Elrond the Dad
A thing about being older that is you pivot, at a point, from looking forward and into looking into a future that wasn’t but could have been. It’s not quite a tense in grammar, although it should be. The French futur antériuer is close. The future past.
So let’s talk about Elrond and Aragorn and what their relationship might have been like from the point of view of Elrond. The Elven family relationship (we’ll get to Elrond’s relation to Aragorn in a bit) is that Elrond wed Celebrían, the daughter of Galadriel. From that came three children, one of whom was Arwen.
Now Galadriel was born in Valinor – essentially born in Heaven. At the time of the telling of the Lord of the Rings she may have been some 15,000 to 20,000 years old. Although in every sense, the concept of “years” didn’t exist before she was born, which makes it hard to tell exactly.
Elrond, on the other hand, is essentially himself a demigod. He is descended from Lúthien, daughter of Melian (a Maiar). At least one-eighth god. An octagod? He is about 6,500 years old when he takes in Aragorn. Arwen is 2,700 or so.
Into Imladris comes Aragorn as a teenager. Dropped off by Gilraen, who claimed, on her own honor, that this kid was somehow an heir of Isildur. Of course Elrond had known and fought with Isildur, but Isildur was twenty or so generations down the line from Elros (Elrond’s brother). So Isildur was at best a grand-nephew many times removed. And Elrond went to war for this guy. Aragorn was – theoretically – at least another forty generations down the line.
And Aragon as the neve – the nerve – to want to even hold hands with Arwen.
So Elrond sets to Aragorn a challenge: “Remake the kingdoms of Arnor and Gornor,” Elrond says, “to be worthy of my god-descended daughter.”
I mean, pretty fair as far as dating goddesses go. But I think more than anything this was something Elrond was hoping for. Menegroth was under the sea; Númenor was too. Eregion was destroyed. Imladris was a dwindling island. All that was left was to give up. So here comes this punk with…something? And Elrond chooses to believe. I mean, go back in time to the beginning.
There’s a world you have in your mind when your kid is young, what you would have it turn out as, for her, by her. It’s a time of new hope. Arwen was born in the early years of the White Tree. An era of peace and good. The world was clear of evil. Elrond must have looked on Arwen as a child and imagined a new Doriath. Maybe he wanted for her to marry Círdur (son of Círdan and also a demigod) or close to that.
Then you have Sauron come back and ravage everything, and bring realm and reign down to the brink of ruin. The world is about to end. And at the eleventh hour, right before all the Elves are going to call it quits and go West, this “Strider,” shows up out of the blue. He hasn’t taken a bath in a while, but Arwen says he’s The One. And she’s holding the line on it.
Like he could have said, “Swap the land and sea, turn lead into gold, and make pigs fly” as a bar. I’m pretty sure Elrond thought it would fall through. He and Arwen and he would sail and that would be that. Yet…he hoped. Maybe, just maybe…
Not what he imagined it would turn out, little Arwen.