It narrates the love of the mortal Man Aragorn and the immortal Elf-maiden Arwen, telling the story of their first meeting, their eventual betrothal and marriage, and the circumstances of their deaths.

The tale is set in the Third and Fourth Ages of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe, Middle-earth, and was published in 1955 in The Return of the King as the fifth part of the first section of Appendix A of The Lord of the Rings.

[T 3] The original manuscript pages of the deathbed exchange between Aragorn and Arwen show that this key scene was almost unchanged from the published version, and had been written at great speed.

[6][d] Aragorn, visiting Rivendell, sings the Lay of Lúthien, an immortal Elf-maiden in the First Age who marries a man, Beren, thereby choosing a mortal life.

Arwen's father, Elrond the Half-elven, sees without being told what has happened, and tells Aragorn that a "great doom awaits" him, either to be the greatest of his line since Elendil, or to fall into darkness; and that he "shall neither have wife, nor bind any woman to you in troth" until he is found worthy.

Aragorn lies down in "the House of the Kings in the Silent Street" and, giving the crown of Gondor and the sceptre of Arnor to his son Eldarion, he says his final farewell to Arwen and dies, his body remaining "in glory undimmed".

[T 5] Elena Capra writes that Tolkien made use of the medieval poem Sir Orfeo, based on the classical tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, both for The Hobbit's Elvish kingdom, and for his story in The Silmarillion of Beren and Lúthien.

In Capra's view, Sir Orfeo's key ingredient was the political connection "between the recovery of the main character's beloved and the return to royal responsibility.

[9][T 6] Shippey explains that Tolkien, a devout Roman Catholic, "thought, or hoped, that God had a plan for [virtuous pagan] pre-Catholics too", so that heroes like Aragorn would go to Limbo rather than to Hell.

[15] Walsh states that he is interested to find that while Tolkien had "reluctantly relegated"[12] the tale to an appendix, it is part of the main story in Peter Jackson's The Lord of The Rings film trilogy, "strategically placed almost exactly half-way through".

It is a tale about enduring love, triumphing over seemingly impossible odds, and sealed with Arwen's sacrifice of her Elven immortality in order to live with her human husband for 'six score years of great glory and bliss'.

[T 8] The Tolkien scholar Christina Scull notes that as a result of this hobbit-centred viewpoint, first-time readers can be "as surprised as the hobbits when Arwen and her escort arrive at Minas Tirith".

[19] The scholar of medieval and Renaissance literature Mary R. Bowman writes that both "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" and the final part of Appendix B (a detailed timeline) are examples of the appendices denying the closure of The Lord of the Rings by narrating events for some 120 years after those of the final chapter of the main text; this differs from the non-narrative nature of the later appendices which add "cultural and linguistic material".

[20] To Bowman, this blurs the line between story and history, something that as she notes Tolkien much preferred, whether "true or feigned",[T 10] in the same way that Dante in his Inferno (5.121-138) narrates that Paolo and Francesca were trying to imitate Lancelot and Guinevere of Arthurian legend.

"[21] As a result, Rateliff explains, Tolkien can build what he likes in that distant past, elves and wizards and hobbits and all the rest, provided that he tears it all down again, so that the modern world can emerge from the wreckage, with nothing but "a word or two, a few vague legends and confused traditions..." to show for it.

[21] Rateliff praises and quotes the scholar of English literature Paul H. Kocher on this: "At the end of his epic Tolkien inserts ... some forebodings of [Middle-earth's] future which will make Earth what it is today ... he shows the initial steps in a long process of retreat or disappearance [of] all other intelligent species, which will leave man effectually alone on earth... Ents may still be there in our forests, but what forests have we left?

Further, Burns writes, the marriage with Arwen infuses Aragorn's line with fresh Elven blood, bringing some of the Elves' actual power and nobility to Gondor.

[24] A similar conclusion regarding Aragorn's feelings at Weathertop is drawn by scholar of medieval English literature John M. Bowers in his work on the influence of Geoffrey Chaucer on Tolkien.

[26] The scholar of English literature Anna Vaninskaya studies "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" to see how Tolkien uses fantasy to examine the issues of love and death, time and immortality.

[15] The Polish scholar of religion in literature and film, Christopher Garbowski, notes 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.

[28][T 11] The political philosopher Germaine Paulo Walsh compares Tolkien's view that "the ability to exercise wise judgment is tied to a steadfast belief in the ultimate justice of the cosmos, even in the face of circumstances that seem hopeless"[29] with the attitudes towards death in Ancient Greece.

[29] 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.

"[33] 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".