Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power’s elf/human hookup isn’t as taboo as it seems

It is important to start early The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, viewers are privy to a conversation between Arondir — an original character invented by Amazon — and his friend, in which the latter discusses the tragic history of romance between elves and humans. Arondir, who was also created for the series, sees himself as stupid for falling for Bronwyn. Bronwyn is a healer and human from Tirharad.

The thing is, he’s sort of exaggerating. While there aren’t many examples of relationships between Elves and humans (at this point in the timeline, there have been precisely two) to categorically say that they ended badly is a little disingenuous. Messy? Sure. Dangerous? Absolutely! It’s just too tragic. But not so.

The Lord of the Rings has the best-known instance of a human falling for an elf. The tale of Aragorn (and Arwen) is obvious. If you’re even remotely interested in Tolkien’s world, you’ll already know the gist: Aragorn loves Arwen, her dad says “If you want to marry her, you better become the King of Gondor and Arnor,” Aragorn does that after the 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 given that Arwen chooses a mortal life — which is something we’ll elaborate on shortly — she and Aragorn get to spend the rest of their time in Middle-earth together, which is actually quite lovely. That happens in the Third Age long after the events that took place. The Rings of Power. The two relationships that Arondir’s pal is referring to are those between Beren and Lúthien, and Tuor and Idril.

Beren and Lúthien

William Morrow

The first union between humans and elves occurs in the First Age, when the mortal man Beren meets the elven princess Lúthien. Interestingly, this is one of the oldest stories in the entire legendarium, having been written just one year after Tolkien returned from fighting at the Battle of the Somme in World War I — almost four decades before The Fellowship of the Ring The first publication would occur.

Beren and Lúthien is such an important story, in fact, that it was posthumously expanded into an entire book, arranged by Tolkien’s son and indefatigable editor, Christopher. To summarize the events of the book is to do it a disservice, but for the sake of brevity: Beren meets Lúthien and they fall in love. Her father King Thingol from Doriath rejects her and gives Beren the unenviable task of retrieving the Silmaril form Morgoth.

After much toil, they return to Doriath and receive a hero’s welcome, despite failing to retrieve the Silmaril. Years later, the wolf Carcharoth — in the service of Morgoth himself — journeys toward Doriath, at which point Beren sets out with a party to finally complete the Quest of the Silmaril.

Thingol receives the gem and he hands it to Beren. But not before he is fatally wounded. Beren dies, but his soul waits for Lúthien in the Halls of Mandos. She does some weird spirit stuff and somehow gets an audience with the Valar Manwë, who brings news of her predicament to Eru Ilúvatar — Literally God. This is when she has to make a decision: either go to Valinor as an elf and continue living there for ever, or give Beren back to her under the condition that both of them become mortal. She selects to go with the former option, becoming the first Middle-earth elf to pass away from old age. Arwen is the next in line in the Fourth Age almost 7,000 years later.

That’s not so bad, right? Against all odds, Beren and Lúthien end up together after becoming heroes, and somehow manage to carve out time to quietly live out the rest of their years with each other. “The history of elves and humans dating is so terrible!” says Arondir’s friend. But like… not really.

Idril & Tuor

In the First Age, the second union of elves with humans is also possible. This time it centers on the human Tuor as well as the elf Idril. They are faced Weg less judgment than Beren and Lúthien, to the extent that Idril’s dad — who is also a king — basically sees Tuor as a son. He doesn’t send him to certain death to gain his blessing. He just says, “You seem like a nice guy, I’d love for you to marry my daughter.” In fact, just about everyone in the hidden elven city of Gondolin loves Tuor.

Except Maeglin. A weirdo obsessed with Idril, and jealous of Tuor.

The whole “Their love caused the sacking of a historically significant city” angle could probably be construed as “It ended badly” if their story ends there. But it doesn’t. With all the other survivors, they flee Gondolin and build their new society at Sirion. They even have a child: Eärendil, who will grow up to become a key figure in the legendarium. Eventually, they get bored with Middle-earth and sail west to Valinor, where Tuor — still beloved by the elves — becomes the first man to ever be granted immortality among them.

Oh my God, how sad. It ended in such a terrible way. Ilúvatar forbid that happens to Arondir and Bronwyn.

At the moment of The Rings of Power, when there have been just two unions between humans and elves… I mean, actually, Arondir and Bronwyn’s odds are pretty good! Both of the other couples were very happy. In my eyes, Arondir’s friend is just really jealous about the possibility they won’t get to hang out as much anymore, which is pretty toxic. This is a terrible friend.

All of that being said, the fact Arondir’s pal brings any of this up at all is kind of foreboding. Misfortune probably is looming on the horizon, especially when you consider the very Nazgul-y sword Theo, Bronwyn’s son, finds early in the season.

So yeah, this one probably will end badly — but not because the ones before it did.