Scholars have noted that this enabled Tolkien to explore several key themes, including love and death, time and immortality.
As a Catholic, he believed that Men, freely choosing to let go, gain release from the world's limitations; whereas if they tried to hold on to life and material things, they would end in darkness.
Leading the fight for Hrólf, Bodvar Bjarki calls Skuld's men draugar, 'undead', saying "they are grimmest to deal with after they are dead, and against this we have no power.
"[3] Ellis comments that Skuld is one of the Norse women involved in "everlasting battle" who share the names of Valkyries, females who guide the souls of the dead.
She notes that Skuld is "said to be the child of an elf-woman", but that it is difficult "to decide how accurately the term [elves] is used", as its meaning shifts between the sagas and the Edda poems.
[3] Högni too is "essentially a demonic character", his name connected to the German Hexe, 'witch', and to the English "hag"; the scholar Alexander Krappe sees his being the son of an elf as fitting in to that role, while his daughter Hildegund similarly has "certain magical qualities", such as awakening fallen warriors.
[4] Perhaps the earliest published half-elf in modern literature is the character Orion in Lord Dunsany's 1924 The King of Elfland's Daughter.
[5][6] In 1977, two members of the folk rock band Steeleye Span (Bob Johnson and Pete Knight) created a concept album also named The King of Elfland's Daughter, inspired by Lord Dunsany's book.
In Appendix A of The Return of the King, Tolkien notes that by the marriage of Arwen and Aragorn "the long-sundered branches of the Half-elven were reunited and their line was restored".
[8] The first of these was between the mortal Beren, of the House of Bëor, and Lúthien, daughter of the Elf Thingol, king of the Sindar, and Melian, a Maia.
Dior's wife was Nimloth, a Sindarin Elf, and with her he had three children, Elwing and two sons (thus, half-elven but not between Edain and Eldar, men and Elves of the highest blood).
[8] Uniquely, Eärendil and Elwing, together with their sons Elrond and Elros, were granted their choice of fates: to be counted as Elves (free to dwell in the blessed Undying Lands for as long as Arda endures) or to be counted as Human (entitled to the Gift of Men whereby, through death, their spirits are freed to enter the unknown beyond Arda).
[T 5][T 6] The children of Elrond were also given choice of kindred,[T 7] and therefore Arwen could choose to be counted among the Edain even though her father hoped she would accompany him to Elvenhome in the West.
But she chose otherwise, marrying Aragorn II Elessar, king of the Reunited Kingdom, at the start of the Fourth Age, and bringing noble elvish blood into his dynasty.
[T 13] Legolas, an Elf of Mirkwood, believed as much about Prince Imrahil's alleged heritage upon meeting him during the events of The Return of the King.
[T 14][8] He remarked that "long since the people of Nimrodel left the woodlands of Lórien, and yet still one may see that not all sailed from Amroth's haven west over water",[T 15] though the matter is probed no further.
[11] In The Book of Lost Tales (published in two parts), the young Tolkien originally intended Eärendil, then spelled Earendel, to be the first of the Half-elven.
[12] A similar conclusion regarding Aragorn's feelings at Weathertop is drawn by the scholar of medieval English literature John M. Bowers in his work on the influence of Geoffrey Chaucer on Tolkien.
[13] The scholar of English literature Anna Vaninskaya studies how Tolkien uses fantasy to examine the issues of love and death, time and immortality.
Workman quotes Brooks's statement that "all narration is obituary" and states that it is in that conception that Tolkien valued Arwen's fate: it is Arwen's "mourning gaze that allows for the transmission of Aragorn's memory",[15] or in Tolkien's words which she quotes, "And long there he lay, an image of the splendour of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed".
[15] Critics including the Polish scholar of religion in literature and film, Christopher Garbowski, note that while Tolkien contrasts Elves and Men throughout The Lord of the Rings, he introduces the conceit that an Elf may marry a Man on condition of surrendering her immortality, something that happens exactly twice in Middle-earth: with Lúthien, and then with Arwen.
[16][T 20][17][18] The scholar of English literature Catherine Madsen notes the reflection of mortality in the "fading" of Middle-earth from the enormous powers like Morgoth and Elbereth that battled in the First Age.
"[22] In a 1968 broadcast on BBC2, Tolkien quoted French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and described the inevitability of death as the "key-spring of The Lord of the Rings".
[30][31] Josh Williams of Screen Rant stated that "half-elves are popular because they're a great choice for those wanting to play as a fantasy race without stepping too far away from humanity".
[30][34][35] As a result, Dungeons & Dragons is moving away from having the half-elf as a distinct race in the game[36][31][37] and it is not listed in the Player's Handbook (2024) as a character option.
[42] Tanis, like all Dragonlance heroes, is a flawed character; Lauren Davis of io9 comments that he is "consumed by his inability to fit completely into either the human or elven worlds".
[43] Rob Bricken, also of io9, writes that Tanis is "A bastard (in the technical sense) half-elf who doesn't truly belong in the world of either race; he's a capable leader of the group although he's often plagued by self-doubt.