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[LOTR] Several Questions (elves, arwen, ships)

Watched all three recently and I have some questions

1. Can someone explain Arwen's pendant and mortality etc. ?
2. when the Elves get on ships, where do they go? (Why did Gandalf go too?)
3. What were the 3 elven rings of power? what'd they do?
gpt
1. Peter Jackson can explain the pendant and whatever was going on with her getting sick/dying in the LotR movies. It certainly wasn't in the books. As for Arwen's mortality: Elrond is one of the Halfelven, beings descended from both Elves and Men. All the Halfelven were given a choice: they could become Men, and die a mortal death (mortality being the gift of God to Men, and not something to be feared), and all their descendants would be Men as well. Elrond's brother made this choice, and became the first King of the Dunedain; Aragorn is a distant descendant of his. Elrond, on the other hand, chose to be counted with the Elves. His children were given the same choice, but did not have to make the choice immediately - they could go with their father to the West, and be Elves, or remain behind and become mortal and eventually die. This is the choice that Arwen made when she remained behind.

2. They went to Valinor, the ultimate West. It is the land of the Valar, who are analogous to gods in the Greek/Norse sense. It is also the ancestral home of the Elves, so they are returning home. Gandalf is going because he is one of the Maiar, which are analogous to angels. He, and the other wizards, were sent by the Valar to aid the people of Middle-Earth against Sauron. His task completed, he is returning home as well.

3. Sauron, in disguise as an emissary of the Valar, helped the Elven Ring-smiths make most of the Rings of Power, so all of them were corrupt from the beginning. The Three were the exception; they were made by the Elves alone, and Sauron never sullied them. The greatest of the three was Vilya, the Ring of Air, kept by Elrond. Galadriel had Nenya, the Ring of Water, and Gandalf had Narya, the Ring of Fire. The Three all had the power to preserve, protect, and heal; they were not tools to gain wealth like the Seven, or power line the Nine, or domination like the One. Don't fixate on the Air/Water/Fire thing, it's mostly metaphorical. In general, their powers are not well defined, though Gandalf's Ring had the power to inspire others to resist tyranny. It was originally held by Cirdan the Shipwright, lord of the Grey Havens, but when Gandalf arrived Cirdan recognized that Gandalf could make far better use of the Ring. But even though Sauron never touched them, the Three were still under the dominion of the One, and when the One was destroyed, their power faded.