Interpretation of The Gray Havens

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Lotrelf

Yes, he says something like, "it is gone forever, and all is dark and empty." What does this "it" refer to? Ring?

I would certainly say it was the Ring which gave Frodo that sense of loss. He was holding the gem when he said that, and I think he was doing so to give himself strength to get through that 'episode" with hope for his future over the Sea.

Originally Posted by Lotrelf

But, while giving the gem, Arwen had said something like "in my place you'll go" and, IIRC, Professor Tolkien also says somewhere that it was a ticket for Frodo. Wouldn't she have gone to Valinor too, so her jewel might be for that?

Arwen, of course, did not need the gem to board a ship. It might have been a symbol of her simple wish that Frodo could go in her place.

Something else occurred to me about your earlier observation that only Frodo bore a gem, Lotrelf. The Phial of Galadriel could look more like a 'ticket', actually, than the gem. It held the light of Eärendil's star, and that light was the last thing Sam saw of the ship as it passed into the West. Since the Silmaril was what allowed Eärendil to make it to Valnor, and later the Star of Eärendil guided the Edain to Númenor, I've always thought it especially fitting that imprisoned light from that star (a by-proxy Silmaril) was so prominent to viewers as Frodo's ship sailed.