The Half-elven
Peredhil; the kindred of both races and the Doom of the Choice
Definition
The Half-elven (in Quenya Peredhil) — the descendants of the marriages of the Eldar and Men — are the kindred of both races, who carry the blood of the Firstborn and of mortals: from Beren and Lúthien (Elf and Man), from Tuor and Idril (Men and Elf), and their issue — Dior, Elwing, Eärendil, and the twins Elrond and Elros — the fated stem of the later kings.
The Doctrine of the Choice
- The Rule: Because a Half-elven is of both gifts, “the Valar granted them the choice” — the “Doom of the Half-elven”: each Peredhel, at death (or at the time appointed), must choose to be of the kind of the Elves (deathless) or of Men (mortal) — “the Choice of the Half-elven”, laid first on Eärendil (who chose the Elven-kind, yet was set among the stars) and bequeathed to Elrond (Elves) and Elros (Men).
- The meaning: The Choice is the point where the mythology’s two gifts meet and are decided — the issue of the great loves, and the seed of the destiny of the later royal lines (Elrond’s house; the kings of Númenor through Elros).
In the Tale
Beren and Lúthien (by the pity of Mandos) passed into the world of Men (Lúthien becoming mortal in grief and love — the “first of the Half-elven”); Eärendil and Elwing and their sons bore the decision forward; and from the twins spring both the enduring “Elrond-line” (the last Elf-lords) and the “kings of Men”.
Significance
The Half-elven are Tolkien’s emblem of the marriage of the two great themes (immortality and mortality, Elves and Men) — the literal union of the kindreds, whose “Choice” resolves (in each generation) the question the whole legendarium asks: which gift is better? And their existence is the bridge through which the great love-tales enter the later ages.