"I asked Gweniel once. Why it was that Elves rarely mingled with Men. She was silent for a moment and finally sighed and said to imagine a flowing river, and you were just to sit on its banks watching the water flow by, when suddenly you saw a beautiful flower and you wanted it to stay forever in the water. However, it did not; it was swept out of your sight almost as soon as you had caught sight of it. It was the same with Men; almost as soon as they met them, they were gone.
I did not understand, not then. It took watching her and Legolas staying eternally young while their friends grew old and died around them to understand. First, it was Eomer and Eowyn, then Faramir and the hobbits. With each death, I watched the sorrow grow in their eyes.
Almost all their kind left but they stayed. They seemed to be waiting for a prearranged signal. I wished them well but I could not imagine a life without them; their music, their grave beauty and their rare laughter."
~ From the writings of Elwing, daughter of Aragorn and Arwen