[Lalaith]

I loved the Aldarion and Erendis story, and was surprised, like some of the other posters here, by how 'modern' it felt. I was also surprised that a crusty,donnish old buffer like Tolkien would have had so much sympathy for the woman's point of view...I always thought it was so sad when she sent away the mated birds the elves had given as a wedding present...
The chief difference between the marriages of Earendil the mariner, and Aldarion the mariner, was mortality. Even though Elwing and Earendil were not officially immortal they showed every sign of being so, ie they weren't ageing, and they were both raised in the immortal 'environment', as it were. So both felt they had all the time in the world and a few years absence just a drop in the sea of eternity....
However, Erendis was like the man pleading with His Coy Mistress: "at my back I always hear, time's wing'd chariot drawing near..."

Unlike we falliable humans, the elves, apparently, knew right away that they'd met their perfect match and always, like swans, mated for life. This is why the second marriage of Finwe was such a huge issue in Valinor.