How come 🧝Arwen lived for 2000+ years?

[Avian]

Arwen was a Half-Elf and she lived for 2000+ years without choosing between races as it seems. But other half-elves that came before her were considered mortal and didn't have an immortal life. Even Earendil was recognized as a "Mortal Man" by Manwe. It was after Elwing and he chose to count among the elves that he was gifted the immortality of the elves. So, how could Arwen live for 2000 years? Does it mean that she was already chosen to be an elf in her youth and she wanted to become a human only after she met Aragorn? She also said she is choosing the fate of Luthien. Luthien was resurrected as a human after she was dead. So Arwen also died and resurrected like Luthien?

 

[Radaghast]

Arwen was an elf for over 2500 years before making the choice not to sail to Aman. The choice could be made at any point in the elf's life.

Welcome to the TTF 👍

 

[Radaghast]

I think you're overthinking things a bit. Elrond was called "Half-Elven" (he was not exactly half-elven) but chose the fate of Elves. He was therefore officially an Elf as were his three children, until Arwen chose the fate of Men.

 

[Eldacar]

Elrond and his brother had to make a choice whether they would be human or elves. Elrond chose the elvish side, therefore Arwen was elven by all accounts, since she was the daughter of an elf 'by choice' and an elf by birth, so two elves nonetheless. The circumstances of her being able to receive mortality are described in Appendix A of the Lord of the Rings in the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen.

"The Third Age ended thus in victory and hope; and yet grievous among the sorrows of that Age was the parting of Elrond and Arwen, for they were sundered by the Sea and by a doom beyond the end of the world. When the Great Ring was unmade and the Three were shorn of their power, then Elrond grew weary at last and forsook Middle-earth, never to return. But Arwen became as a mortal woman, and yet it was not her lot to die until all that she had gained was lost.

[...]

Lady Undómiel, said Aragorn, the hour is indeed hard, yet it was made even in that day when we met under the white birches in the garden of Elrond where none now walk. And on the hill of Cerin Amroth when we forsook both the Shadow and the Twilight this doom we accepted."

Her Choice, still concerning the 'acceptance' of mortality, is comparable to that of Elros or Luthien since all three of them chose death in some way, but they aren't completely alike, since circumstances and the terms of receiving it varied.

 

[Tar-Elenion]

The half-elven are mortal unless granted other doom:

"Now all those who have the blood of mortal Men, in whatever part, great or small, are mortal, unless other doom be granted to them..."
The Lost Road, Quenta Silmarillion

Earendil, Elwing, Elrond and Elros are granted a specific 'other doom', having to make their choice when it was granted to them.

Elrond's children are granted a different 'other doom':

"But to the children of Elrond a choice was also appointed: to pass with him from the circles of the world; or if they remained to become mortal and die in Middle-earth. For Elrond, therefore, all chances of the War of the Ring were fraught with sorrow."
LotR, App. A

Manwe decides what the 'other doom', if any, will be. But it does not have to be the same in each case...

"Arwen was not an elf, but one of the half-elven who abandoned her elvish rights."
Letter 345

 

[Olorgando]

The half-elven are mortal unless granted other doom:

"Arwen was not an elf, but one of the half-elven who abandoned her elvish rights."
Letter 345

JRRT's use of the term half-Elven was very elastic (never mind that the slightest "pollution" with human ancestry trumped everything).
The only true half-Elven was Eärendil, with parents Tuor and Idril. The only half-Elven below 50% was Dior, with 25% - but he was also 25% Maia from grandma Melian. All the rest are above the 50% mark, at minimum 9/16 ths, with Arwen and her brothers above the three-quarters mark (25/32 nds).
In view of JRRT's most-quoted letter, what Arwen chose when she chose mortality was choosing (proto-) Christianity, so for JRRT Roman Catholicism

 

[Ricardo]

Sorry, a little late to the party.

The thing is, half-elves were considered human, they grew as human and they died as humans (e.g. their fea leaving Arda).
That is, unless they were given a choice.

Dior, Elured and Elurin didn't have a chance to make that choice, but Earendil, Elwing, Elrond and Elros did. All 4 were human but Earendil, Elwing and Elrond turn into elves by choice, while Elros preferred to remain human.

With Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen is more complicated, by the time they were conceived, both of their parents (Elrond and Celebrian) were elves, so, they were born as elves, but still had a choice to renounce immortality.

It wasn't that Arwen became mortal because she didn't sail to the west with her father, there were ships to Aman way after Arwen died (e.g. Legolas), but she made the choice to become mortal when she married Aragorn, she just didn't want to remain in Arda, even in Valinor without him.

They could defer the choice (that's what Arwen did) but they did have to make the choice at some point. It's unclear what Elladan and Elrohir did.

 

[Vardarianna]

Mom lived from the year 241 of the 3rd Age to the year 121 of the 4th Age until she was 2,901 years old. She lived 2773 years as an immortal, and 123 years as a mortal. Love you mama!