One of Peter Jackson’s lesser faults that really made the movie great was the introduction of material found in Appendix A, Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, into the main narrative of the film. While many fans have struggled to find this tale in the Lord of the Rings, it is truly the most important part of the Appendices, which are almost as long as the Return of the King itself.
As well as having the greatest Sindarin lines the films contained, the Aragorn and Arwen scenes are really a callback to the Silmarillion, in the tale Of Beren and Luthien. Just like Aragorn and Arwen, Beren and Luthien were a mortal man and immortal elven princess who fell in love, making for the most important relationship in the First Age, resulting in the theft of a Silmaril, the destruction of the elven kingdoms, and of their offspring came Eärendil the Mariner, who saved the Edain and Eldar, and so on. Aragorn and Arwen are a wonderful parallel, as their love was part of the culmination of the Third Age, and started the Age of Men. In fact, when Aragorn first meets Arwen, he mistakes her for Luthien and calls out to her by that name!
The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen is the most important piece of material found in the Appendices, as Tolkien himself told us. The main narrative is supposed to be mainly hobbitocentric, so Arwen and Aragorn’s story was not important, but it could not wholly be left out. There are very few small hints throughout the narrative, such as Bilbo suggesting to Aragorn that Arwen’s presence at a feast would mean he should attend, or even just the fact that they seemed to be speaking as close friends, by Frodo’s observation. Nothing solid in the whole book, until, of course, the wedding on Midyear’s Day in the City of Kings. Not March 25th, the date of the fall of Barad Dur (as seen in the films), but the day of Lithe, somewhere in September on our calendar ( as the calendar of Imladris starts the year in April, and each month has 30 days, plus 3 enderi in September, and two days between years, it gets quite confusing when you can’t get numbers to line up).
Even just as a Sindarin student, I enjoy every Arwen scene to the fullest, as very little English slips through in them. While I’m sure many of you can’t stand them, when you have the connection the the lore the movies are far more potent. There is a scene which in the films takes place in Imladris, though I have managed to trace it to an event in Lothlorien in the book, where Arwen asks if he remembers when they first met. Yes! I do! Of course one of my favourite Sindarin sentences in the movie, Nauthannen i ned ôl reniannen ( I thought I had strayed into a dream), and in that very same scene, when she forsakes the Twilight, (I would rather spend one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone, I choose a mortal life, etc), you feel the true meaning of this through the lore:
” ‘I will cleave to you, Dunadan, and turn from the Twilight. Yet there lies the land of my people and the long home of all my kin.’ She loved her father greatly.”
She is sacrificing so much more than just her immortality, and only when the two mediums are together do you truly see its greatness.