Sunday, April 23, 2017

Arwen Undómiel

In his first description of Arwen Undómiel, Tolkien is using his most complicated and yet, most beautiful syntax, worthy of the description of the Evenstar…

In the middle of the table, against the woven clothes upon the wall, there was a chair under a canopy, and there sat a lady fair to look upon, and so like was she in form of womanhood to Elrond that Frodo guessed that she was one of his close kindred. Young she was and yet not so. The braids of her dark hair were touched by no frost; her white arms and clear face were flawless and smooth, and the light of stars was in her bright eyes, grey as a cloudless night; yet queenly she looked, and thought and knowledge were in her glance, as of one who has known many things that the years bring. Above her brow her head was covered with a cap of silver lace netted with small gems, glittering white; but her soft gray raiment had no ornament save a girdle of leaves wrought in silver.
So it was that Frodo saw her whom few mortals had yet seen; Arwen, daughter of Elrond, in whom it was said that the likeness of Lúthien had come on earth again; and she was called Undómiel, for she was the Evenstar of her people. […]

(BOOK TWO, Chapter 1: MANY MEETINGS)

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings


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