Stupid question about lord of the rings?

Question

My friend and i were having a debate....


After arwen gives up her immortal life for aragorn, how long after that does she live?

does she live out a natural human life from her human age or, how old her body appears, or does she have a longer lifespan b/c she was an elf?



i realize she lives some 190 after her surrender of her immortal life, but is that natural in tolkein's world?

Answer 1

My brother, who is a rabid Tolkien fanatic, once went on endlessly about this issue, and even studied it at some detail. What did it mean to say that Arwen or any elf "chose" a mortal life. It meant that they would not return to Valinor beyond the sea-- the land of the Valar and the elves. His conclusion was therefore that Arwen, as an elf, did not age or die of old age, her fate (or "doom" as Tolkien would have said) was to die in the manner of which elves could die (that is in accord with their elvish nature). And Tolkien lays this out in his book "The Silmarillion"-- elves could be killed, or die of despair, but other than this, they were immortal. This is the pitiful scene he lays out in the appendices of Return of the King. Arwen faces the misery of her elvish nature in a world that is changing and full of loss, she has no recourse to the comfort of her own people or access to them in Valinor. Her mortal family is following the natural course of human existence, passing from youth to old age and death, and she simply remains as she is. As such her isolation and pecularity deepens. She is not where her nature is meant to be. She is bereft of the comfort of the love of Aragorn and of her elvish kin. That is why she retreats to the quiet and fading Land of Lorien, and it is there, in despair of her own immortal existence, that she dies-- surrendering her immortal existence in hope that there is life for her "beyond the circles of this world." Pretty tragic is all that I can say.

Answer 2

Wait when she gave up immmortality she actually outlived Aragorn. She lived 123 yrs after she and Aragorn were married...

How? Since Aragorn and Arwen were married at the year of 3019 and her death is 3142 (actually its 121 yr of 4rth age and since third age stopped at 3021 so add 3021 and 121 and subtract her wedding year. You get 123) So she lived 123 yrs after she gave up immortality but she should have lived more.

After the death of Aragorn she understood the bitterness of mortality and was grieved so much. She said her farewell to her children and went to the woods of Lothlorien and there she died the next winter. All in all she lived 2091 yrs. Yes I agree with the statement above, she died because of despair. The loss of Aragorn was too much for her and without the comfort of her own kin (which mostly left) she went to the woods of her Grandmother which would be Galadriel and on the next winter she died.

Answer 3

As I recall Aragon lives for 140 years after the events in the Lord of the Rings before dying and although is isn't directly said Arwen dies shortly after.

wl

Answer 4

I think she's to live as long as Aragorn lives. When he dies, she dies of a broken heart.

I haven't read the appendices of the books in detail, but as far as I know, Aragorn lives a long time... so it's possible that she lived until the end of his life, then followed him into death.

Answer 5

maybe till another 70 something more years, llike the average life span of a human