WELCOME BACK DID YALL MISS ME
YES ITS BEEN LIKE THREE MONTHS AND SO WHAT
YES THIS IS 7K WORDS AND SO WHAT
listen i was in a HUGE writing slump for all of july, i finally got out of it to work on original stuff and when i finished a good part of that i got to this!!! so im sorry for the wait, but here is the next part of my essay!! a controversial analysis of BOOK!aragorn <3 you don't need to agree with everything, but maybe it will open your eyes to some things <3
enjoy!! 🫶🏼🫶🏼
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A Controversial Analysis of Aragorn in the Works of J. R. R. Tolkien
It is true that a sizable amount of all general analysis of J. R. R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film and book trilogies focuses on the character of Aragorn, son of Arathorn. He is a strange phenomenon—Aragorn is not the main character, yet his appearance, character arc and backstory would make him perfect as one. He is also treated almost as a "second" main character in much promotional material for the trilogy's film adaptation. The Two Towers book is halved almost exactly into Aragorn and Frodo's storylines respectively, and at least for the first half, Aragorn is undeniably the main character of the book.
But then again... Is he?
Seeing as you are taking time out of your day to read this essay, I think I can safely say that you have seen your fair share of such analyses of Aragorn's character and his role in the story. You have probably heard people in those analyses say that Aragorn is "the perfect man", the "perfect example of masculinity", "the epitome of positive masculinity" and so on.
But then again... Is he?
No, I do agree with this to some extent. I think it is a well-founded and deserved interpretation of his character, and most probably the intended one. But have you ever stopped to consider the unintended interpretation, the hidden nuances, what lies beneath that guise of "perfect, non-toxic masculinity?"
No? Thank God, because I have eleven thousand words worth of notes for this essay.
...Indeed, perhaps we should begin with those notes, because they are quite... Expressive. I shall start by showing you an unedited bullet point of "bad traits" I once thought present in Aragorn—only please note that here we speak of book!Aragorn, not film!Aragorn:
"Narcissist, gaslighter, mansplainer, idealist, victimizes himself in situations where he's not even close to the victim, SOMEHOW manages to belittle every single woman he speaks to (almost none), hypocrite, holds unrealistic standards of "manhood" and what "a man should be" and shames anyone who doesn't meet them, GLARING main character complex, GLARING superiority and saint complex, most of all a SAVIOUR COMPLEX and the most holier than thou character I have ever read."
Now, while this is extremely worded, and perhaps I no longer agree with everything I wrote, there are some valid criticisms buried in all those capital GLARING's and COMPLEX's. Allow me to explain:
My favourite line of all time in the entirety of the Lord of the Rings trilogy of books is this line from Éowyn in the return of the King:
"All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can ride and wield a blade, and I do not fear either pain or death."
Amazing line, I lie awake at night thinking about it—but the context, the scene in which it is said is a whole other conversation. See, that scene is the second of four in the entire trilogy in which Aragorn has a full conversation with a woman, and the third is a follow up to this one. The fourth is when he speaks with Ioreth, a healer of Gondor, and the first is when he spoke with Galadriel in Lórien, but that is a shorter conversation and I have nothing of import to say on it. There is also a moment near the end of Return of the King when he speaks briefly with Galadriel and then with Éowyn, but those are about two sentences long, so we also will not mention those. Instead, we will discuss Aragorn's conversations with Éowyn and Ioreth, starting with the one that birthed this beautiful quote.
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.
Then Éowyn, realizing what Aragorn is doing and speaking "as one who likes not what is said," says to him: "Then, lord, you are astray; for out of Harrowdale no road runs east or south; and you had best return as you came." She is seriously trying to speak with him, as one who was born in this land and knows it better than he. But Aragorn grows annoyed with her (again the stone-upon-his-path analogy) and responds:
"Nay, lady, I am not astray; for I walked in this land ere you were born to grace it. There is a road out of this valley, and that road I shall take. Tomorrow I shall ride by the Paths of the Dead."
There is no other way to phrase it: he is mansplaining. And, not to mention, speaking again in that backhanded, half-condescending manner, for again he makes a comment on her beauty: "For I walked this land before you were born to grace it." Again, would he ever say that to her if she were a man?
After that, Éowyn tries to convince Aragorn not to take the Paths, because, obviously, it is a death sentence. She wants him to ride into battle instead with her brother (at least him if it cannot be her) and the men of her country, that they might have hope and not be wasted. He responds that anyone who goes into the Paths with him goes of their own will, and that no matter what he must go. Then they lapse into silence, and eventually Aragorn goes to the booth where he is to spend the night with Legolas and Gimli, but Éowyn follows him and asks him again: "Why will you go on this deadly road?"
