Arondir and Bronwyn’s relationship in the new Amazon Lord of the Rings show causes a rift between the Middle-earth races, but J.R.R. Tolkien’s books and writings suggest there’s hope.
Early on in 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. In his eyes, Arondir is foolish for having allowed himself to fall for Bronwyn, a human healer from the nearby village of Tirharad (also invented for the series).
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! But ultimately tragic and not worthwhile? Not so much.
The most famous example of a human falling in love with an elf in The Lord of the Rings is, obviously, the tale of Aragorn and Arwen. 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. Anyway, that happens in the Third Age, long after the events of The Rings of Power. The two relationships that Arondir’s pal is referring to are those between Beren and Lúthien, and Tuor and Idril.
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 would be published for the first time.
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.
