18 days to the release of
Return of the King!
30 week anniversary of the Countdown Calendar!
Bonus Fact:
Aragorn and Arwen met for the first time when he was 20 and she was 2717. For Aragorn it was love at first sight, and this was perceived by Aragorn's mother, Gilraen. Gilraen said "My son, your aim is high, even for the descendant of many kings. For this lady is the noblest and fairest that now walks the earth. .... I do not think that you will have the good will of Elrond in this matter." Elrond also perceived the heart of Aragorn, and he explained to Aragorn that Arwen was far more mature and experienced than Aragorn, and also that she would "live with the youth of the Eldar" so long as Elrond lived in Middle Earth but that when he left she must either go with Elrond or become mortal.
Aragorn spent the next thirty years labouring "against the cause of Sauron". When he was 49 years old, he came to Lorien after much heavy toil, and Galadriel welcomed him and clad him like an "Elf-Lord from the Isles of the West". Thus Arwen saw him for the second time, this time "grown to full stature of body and mind" and thus she fell in love with him. And she said "I will cleave to you, Dunadan, and turn from the Twilight. Yet there lies the land of my people and the long home of my kin."
"When Elrond learned the choice of his daughter, he was silent, though his heart was grieved and found the doom long feared none the easier to endure." But when Aragorn returned to Rivendell, Elrond said to him: "[Arwen] shall not be the bride of any Man less than the King of both Gondor and Arnor."
Aragorn returned to his labours against Sauron. Meanwhile "Arwen remained in Rivendell, and when Aragorn was abroad, from afar she watched over him in thought; and in hope she made for him a great and kingly standard, such as only one might display who claimed the lordship of the Numenoreans and the inheritance of Elendil."
(Source: Appendix A, Part V, "Here Follows a Part of the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" from LOTR)
8:32:08 AM 
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