Elf Love Confessions - Ch. 5 - The Love of Landmine Elves Who Live For Hundreds of Years is Heavy

[Flame-2-Haze]

Make her a lot of children to keep her company.

 

[cjellis1227]

What are you saying with this? This looks like a drawing of Arwen’s (or Elrond’s, I can’t remember who had it) vision. This was what they thought would happen if Arwen stayed with Aragorn. But it’s not what happened because Arwen died of a broken heart shortly after Aragorn died.

 

[Madologist]

What are you saying with this? This looks like a drawing of Arwen’s (or Elrond’s, I can’t remember who had it) vision. This was what they thought would happen if Arwen stayed with Aragorn. But it’s not what happened because Arwen died of a broken heart shortly after Aragorn died.

Yes and no. In the books she ended up becoming mortal and died of a broken heart right after Aragorn died. They ended up being married for 122 years before they died. In the movie it alludes to her having to live after his death, but that was only a vision of what could’ve happened. Luckily (or unluckily, depends on if you consider it a good or a bad thing) this didn’t happen and she basically died with him.

"Sort of." Arwen is thousands of years old and doesn't really age, but she loses her will to live and dies shortly after Aragorn. I think the movie was alluding to the fact that she COULD be in mourning forever (it's like a dream sequence if I recall correctly), but what happens is that she doesn't. If she had the will to live, I believe she could have stayed pretty much immortal. I might not be accounting for some consequences related to the elves leaving Middle Earth, though.

edit a little googling suggests that yeah, by not leaving Middle Earth with the elves, she opted out of immortality. But still she didn't did of old age and didn't mourn for eternity.

Kinda feel like this was explored between Aragon and Arwen? Not that I read the original novel, but I think it was alluded to in the movie, so I'd assume it must have been explored in the novel.

Didn't expect to talk Tolkien in this comment thread but here I go.

Arwen also is a half-elf, a unique existance in Tolkien's world with there only being 10 total. Elrond was one and both him and his twin Elros were given choices to which race they wished to belong to. Elrond chose to be accounted as elves and Elros chose to be counted as a man. From Elros the long line of Numenorian kings would descend with Aragorn being the latest scion of that family, making Arwen Aragorn's great-times something-...something.
Anyhow, all the children of Elrond are still half elves and not full elves and are granted the same choice. Elrond's first born twins Elladan and Elohir made their choices early and chose to be counted as elves. However Arwen never truly made her choice, so while she did live for thousands of years as an elf, she still was "half-elf" when she met Aragorn.
After her wedding she chose mortal life as a man and then lived as such until her death. How long Arwen would've lived as a mortal is a good question. Since she was relatively young elf, if you were to convert her lifespan to that of a man, she propably would've been in her 20 to 30s. Considering that the previous half-elf who became a mortal lived for 410 years, it's quite likely Arwen would've even as a mortal lived for hundreds of years beyond Aragorn's death. So the "died of sorrow" is what happened to her, but she most likely did age during those hundred years of marriage.

The line of Beren and Luthien - the first man-elf couple and ancestors of Arwen - anyhow is very special, considering Luthien herself was a half elf, but not of man and elf, but of Maiar and elf. Her mother, Melian, was a divine spirit/god who fell in love with an elf lord in ages past. Luthien would eventually fall in love with Beren, a mortal man, and after a quite remarkable adventure and the death of both, they would both return from the beyond as mortals.

As for elven lifespan in Tolkien, the elves do age, but very slowly, however not a single elf has died of old age and it is quite likely they can't. Only Cirdan the shipwright of the named characters has shown signs of ageing, being the only elf who has grown a beard. Living in Middle-Earth however is toxic to elves. The evils the original Dark Lord Morgoth bled into the land slowly poisons the elves, causing them to diminish and fade. This is why elves eventually leave Middle-Earth, with by the time of the War of the Ring, most have left for the blessed lands of Valinor.
Should an elf refuse to leave their physical forms would eventually fade away and they would exist only in spirit, as their bodies have faded from the build up toxin of evil. In Tolkien's mind, some elves still exist amongst us in spirit, but we can't sense them as humans lack the sight to see into the realm beyond. The twins Elladan and Elohir have been hinted to have suffered this fate, having determined to live in Middle-Earth and hunt down its evils until the bitter end.

Elves can also willingly give their bodies up and pass into the Halls of Mandos, a kind of house of healing for the deceased elves. In that house, they would slowly heal from their wounds and grievances and eventually be given a chance to re-embody in Valinor. Though if the elf had caused great or even minor evil, they would be kept in the Halls to serve their sentence, though only Feänor and his seven children have commited grave enough sins to be kept there until the end of the world.

