All the virtues interact so the particular virtue needed in a particular situation is the key virtue for that time and place. Hope can provide a strong anchor for us as we run with patience the race we have set before us. In fact, if you lose hope then your courage can falter and we may fail to exercise faith and agape love. I say “exercise” and not “experience” because faith and agape love will demand action in our lives. The Colossians faith was exercised and evident to others as was their love and they were given life by the hop laid up for them in heaven.
For example,
Colossians 1:3-5
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,
We find our Hope in God and in His work in our life and courage to live as He has called us to live. This virtue is relatively simple to link to the LOTR because hope is the name of one of the characters. However, it was a secret name that was used in youth and then was not used afterwards. Aragorn had lots of names “But he was called Estel, that is “Hope”, and his true name and lineage were kept secret at the bidding of Elrond; for the Wise then knew that the Enemy was seeking to discover the Heir of Isildur, if any remained on the earth” (LOTR 3.338). You need to read the appendix to find out that Aragorn was called Estel as a child. It is also interesting to note that Estel as a man’s name fell out of fashion in about 1920. The story of Aragorn and Arwen the daughter of Elrond addresses the hope established in Aragorn. The movie embellishes and partly misses the point of Arwen but as my dear wife points out, ladies want to see the romance in the story and not in the appendix.
Aragorn fell in love with Arwen when he met her. He was a very young man and Elrond was not thrilled about Aragorn’s love for Arwen. She was far beyond Aragorn in stature and had a lifespan that was essentially eternal. Aragorn then left Elrond (lovingly and not in anger) and began the process of becoming the Aragorn we meet in the LOTR. Aragorn spend his life as Isildur’s heir waiting and wandering. “His face was sad and stern because of the doom that was laid upon him, and yet hope dwelt ever in the depths of his heart, from which mirth would arise at times like a spring from the rock” (LOTR 3.341).
When Aragorn was full grown … he was in Lorien resting and Galadriel (Arwen’s mother) gave him elvish clothes to wear. At that time Arwen saw him and fell for him the way he fell for her when he first saw her. They “walked unshod on the undying grass with elanor and niphredil about their feet. And there (Cerin Amroth) upon that hill they looked east to the Shadow and west to the Twilight, and they plighted their troth and were glad.” “Arwen said: Dark is the Shadow, and yet my heart rejoices; for you Estel, shall be among the great whose valour will destroy it” (LOTR 3.341). In response Aragorn says that “with your hope I will hope.”
Aragorn’s mother died before the fighting began to bring Sauron down. She just gave up. She says, in elvish, “I gave Hope to the Dúnedain, I have kept no hope for myself.” But Arwen and Aragorn kept the hope of his kingship alive. The banner that Aragorn unfurls as he goes into battle is a banner made by Arwen for him. In the end Aragorn becomes King and Arwen gives up the eternal life she could have had and becomes mortal. The movie is a little insulting to Arwen in the waffling they infer. Arwen was the Evenstar of her people. She was as the evening star Venus at the twilight. Elves don’t waffle once a decision is made and she was, arguably, the best and the brightest of the elves. She was the daughter of Elrond and Galadriel and as such brought together the best of Rivendell and Lothlorien.
The faithfulness that was shown in Aragorn and Arwen and the love they had for all those with whom they fellowshipped (and not just for each other) was the result of the hope they had in the future. Arwen didn’t waffle and Aragorn knew she would be there at his coronation. They got married after his coronation. Aragorn’s coronation was required to meet the requirement of Elrond . Arwen and Aragorn had a long and happy life together as king and queen although for Elrond it was a great loss because he went west across the sea and had to leave his daughter who gave up her immortality and stayed in Middle Earth.
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