Arwen has also come and takes her place as Aragorn's bride and queen, thus forsaking her immortality. In this choice, Arwen follows in the path of Lúthien, who also chose mortality in her love for Beren, a story from the lore of Middle Earth.
In making this choice Arwen opens up a spot on the passage of the elves into the West. Seeing Frodo's woundedness, perhaps more acutely than any other, Arwen gives her place to Frodo. She says,
A gift I will give you. For I am the daughter of Elrond. I shall not go with him now when he departs to the Havens; for mine is the choice of Lúthien, and as she so I have chosen, both the sweet and the bitter. But in my stead you shall go, Ring-bearer, when the time comes, and if you then desire it. If your hurts grieve you still and the memory or your burden is heavy, then you may pass into the West, until all your wounds and weariness are healed.
Fleming Rutledge sees in this gift an image of Christ making "the exchange," his life for ours. Arwen gives her life to Frodo for his healing.
We can debate the Christological parallels of Arwen's exchange with Frodo. For my part, I pause here with Arwen's gift because of the poignancy with which she describes Frodo's pain: "If your hurts grieve you still and the memory or your burden is heavy, then you may pass into the West, until all your wounds and weariness are healed."
Until all your wounds and weariness are healed. We've experienced a great victory in the story, but scars remain. Broken things still need mended. Wounds haunt and linger. And much of this won't and can't be healed this side of the waters. Here, I think, we glimpse the eschatology of The Lord of the Rings. The hope that in that land beyond the Havens all our wounds and weariness will, one day, be healed.