He answers: "Because I must. Only so can I see any hope of doing my part in the war against Sauron. I do not choose paths of peril, Éowyn. Were I to go where my heart dwells, far in the North I would now be wandering in the fair valley of Rivendell." Firstly, no matter how I may feel about this scene and Aragorn's character in it, I must admit—that "where my heart dwells" line is absolutely genius. Secondly, it is that exact line that makes this scene so frustrating. With all Aragorn's words of "before you were born to grace it" and "no man would count the journey wasted" he must at length carefully mention Arwen. He pulls the rug of false hopes that he himself laid down out from under Éowyn's feet. And thirdly, note the theme of hypocrisy that continues with this line. He says, "I do not choose paths of peril", trying to comfort her, tell her that he would not do this if it were not preordained and required of him by fate, but he does not realize that this is exactly, again, how she feels. She did not choose the path of stagnancy, of staying behind. If she were to go where her heart dwelt, far in the South would she now be wandering upon the fell Fields of Pelennor. Just as Aragorn wishes to be with his love, she wishes to be with hers (or, at least, the idea of love that she sees in him). They are mirrors of one another, but each can only half-see this.
After Aragorn says this, Éowyn is silent for a moment, "as if pondering what [it] might mean." Obviously, she realizes he is speaking of Arwen in some measure or another, because then she lays her hand on his arm and asks of him, "Lord, if you must go, then let me ride in your following. For I am weary of skulking in the hills and wish to face peril and battle."
Again, they are twisted reflections of one another, for even as Aragorn said, "I do not choose paths of peril" she responds, "I (...) wish to face peril and battle." Notice how she also does not say "peril in battle", but "peril and battle. This is a reference to no matter how brave and skilled with a blade Éowyn may be, the fact remains that she has never seen actual battle. Thus, she does not immediately associate battle with peril, as a loss-seasoned warrior might, but rather with glory and honour, as one who romanticizes the idea does.
Aragorn answers that Éowyn's "duty is with [her] people", at which Éowyn cries, "Too often have I heard of duty. But am I not of the House of Eorl, a shieldmaiden and not a dry-nurse? I have waited on faltering feet long enough. Since they falter no longer, it seems, may I not now spend my life as I will?" The twisted reflections allegory continues here, because throughout the entire trilogy, books and films, Aragorn is constantly reminded of his duty, his destiny, which he rejects. Éowyn also is told of her "duty", to stay with her people, and she also rejects it. It is only that his duty is exactly what she has always desired and what she thinks herself truly meant for. Éowyn resents and yet envies that Aragorn had the luxury of being handed exactly that thing that she has always dreamed of and must fight for. She hates that he takes it for granted so, that he would even waste it by risking his life upon the Paths.
Thus, one might think, with that same twisted reflections allegory, that Aragorn's true desire would be Éowyn's duty, just as his duty is her true desire. But it is not so. Perhaps the text wants us to believe that, with Aragorn saying, "Were I to go where my heart dwells, far in the North I would now be wandering in the fair valley of Rivendell" but it is not so. Even if Aragorn had remained in Rivendell with Arwen as his heart supposedly "desire[d]", he would never have been able to wait out the entire war there. He is Aragorn, the King Come Again! Of course he would have ceded to his duty, he would have stolen away from Rivendell in the night and ridden off to his glorious destiny in battle. He and Éowyn, in spirit, are the same—such is the intended profundity of their storyline and her "love" for him. Just as she could never sit still and wait out the fighting guarding her people, neither could he. Yet that is exactly what he is asking her to do. Hypocritical and—dare I say it—gaslighting.
Thus, Aragorn counters, "Few may do that with honour. But as for you, lady: did you not accept the charge to govern the people until their lord's return? If you had not been chosen, then some marshal or captain would have been set in the same place, and he could not ride away from his charge, were he weary of it or no."
Now, here no one can argue that Aragorn is not gaslighting Éowyn. First, when she asks, "...may I not now spend my life as I will?" he says, "Few may do that with honour," as though there are not a hundred examples in the history of Middle-earth when a great hero forsook his duty and rode out to battle or on some great quest for the greater good. Every time, after he did, the fact that he forsook his duty is entirely disregarded and he grows to treated with greatest honour. Not to mention that if Aragorn were to forsake his duty just as Éowyn wishes to and return to Arwen safe in Rivendell, he would be regarded as a coward and a man without honour. Not only, of course, because he is forsaking his sworn duty, but because he is hiding and waiting out the fighting—exactly what Éowyn is being sentenced to. But because she is a woman, it is not the same for her, and this is what Aragorn really means. Do you see how this is hypocritical now?
