LOTR Rants | Mostly Aralas

aragorn is an alpha bro, actually (an analysis)

To put it into a proper context, the company of Aragorn and Théoden has ridden to Dunharrow after the Battle of Helm's Deep, because the entrance to the Paths of the Dead lies there and Aragorn must take it. They speak to Éowyn of the battle, and she says to them and Aragorn at their head:

"Lords, you are weary and shall now go to your beds with such ease as can be contrived in haste. But tomorrow fairer housing shall be found for you." She is eager for them to stay, eager to make them comfortable. She will do anything to have some part at least in the lives of those who fought this great battle, even if she could not have ridden into it at their side. She yearns for some small scrap of glory, of validation, but she must fight for it, it is not handed to her as it was to these men just because of the bodies they were born into.

Aragorn responds: "Nay, lady, be not troubled for us! If we may lie here tonight and break our fast tomorrow, it will be enough. For I ride on an errand most urgent, and with the first light of morning we must go." He rejects her advances with a cool, backhanded distaste, which is a common theme throughout their entire conversation. The undertone of his words is easy to see: my errand is greater than your fussing, I cannot linger here, here where there is no glory. This is the beginning of the underlying hypocritical element of their conversion because this is exactly what Éowyn thinks of herself. Her desire for battle and skill with a blade is greater than such a frivolous errand as staying with the people of Dunharrow, the weaklings and women and children. She does not wish to linger here, here where there is no glory. But he, Aragorn, cannot see that her thoughts line up exactly with his, and sees them rather as opposites, when really, they are the exact same. This is the entire point of Éowyn's character—Aragorn is everything she could have been if she had been born a man. She does not wish for him to take the Paths, ensuring his own death and ruin, because that would base his glory to exactly what hers will always be: wasted, thrown away before it could be used in battle.

Thus, she says to Aragorn: "Then it was kindly done, lord, to ride so many miles out of your way to bring tidings to Éowyn, and to speak with her in her exile." Here she is still enamoured with (the idea of) Aragorn; she still thinks of herself as so below him—and is certain that he sees her that way, too—that she is grateful that he would even stoop so low as to stop and speak with her. "In her exile," she says, reflecting her true thoughts on the task she has been given to stay with her people while the men ride off to "battle and honour." It is as bad as true, eternal exile, banning her from achieving any crumb of glory forever.

But again, Aragorn shoots her down: "Indeed no man would count such a journey wasted, and yet, lady, I could not have come hither, if it were not that the road which I must take leads me to Dunharrow." The only reason he came, he says, was for the road. She has nothing to do with it. This is an exact continuation of his previous words, when he said that he must depart with "the first light of morning" on an "errand most urgent." She is simply a stone upon the path of his destiny, he has no wish no linger and speak with the stone, only to ride past it the quicker to his promised glory. What would the stone do except weigh him down if he were to pick it up? Only this time, Aragorn realizes that such is the underlying tone of his words and softens the impact with, "Indeed no man would count such a journey wasted." This is so condescending and backhanded, because he feeds off her need for validation (from him and in general) yet also feeds into the constant theme in the Lord of the Rings of people remarking upon Éowyn's beauty instead of her valour and bravery. Even after she kills the Witch King, the man who finds her lying "dead" upon the battlefield and brings her into the city thinks how fair she is, what a pity it is that such beauty should be wasted, and not that she "died" in battle doing deeds of honour as did any other man upon that field, and she should be commended for that. Would Aragorn make such a remark if she were a man? Of course not. Keep that in mind.