Diksha Sundriyal
Prime Video’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ is set in a world thousands of years before the events of ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘LOTR’ series. The show sets up a backstory for a lot of well-known characters while also concocting new ones to serve different plot lines. To keep in touch with the world that Tolkien created, the show’s creators have drawn some parallels from the stories that the audience is familiar with to the ones they made in the show. One of those parallels appears in the story of Arondir, an elf, and Bronwyn, a human. This elf-human love story reminds one of the famous Aragorn and Arwen pairing in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ series. While the latter got to be together, will the same hold true for the ‘Rings of Power’ couple? Let’s find out.
The Forbidden Love of Arondir and Bronwyn
As soon as we discover that something is going on between Arondir and Bronwyn, we also find out that the nature of their relationship is highly forbidden. Belonging to different races, they have kept their relationship hush-hush, though not so much that the rest of the village already suspects it. Another reason that their love affair is frowned upon is that the people of Tirharad don’t like elves very much, and in return, elves also look down on them, mainly because they chose to side with Morgoth in the previous war.
Still, Arondir and Bronwyn are in love, and it doesn’t look like they care about what others think. When it is time for the elves to pack up and leave their post in Tirharad, instead of going with the rest of the elves, Arondir goes to Bronwyn, possibly to decide what to do next. However, the discussion about the future of their relationship is shelved when more pressing concerns emerge. Following this, both Arondir and Bronwyn land themselves in life-threatening circumstances, so it doesn’t look like they are going to talk about moving in together anytime soon. We also know that the level of danger is only going to increase, which means that one or both of them might not come out of it alive.
The tragedy in their future is also foretold (kind of) by another elf, who warns Arondir that previous such pairings have always ended bitterly. Take a look at other elf-human relationships, and apart from Arwen and Aragorn, it does look like nothing good comes out when a mortal and an immortal fall in love. The romance between the Silvan Elf Tauriel and the Dwarf Kili, in ‘The Hobbit’ film series, also ended in tragedy when the latter died during the Battle of the Five Armies. Similarly, in the stories of Tolkien, there are other mortal-immortal relations that do not end well. There is the story of Beren and Luthien, where they both die; Aegnor and Andreth, who, despite being in love with each other, never get to be together; and a Silvan Elf Mithrellas and Númenórean man, Imrazor, who also didn’t part ways in the best of manners.
Apart from the sad endings to their stories, the forbidden nature of the elf-human relationships also stems from the fact that they don’t really like each other. We see that in Tirharad as well as in the Sundering Seas when the elf Galadriel is found by humans lost at sea who instantly judge her when they see her ears. Because humans are still working towards their status on the social ladder, the elves are also quick to judge, especially considering that elves are immortal and live long lives as compared to humans, whose life spans are often just a blink of an eye for them.
It is also difficult for elves to fall in love with humans because of the short life span of the latter, which means that either the elves will have to grieve their partner for the rest of eternity or they will have to sacrifice their own immortality like Arwen and Luthien did. Considering all these factors, the chances of Bronwyn and Arondir getting a happy ending are rather slim. Still, we have our fingers crossed.
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