The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power opens viewers' eyes to an original character created by Amazon and his friend, in which the latter discusses the tragic history of romance between elves and humans. In his eyes, Arondir is ignorant for having permitted himself to fall for Bronwyn, a human healer from Tirharad, which was also created for the series.
The thing is, he's kind of exaggerating. Although there aren't many examples of interactions between Elves and humans (at this point in the timeline, there have been roughly two) to categorically state that they ended badly is a bit disingenuous.
The most famous tale of a human falling in love with an elf in The Lord of the Rings is, naturally, the tale of Aragorn and Arwen: If you want to marry her, you must become the King of Gondor and Arnor, Aragorn does that after the War of the Ring, and then Elrond returns home to Valinor never to see his beloved daughter again.
The last section of the book is a bit depressing, but given that Arwen chooses a mortal life which she is quite adept at shortly after, she and Aragorn spend the rest of their time together in Middle-earth, which is actually quite lovely. Regardless, the third age happens long after the events of The Rings of Power.
Beren and Luthien
The first interaction between humans and elves occurs in the First Age, when Beren meets the elven princess Luthien, which happened to be written only one year after Tolkien returned from World War I nearly four decades before The Fellowship of the Ring would be published for the first time.
Beren and Luthien are a major story, and they were posthumously expanded into an entire book, organized by Christopher, Tolkiens' son and indefatigable editor. Beren is given the impossible task of retrieving a Silmaril from Morgoth (if you thought Sauron was bad, this guy used to be his boss).
Despite failing to retrieve the Silmaril, the wolves return to Doriath and are treated as heroes. Years later, the wolf Carcharoth in the service of Morgoth himself travels to Doriath, at which point Beren sets out with a party to complete the Quest of the Silmaril.
Beren dies, but his soul waits for Luthien in the Halls of Mandos. She does some weird spirit stuff and somehow gets an audience with the Valar Manwe, who tells her about her predicament to Eru Iluvatar literally God. At this point, she chooses the latter option, becoming the first elf to die of old age in Middle-earth (Arwen becomes the second almost 7,000 years later).
Thats not so bad, right? Beren and Luthien meet up after becoming heroes, and somehow manage to find the time to spend the rest of their lives together, according to Arondirs friend. But it's not that terrible.
Tuor and Idril
In the First Age, a second interaction between elves and humans takes place, this time with the human Tuor and the elf Idril. They face far less judgment than Beren and Luthien, to the extent that Idrils dad, who is also a king, sees Tuor as a son. He just says, You seem like a nice guy, and Id'like for you to marry my daughter.
Except Maeglin, a weirdo who was so obsessed with Idril and jealous of Tuor that he sold the entire city out to Morgoth, instigating the Fall of Gondolin (which was later expanded into a full book by Christopher Tolkien).
There are technically other interactions between humans and elves, but they are not strictly between Edain and Eldar, which is to say, humans and elves. Most of these other interactions are between half-elves, or peredhil, which means they aren't the same thing as Beren and Luthien or Tuor and Idril (in fact, Arwen is technically peredhil), which is why Arwen stays in Middle-earth while her father, Elrond
If their story ends there, it may be construed as a disaster. Together, they escape Gondolin with all of the survivors and rebuild their society at Sirion. They even have a child: Earendil, who will grow up to become a key figure in the legendarium. Eventually, they return to Valinor, where Tuor, who is still loved by the elves, becomes the first man to ever be granted immortality among them.
Wow, that's so awful. That ended the day so badly. Iluvatar forbid that Arondir and Bronwyn do the same thing.
When it comes to The Rings of Power, when there were only two unions between humans and elves, I mean, actually, Arondir and Bronwyns odds were pretty good! The other two couples ended up being quite content together. In my opinion, Arondirs friend is just really worried about the possibility they won't be able to hang out much anymore. Which is a terrible friend.
The fact that Arondirs pal has brought any of this up at all is a foreboding situation. Misfortune is certainly on the horizon, especially when you consider Theo, Bronwyns son,'s very Nazgul-y sword early in the season.
Yes, this one will most likely go down badly, but not because of the ones that preceded it.