Arwen vs. Galadriel

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by jallanite

To make it worse, in The Lord of the Rings, female beauty is directly related to a person’s position in the class system. There seems to be no such thing as dirt-poor and powerless, but insanely beautiful. And apparently a female’s moral and spiritual stature is directly related to that female’s beauty and hereditary class position.

You're not counting Ioreth, then?

The point is taken, but maybe Tolkien switched up things with Aldarion and Erendis. She was descended from Bëor, but not royalty, and initially thought Aldarion too high for her station. They married anyway, and of course their union had some unpleasant consequences. Maybe that's why we see the beautiful and powerful women most: they are associated with the more powerful and high-blooded males.