Following that, Aragorn says that even if Éowyn had not been charged with remaining with the women and children, then "some marshal or captain" would have been chosen instead, and he could not forsake his duty, even if he wanted to. Again, this is pure gaslighting, because Éowyn knows what goes unsaid in his speech: that even if some "marshal or captain" were chosen, he would never be regarded as a man of honour, but rather as a weakling who should have ridden off to war with his men. Aragorn later tries to convince her that it is otherwise, calling her charge "valiant" when they both know it is not. Not to mention that a "marshal or captain" would never be chosen to remain behind in a time of war, because they need every soldier that they can get. Indeed, for that very reason, Éowyn would never have been chosen to stay behind what with her skill with a blade and her hunger for battle if she were a man. The only thing that marks the difference between her and any "marshal or captain" of Rohan is her body—that of a woman—hence why she was chosen, at the heart of it.
Speaking of bodies, there is even one instance that I can recall in Tolkien lore when a such "marshal or captain" was chosen to stay behind with his people in the face of strife. Brandir, from the story of the Children of Húrin (or the Of Túrin Turambar chapter in the Silmarillion) who was the chief of the Haladin peoples of the West. He was given the charge to stay behind and watch over those of that peoples who could not fight while Túrin, the warrior main character who came to dwell in his lands, and his men went off to face an oncoming threat. The people hated Brandir for this and called him weak and afraid, at which Túrin tried to calm them and assure them that Brandir's charge was valiant and necessary (using very similar wording to Aragorn in this scene) but still they do not change their opinion of him. Not to mention that Brandir is lame, unable to fight anyway, and thus was the only reason that he was chosen to remain even though he was chief. This is exactly how Éowyn feels—disabled, figuratively if not physically, as Brandir was. Realistically, he is the sort of person that would have been chosen to lead the people of Dunharrow if it had not been for Éowyn: some elder trusted by the people, long broken in body and unable to fight.
Lastly, as if all this gaslighting were not enough, Aragorn proceeds to shame Éowyn for fighting for something more than is given her (which is tone deaf, as everything has only ever been handed to Aragorn, without any fighting on his side) and for wishing to forsake her duty. He says, "...did you not accept the charge to govern the people until their lord's return?" chiding her for going back on something she already accepted, (as though she ever had any choice to the contrary). Then, Aragorn finishes with "If you had not been chosen, then some marshal or captain would have been (...), and he could not ride away from his charge, were he weary of it or no." He reduces her fighting for something greater, the unfairness of her position, her having been given this charge just because of the body she was born into to simple weariness. As though she is an insolent child who grows bored with playing house and wishes to ride off to war to amuse herself.
Éowyn recognizes his undertones, and she responds "bitterly": "Shall I always be chosen? Shall I always be left behind when the Riders depart, to mind the house while they win renown, and find food and beds when they return?" And Aragorn responds, "A time may come soon when none will return. Then there will be need of valour without renown, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defence of your homes. Yet the deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised."
I will flat out say it: I hate this line. I hate it. I hate it because Tolkien so clearly meant what he was writing, having fought in a war himself and having lost many of his comrades and friends in the process. As I said, the point of this part of this essay is to look at the unintended interpretation of Aragorn and his relationship with Éowyn, because the intended purpose of this scene is that Aragorn is right and Éowyn is wrong.
That is not how I see it. I ask: how is this line meant to be comforting? How is this line meant to be interpreted as anything other than Aragorn having been deaf to everything Éowyn was saying to him this entire conversation and now masking his true intent behind flowery words of "valour without renown" and "unpraised" yet "valiant" deeds? First, Aragorn all but confirms with such words as "when none will return" and "the last defence of your homes" that there is a good chance that the war is hopeless, and her deeds of valour will be buried beneath hundreds of bodies by the time all battle ends, along with her own corpse. This is a direct reflection of what she warned him against—going into the Paths of the Dead upon a hopeless mission that will most likely end in the death of him and all else who go with him. Yet he goes, "because [he] must" but she cannot? Keep that in mind.
Second, the entire point of Éowyn's words to Aragorn throughout this conversation is that she wishes for praise and renown for her deeds, such as he will get tenfold. Yet he tells her that "there will be need of valour without renown" and that her "deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised?" Éowyn is the niece of Théoden, the daughter of kings, her brother is the heir to the throne—all she has ever known is "valour without renown" and valiant deeds unpraised! Always she has been disregarded in favour of Éomer, of Théodred, now deceased, just because of the body into which she was born. Her entire point is that she is fighting against that, and Aragorn tells her that, actually, it is justified? Not to mention that with all his talk of "valour without renown," that is something that Aragorn has never known, and never will. He is Isildur's Heir, for God's sake! How many ballads will be written of him, how many times will his name be chanted in the coming years? Tone deaf, and, honestly—just regular deaf! Did you hear anything she just said? Again, the stone on the rock allegory.
