An elf woman in white on a white horse raises her arms as a flood of foaming water surges down a moonlit river.

Original artwork, not a still

Arwen

What Grace is given me, let it pass to him. Let him be spared. Save him.

— The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring • 2001

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

A prayer and an offering: the Elven princess, who will later give up her immortality for a mortal love, tries to hand some of her own blessing to a dying hobbit. The words belong to the film, written to turn a minor Elf in the book into a heroine for Arwen, and they plant the idea of her sacrifice early. Fans quote it for the picture of something precious being given away with no thought of return.

Context reviewed

In context

Spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RingShow the scene

After the Nazgul chase Arwen and Frodo to the Ford of Bruinen, Arwen holds her ground, challenges the Witch King, and calls the river up in a flood that sweeps the Ringwraiths away. Frodo, dying of the Morgul wound, loses consciousness in her arms, and her voice reaches him in a feverish vision: a prayer that her own grace be given to him instead. He wakes in Elrond's house in Rivendell. The film hands Arwen the rescue that Tolkien gives to the Elf-lord Glorfindel.

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Context reviewed

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