I grew up with plenty of legends of heroes being swept away on a white horse by
a beautiful woman, to dwell in a fair land where everyone remained young. When
they return to Ireland, they find that generations have passed; their people
have dwindled in strength; and if they dismount, they immediately age and
expire soon afterwards. So it's close enough to the unearthly idea, but as
others have said, many other myths also contain this. Wonder if this was in
Peter Jackson's mind when he replaced Glorfindel with Arwen to rescue Frodo at
the
Ford?