Might as well add that no one aside from the God Eru knows what happens to humans when they die. It is only described as "that they leave the world". Their mortality itself being a gift from god. Compared to elves and the divine spirits, who are eternally bound to the world and its fate, men get to leave it all behind for realms unknown. As for dwarves, no one knows and it isn't delved into any of Tolkien's writings that much. They anyhow are bit different from humans and elves, since those were intended creations by Eru, while dwarves were created by the vala Aule, a higher divine spirit, who got bored of waiting for elves and humans to appear and made them. Eru however decided to keep them and granted them true life, giving birth to the unintended race of dwarves. Dwarven mythos says they return to their creator and eventually help him reforge the world after the end.

 

[fazzaki]

"There you are, Kuga."

Ikr, i almost forgot this was made by kuga
That massive eye bags kinda creeps me out ngl

 

[Kaiser92]

i will continue to say it in my afterlife

Even in dead I still love 💕

 

[jonathaneze]

This actually made me think of a question. Would it be selfish of a human to fall in love and be with an elf? Because for the human, they can love and be with the elf for their entire life. The elf however, assuming they also fall in love with the human, would have to watch the one they love grow old and die and then continue to live on without them for however long they live. It would be easy for the human because they’d never really have to experience that pain assuming the elf doesn’t get killed or die some other way.

not the exact same case but..

would it be selfish for dogs to love humans?
Because for the dogs, they can love and be with the humans for their entire life. The human however, assuming they also fall in love with the dog, would have to watch the one they love grow old and die and then continue to live on without them for however long they live. It would be easy for the dogs because they’d never really have to experience that pain assuming the human doesn’t get killed or die some other way.

 

[branx9]

Didn't expect to talk Tolkien in this comment thread but here I go.

This is a comment thread of culture

not the exact same case but..

would it be selfish for dogs to love humans?

I think the difference is that we're talking romantic love (bonded mates) vs. other kinds of love, since a dog CAN swap humans and a human CAN get another dog - and people can go on when they lose other members of their immediate family - but death-by-heartbreak is typically reserved for your one true love (or your kid). And if a dog is your one true love, that's cool but you're an edge case not the norm.

 

[Shamz]

This actually made me think of a question. Would it be selfish of a human to fall in love and be with an elf? Because for the human, they can love and be with the elf for their entire life. The elf however, assuming they also fall in love with the human, would have to watch the one they love grow old and die and then continue to live on without them for however long they live. It would be easy for the human because they’d never really have to experience that pain assuming the elf doesn’t get killed or die some other way.

The last chapter update made me also realize that it would make sense if the elves would have a culture like:
1. Elves can only marry another elf because other races dont have the same lifespan.
2. Marry once in their life and stay a widow after their human partner dies.
3. Marry more than once in their life so dont expect that their love is only yours.

Im more on the third one. But then theres the question of if its actually possible to mate with them and get half-elves. Then comes the question of if its really ok to ruin the pure elves bloodline. Complicated stuff.

 

[Meijin]

Think very carefully on this one. She's liable to break the reincarnation cycle in some way just to see you again and perpetuate a giant robot forever war to get it done.

 

[Jatopian]

This actually made me think of a question. Would it be selfish of a human to fall in love and be with an elf? Because for the human, they can love and be with the elf for their entire life. The elf however, assuming they also fall in love with the human, would have to watch the one they love grow old and die and then continue to live on without them for however long they live. It would be easy for the human because they’d never really have to experience that pain assuming the elf doesn’t get killed or die some other way.

That seems like a question for each elf to answer for herself, and not for us to categorically pass judgment on.

I think the difference is that we're talking romantic love (bonded mates) vs. other kinds of love, since a dog CAN swap humans and a human CAN get another dog - and people can go on when they lose other members of their immediate family - but death-by-heartbreak is typically reserved for your one true love (or your kid).

It's probably healthier to just remarry. Refusing to do so... well, that's menhera, I guess.

 

[tonoda]

Damn..
Thats sad…

 

[animetuber2199]

OH HELL YEAH

 

[estolfo]

Makes me remember this video, a immortal dragon girl waits for her human love to reborn

 

[Xycian]

How sweet of her to keep that promise

 

[DaJoey]

Not sure I understand the dialogue in this one. It's hard to keep saying you love her if you're dead.

She asking for you to give her hundreds of years worth of love in advance to make up for the fact that you'll be gone before she is.

 

[Encyclopedium]

This actually made me think of a question. Would it be selfish of a human to fall in love and be with an elf? Because for the human, they can love and be with the elf for their entire life. The elf however, assuming they also fall in love with the human, would have to watch the one they love grow old and die and then continue to live on without them for however long they live. It would be easy for the human because they’d never really have to experience that pain assuming the elf doesn’t get killed or die some other way.

Kamidori Alchemy Miester explores this, one of the routes you can choose is an elf and it talks about the lifespan diff