Immortality and the sons of Elrond

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Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

It's very murky what exactly the "change" was in Arwen or when it occurred. I'm not sure there was any physical chenge at all. When Aragorn died, 120 years after their wedding, she was "not yet weary," a stock Tolkien phrase for unaged. My cautious hypothesis is that the "change" was psychological, and spiritual: Arwen laid herself down and died because she couldn't live without Aragorn, not because she 'had to' by virtue of some external compulsion; and the Choice meant that she was permitted to follow him rather than be immured in Mandos.

I think you are right on the money, WCH.

I did not get the impression that Arwen became mortal or had death enforced on her when she married Aragorn. Nor that she had aged physically by the time she laid herself down in Lorien or was ever going to. And I don't think she would have been barred from entering the blessed realm were she to repent and sail West after the death of her husband. But this was never an option for her, although she might have wavered slightly when returning to the woodland realm. She had made the choice of Lúthien, to share the fate of her love, and had no intention of backing out of the deal. An absurdly idealised love story, but Tolkien was a grade A romantic, I suppose.

Makes you think of Elros too... Did he 'accept his gift' as a compulsion due to physical weariness, ie aging, or did he eventually do it to stay true to his word? He too was only a quarter of a man.