Much ado about Arwen: Elven Princess - Page 2
© Michael Martinez
Relationships among the Elves were deep and more fully committed than those among men. Even among the Dunedain it was not unknown for a man to have more than one spouse (Turin I, 6th Ruling Steward of Gondor, was married twice). Rare though it may seem, men were far more likely to take second wives than were the Elves. In fact, among the Eldar, only Finwe was known to have taken a second spouse. That is not to say that the Dunedain couldn't love each other as fully and deeply as the Elves. But apparently the Elvish custom was deeply rooted in a mating of souls, as much as in a mating of bodies.
It should therefore be unusual that an Elf would want or love a mortal in that fashion. Perhaps even unnatural, in the sense that the Elven souls were predisposed to seek out mates which were likely to spend the full span of time with them, rather than souls which would fleetingly pass by, leaving behind only a few memories. The great tragedy of Tuor and Idril's relationship is that there is no clear disposition of their ultimate fate. They sailed off into the West, and men said Tuor must have been joined to the Noldor, but I think he was premature in that respect. The choice of fates could only be appointed to the Half-elven, Ëarendil and his wife Elwing. Tuor and Idril must have parted bitterly at the end, or else been drawn into some enchanted island where they would await the end of Time, according to Iluvatar's grace.
The fates of Nimloth and Dior are more clear, however. ManwË decreed that all children born of Elf-Man unions were by nature mortal though long-lived. This mortality meant that eventually their souls would follow the path appointed to Men, and seek elsewhere for their ultimate destiny. Dior, therefore, had no hope of being rejoined with Nimloth after his death. Would she in time have emerged from the Halls of Mandos, healed and ready to take up a new love with some Elf lord, or would she live in grief-stricken remembrance for age after age? Perhaps she, like Finwe and Miriel, would not wish to rejoin Elvenkind because of her special loss.
The broken hearts weren't all among the ladies. Aegnor, brother of Finrod, fell in love with Andreth. She was a Bëorian woman, related to Beren though not closely so. When she was young she captured the heart of an Elven prince, but he didn't marry her. Instead he attended to the long war between the Noldor and Morgoth, and he seemed to have forgotten her. But in truth he had foreseen that he would soon die, as the Elves accounted such matters, and for that reason he forebore inflicting any greater grief on Andreth. The tragedy of their love was that he didn't understand how much she would have preferred to have been his wife if only for a few years, than a lonely woman unsure of what had gone wrong. They were in the end separated for all Time because of their fates, and they didn't even have the shared memories of one night as husband and wife.
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