Unseen letter shows author – and Auden – doubting love story in final volume of The Lord of the Rings
WH Auden attempted to persuade JRR Tolkien to drop the romance between Aragorn and Arwen from the storyline of The Lord of the Rings, describing it as "unnecessary and perfunctory", an unpublished letter by the author has revealed.
The 1955 letter sees Tolkien writing to his publisher about the difficulties of completing The Return of the King, the third and final part of his magnum opus, in which Aragorn and his men face a final battle with Sauron's troops, as the hobbits Frodo and Sam continue on their journey to destroy the One Ring. At the end, Aragorn is crowned king of Gondor, and marries Arwen, the daughter of Elrond, "Evenstar of her people".
"Auden on the whole approves of Vol III seen in galleys," wrote Tolkien, revealing that the poet supported what Tolkien called "the Éowyn-Faramir business", where Éowyn initially falls for Aragorn, but ends up with Faramir when he does not return her love. "Then the heart of Éowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her," runs the story.
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The 1955 letter sees Tolkien writing to his publisher about the difficulties of completing The Return of the King, the third and final part of his magnum opus, in which Aragorn and his men face a final battle with Sauron's troops, as the hobbits Frodo and Sam continue on their journey to destroy the One Ring. At the end, Aragorn is crowned king of Gondor, and marries Arwen, the daughter of Elrond, "Evenstar of her people".
"Auden on the whole approves of Vol III seen in galleys," wrote Tolkien, revealing that the poet supported what Tolkien called "the Éowyn-Faramir business", where Éowyn initially falls for Aragorn, but ends up with Faramir when he does not return her love. "Then the heart of Éowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her," runs the story.
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