Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power’s connection between elf and human is not that taboo

In early The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, viewers are initiated into a conversation between Arondir – an original character created by Amazon – and his friend, in which the latter discusses the tragic story of the romance between elves and humans. In his eyes, Arondir is stupid because he has fallen in love with Bronwyn, a human healer from the nearby village of Tirharad (also invented for the series).

Thing is, he’s kinda exaggerating. While there aren’t many examples of relationships between elves and humans (there were exactly two at this point in the timeline), it’s a little disingenuous to say categorically that they ended badly. Chaotic? Secure. Dangerous? Absolutely! But ultimately tragic and not worth it? Not as much.

The most famous example of a human falling in love with an elf in The Lord of the Rings is evidently the story of Aragorn and Arwen. If you are even remotely interested in Tolkien’s world you will already know the basics: Aragorn loves Arwen, her father says “If you want to marry her you better become the king of Gondor and Arnor.” Aragorn does after that War of the Ring, and then Elrond sails home to Valinor never to see his beloved daughter again.

That last part is a bit sad, but since Arwen chooses mortal life – which we’ll get to in a moment – she and Aragorn can spend the rest of their time in Middle-earth together, which is actually quite nice. However, this happens in the Third Age, long after the events of The Rings of Power. The two relationships that Arondir’s mate refers to are those between Beren and Lúthien and Tuor and Idril.

Beren and Luthien

Image: William Morrow

The first union between humans and elves occurs in the First Age when the mortal man Beren meets the elf princess Lúthien. Interestingly, this is one of the oldest stories in the entire Legendarium, as it was written just a year after Tolkien returned from the Battle of the Somme in World War I – almost four decades earlier The Fellowship of the Ring would be published for the first time.

Indeed, Beren and Lúthien is such an important tale that it was posthumously expanded into a whole book, arranged by Tolkien’s son and tireless editor, Christopher. Summarizing the events of the book is a disservice, but for the sake of brevity: Beren meets Lúthien and they fall in love. Her father, King Thingol of Doriath, disapproves and presents Beren with the impossible task of retrieving a Silmaril from Morgoth (if you thought Sauron was bad, that guy used to be his boss).

After much effort, they return to Doriath and are welcomed by a hero, though unable to retrieve the Silmaril. Years later, the wolf Carcharoth – in the service of Morgoth himself – travels to Doriath, prompting Beren to leave with a group to finally complete the quest for the Silmaril.

This time he receives the jewel and hands it over to Thingol, but not before suffering a mortal wound. Beren dies, but his soul awaits Lúthien in the Halls of Mandos. She does some weird spirit stuff and somehow gets an audience with Valar Manwë, who brings news of her predicament to Eru Ilúvatar – literally god. At this point, she has a choice: go to Valinor to live on as an elf for eternity, or have Beren return to her on the condition that both become mortal. She chooses the latter option and becomes the first elf to die of old age in Middle-earth (Arwen becomes the second in the Fourth Age, almost 7,000 years later).

That’s not so bad, is it? Against all odds, Beren and Lúthien end up together after becoming heroes, and somehow manage to make time to spend the rest of their years together in peace. “The history of the relationship between elves and humans is so terrible!” says Arondir’s friend. But how… not really.

Tuor and Idril

The second union between elves and humans also occurs in the First Age, this time centered around the human Tuor and the elf Idril. They face each other path less judgment than Beren and Lúthien, inasmuch as Idril’s father – who is also a king – essentially sees Tuor as a son. He does not send him to certain death in order to obtain his blessing. He just says, “You seem like a nice guy, I would love it if you marry my daughter.” In fact, almost everyone in the hidden elf city of Gondolin Tuor loves.

Except for Maeglin, a madman who was so obsessed with Idril and jealous of Tuor that he sold the whole town to Morgoth and started the fall of Gondolin (which was also expanded into a full book by Christopher Tolkien).

The whole “Their love caused the sack of a historically significant city” angle could probably be construed as “It ended badly” if that’s where their story ends. But it doesn’t. Together they escape Gondolin with all survivors and rebuild their society in Sirion. They even have a child: Earendil, who is growing up to be a key figure in the Legendarium. Eventually they grow bored of Middle-earth and sail west to Valinor, where Tuor – still loved by the elves – becomes the first man among them to be granted immortality.

Phew, so sad. That ended so bad. Ilúvatar forbid this to happen to Arondir and Bronwyn.

So at the time of The Rings of Power, if only there were two unions between humans and elves… I mean, actually, Arondir and Bronwyn’s odds are pretty good! The other two couples ended up really happy together. In my mind, Arondir’s friend is just very jealous of the possibility that they won’t be able to hang out as much anymore, which is pretty toxic. What a bad friend.

That being said, the fact that Arondir’s pal even brought up any of this is sort of foreshadowing. Chances are bad luck is on the horizon, especially considering Theo, Bronwyn’s son, finds the Nazgul Sword early in the season.

So yes, this one will probably end badly – but not like the ones before it.