Arwen Undómiel gave her heart to a great man in one of the best love stories in the Lord of the Rings, but that’s not the end of her story. It’s easy to reduce her role in the series as the love interest of Aragorn II Elessar. After all, even her fandom Wikipedia page mostly focuses on their romantic relationship. It’s established that she spent much of her life in Lothlórien with her maternal grandmother Lady Galadriel after her mother passed. Still, almost everything fans know about Arwen has to do with Aragorn – how they met, the strength of their love, and where it took them after Sauron was defeated for good. There’s not much reference to who she was outside of their relationship. Yet, this isn’t as demeaning of Arwen as it might seem. Both J. R. R. Tolkien’s novels and Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of them put emphasis on love as being vital to defeating the Dark Lord.

For example, there were many people whose love and support of Aragorn helped him fulfill his destiny as the King of Gondor. But the promise of one day marrying Arwen during a time of peace motivated him like nothing else. In that way, Arwen got Aragorn to the throne so he could be the king the people needed. At the same time, Elrond watched Arwen choose Aragorn over and over again. Perhaps her determination to stand by his side eventually gave Elrond the courage to believe in the race of Men once more. Regardless, he showed up for Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers when the Man needed him most, and it was thanks to Arwen. However, there’s a bitterness to Arwen’s otherwise sweet ending that often leaves fans confused.

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Where was Arwen at the end of the story?

Arwen battling the orcs

The Lord of the Rings films showed Arwen (Liv Tyler) dying due to her connection to the One Ring. The closer Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) get to Mount Doom, the closer she gets to death. Elrond (Hugo Weaving) visiting Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) in Rohan is as much a desperate attempt to save her life as it is a sign of starting to trust in the Man himself. It’s never explained how Arwen’s life force is tied to the One Ring. Many fans even dismissed the plotline as a trite attempt to make her more relevant to the story.

This is untrue as Jackson working hard to include her throughout the Lord of the Rings films was anything but trite. He gave her space to be much more of a badass than she’d ever gotten in the novels. Her most memorable moment was using Elven magic to save the Hobbits from the Nazgûl, Ringwraiths who served the Dark Lord. Arwen also fought at the battle of Minas Tirith, but it was deleted from the Lord of the Rings: Two Towers and only lives on in YouTube infamy. Like those moments, Elrond telling Aragorn that the One Ring was killing Arwen specifically pushed the Man into one of his coolest moments. It gave him the courage to walk the Paths of the Dead and confront the spirits of Gondorian soldiers who’d once abandoned their posts. This came in handy when Aragorn led forces to the entrance of Mordor for the Battle of the Black Gates.

Arwen Dying

The films make Arwen’s impending death out to be a direct result of her mysterious connection to the One Ring. When Elrond speaks of her fate, the framing of the scene shows Arwen in a weakened state back in Rivendell. Her situation in the Lord of the Rings is a little bit different in that she’s not tied to the One Ring at all. It’s not sucking out her life force as it gets closer to its own doom. Rather, she’s chosen mortality to stay on Middle Earth with Aragorn and has begun to feel the passing of time.

Then there was Aragorn’s refusal to marry her until the war was over. It left Arwen without a tether at a time when a great evil was spreading. Lord of the Rings fans of the character felt like this was a way to remove her from the fight when she could’ve stood alongside characters like Haldir, Legolas, and Elrond’s twin sons. They felt it was a disservice to have her suddenly so weakened by her own choices that couldn’t even help defend her own home. The bravest thing she got to do was choose a mortal life over immortality in Valinor with the Elves.

What Happened to Arwen After The War of the One Ring?

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Such a bold choice paid off for Arwen in the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Aragorn finally took his place on the Gondorian throne and became King Elessar. The Free Peoples of Middle Earth triumphed in their battle against Sauron and his dark forces. Then they gathered in Minas Tirith for the gorgeous wedding ceremony between King Elessar and Queen Arwen. Elrond shocked them both by giving his daughter’s hand in marriage and actually looking very pleased (if not a bit tearful) in the process. Once again, though, it’s hard to say what happened to Arwen beyond trading places with Frodo so he could go to Valinor with the Elves in her stead.

She became a wife, she later became a mother, and she lived the rest of her days at her husband’s side as he ruled over Gondor. The films only show her getting her man, and the novels mostly tell her story in end-of-chapter references. It’s not clear how Arwen feels about Gondor, its people, the war, or the aftermath of it. One can assume, though, that anyone who captured Aragorn’s heart was a good person and that she must’ve been vital to Middle Earth’s healing, especially being the daughter of a renowned healer herself. Moreover, she became bound to the passage of time – for better or for worse.

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Arwen and Aragorn enjoyed 122 years together after the end of the Lord of the Rings series. They welcomed their son Eldarion into the family a year after Sauron’s defeat and later went on to have two daughters. With the Elves gone, the Elessary family aged like everyone else. Aragorn died many years after the war and Arwen followed soon after. She returned to Lothlórien where she eventually died of a broken heart and was buried in the lands of her mother’s people.

Fans of the Lord of the Rings find it hard to believe that she wouldn’t want to be laid to rest beside the husband she fought so hard to be with. It’s even more difficult to understand when their children were still alive and also grieving. Arwen left them with the burden of their sorrow by giving in to her own, thus leaving them with another major death to mourn. It was a tragic end to a long life, but at least Arwen lived it while making her own choices. Throughout the Lord of the Rings, she was a daughter, a wife, and a mother. More importantly, though, she was also a woman who made her life happen on her own terms.

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