Light on the Way
1. Preface
Light On the Way
Preface
Tolkien said in one of his letters (I can’t remember which one) that The Lord of the Rings is ultimately a story about death. I think most good stories do look at this ultimate reality for us mortal beings and our personal relationship with our own eventual demise, and is another of the reasons we resonate so to the work, as we can see how Frodo and Aragorn and others respond to their own mortality and look forward to their own ends within Middle Earth, and how they prepare for them even as they prepare to live.
The story of the deaths of Aragorn and Arwen as told in the appendices is very sad and yet uplifting. And I found myself wondering, why would Arwen have reacted the way she did? She knows the story of Lúthien. of how she and Beren met again in the gardens of the Halls of Mandos before they left the circles of Arda. So I began to play with the idea, and this was what came out.
The cost of love has always been the probability of loss of that which is loved, either as we leave it or it leaves us. Yet sometimes it is only in giving our belovéds freedom that we can hold them most most truly within our hearts.
I hope this, too, resonates in the hearts of others, and that it causes thought.
This is a work of fan fiction, written because the author has an abiding love for the works of J R R Tolkien. The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of the Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Enterprises, and possibly New Line Cinema, except for certain original characters who belong to the author of the said work. The author will not receive any money or other remuneration for presenting the work on this archive site. The work is the intellectual property of the author, is available solely for the enjoyment of Henneth Annûn Story Archive readers, and may not be copied or redistributed by any means without the explicit written consent of the author.
