For Prompt # 65 Direction: Before Hope
"Gilrean has accepted your … our counsel. What distresses you so?"
"What distresses me? I carried her under my heart as she grew in my womb, nurtured her from my breast as a babe and kissed her hurts better when she was a child! Now, as a young woman, she turns to me for support in her life's choice – having no desire to wed – and I have directed her to a path of loss and heartbreak. What mother does that to her child?"
"A mother who is cursed with foresight; one who sees that her daughter's fate is linked to Middle-earth's. Your wise counsel has given Arda a chance and, Valar-willing, our daughter will soon have a babe of her own to love. Fear not for her. She is strong, like her mother, and she will raise a strong child. A child who will bring the Dunedain from the shadows."
End
A/N: This short conversation between Aragorn's maternal grandparents was inspired by my new "The Peoples of Middle-earth" book, page 263. This is the only place I've seen that Gilrean didn't really want to marry. Also, I got the impression that her father would have said nay to the marriage had it been left to him. Just my humble opinion!
I also think there is some irony in Gilrean's fate being linked to Middle-earth's (I said that, not Tolkien) and Arwen's fate being linked to the Ring (at least in the movie).