dont' think those in either house had any choice in the matter!!

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

The letter alluded to above is #153 (September 1954), which is a draft. In it Tolkien says

[Elrond's] children - with a renewed Elvish strain, since their mother was Celebrían dtr. of Galadriel - have to make their choices... The end of his sons, Elladan and Elrohir, is not told: they delay their choice, and remain for a while.

I think that the dating of this letter at a time when the appendices were still unpublished and its status as an unsent draft should make us cautious about accepting what it has to say without question. It does seem to confirm, though, that physically going with Elrond or remaining behind did not constitute a choice. The decision would seem to be a moral one that was permanently binding once made, but which could be postponed albeit not indefinitely. However, as Findegil pointed out, and as the title of my last post here implies, this makes very little appreciable difference to the choice itself and leaves me admitting freely to the shameless splitting of hairs. Like Elrond and Elros, Arwen, Elladan and Elrohir are choosing the fate of one race or the other. I do think, though, that the wording of this letter implies an imminent deadline. I doubt that the decision could be postponed for very long.