Once more, Éowyn catches his underlying dismissal, and finally snaps, thus gracing the world with the absolutely iconic line with which I started this discussion. After she says it, (to no reaction and pure belittlement from Aragorn, of course) he asks her the almost equally iconic question: "What do you fear lady?" To that, Éowyn responds, "A cage. To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds has gone beyond recall or desire."
And no matter how I may feel about this scene, I will forever be grateful to Peter Jackson for keeping those lines in the films almost word for word.
...But speaking of the films, how they handled this scene and Aragorn and his and Éowyn's relationship as a whole is an entirely other conversation and would that I will only touch on here. I will say, however, that the film!reply of Aragorn to this line ("You are a daughter of kings, a shieldmaiden of Rohan. I do not think that will be your fate") is much better than his book!reply. In the books, Aragorn proceeds to say: "And yet you counselled me not to adventure on the road that I had chosen, because it is perilous?"
To which I respond: thank you, Aragorn, for saying that line, because it perfectly wraps up every point I've made thus far about hypocrisy in this conversation. That conversation indeed began, as Aragorn reminds Éowyn here, with Éowyn trying to convince Aragorn not to take the Paths of the Dead because it risked his death and ruin. This he shot down, alongside her asking to go with him, with all the belittlement and gaslighting I've previously explained. Then he councils her in the exact same way, not to go into battle because it risks her death and ruin. So when she says it to him, it is bad advice and stupid, but when he says it to her—it is the right thing to do? With this line, Aragorn completely ignores the fact that he has counselled Éowyn in the same way that she counselled him, simply belittling her argument as he always has done.
Maturing is realizing that Aragorn was part of the misogyny that Éowyn was fighting against in her character arc. Aragorn is not a feminist icon. Is he a portrayal of toxic masculinity? No, but he also is not the "perfect man" and example of positive masculinity that many Tolkien fans and scholars alike make him out to be.
To some extent, Éowyn grasps the hypocrisy and twisted reflections allegory especially present at this point in her conversation with Aragorn, for she says, "So may one counsel another. Yet I do not bid you flee from peril, but to ride to battle where your sword may win renown and victory. I would not see a thing that is high and excellent cast away needlessly." In saying this, as I have said before and as is the general analysis of this line, Éowyn is living vicariously through Aragorn, a feeling that presents itself in the form of so-called "love." Exactly as I am, she is telling Aragorn that is argument makes no sense. She realizes that he is gaslighting her into thinking that she is trying to convince him to sit and watch the battle happen, instead of fight in it, as she truly is telling him. Notice also how Éowyn says "win renown and victory", the former a twisted reflection of Aragorn's "valour without renown" line and the latter a contradiction of his "A time may come soon when none will return", which forewarns of loss.
But, as ever, Aragorn completely ignores Éowyn's valid arguments and continues to pound home his gaslight-y, hypocritical point, saying, "Nor would I. Therefore I say to you, lady: Stay! For you have no errand to the South."
I need a minute. Again, Aragorn says "nor would I [cast you away]" meaning that he would not see her wasted in battle, full well knowing that she would be no less wasted there than any of his half-trained boy-soldiers, and that to truly "cast her away" would be to let her skill and bravery rot unstirred in Dunharrow. This is reminiscent of the common classic literature and theatre trope of warrior men wanting to protect a woman that they see as "pure" and "unmarred", not wishing to "cast her away" to some ruin. The true ruin, however, and Aragorn knows this, would be to let her sit and do nothing but look pretty for eternity. Not to mention that, again, Aragorn belittles Éowyn's fighting against what is unfair, her vying for something more than she has to a simple "errand." "No errand to the South?" Have you been listening at all this whole time?
At length, this godforsaken scene comes to an end with Éowyn's iconic line echoing my "half-trained boy-soldiers" point: "Neither have those others who go with thee. They go only because they would not be parted from thee – because they love thee." Then, she vanishes.
But unfortunately, the misery does not end for us, because the follow-up conversation comes up the next morning, when Aragorn and his riders prepare to depart. Éowyn meets them to see them off, "clad as a rider and girt with a sword" (icon), and she asks Aragorn again whether he will truly take the Paths of the Dead. He says he will. Then, she asks whether he will still not let her ride in his company, as she has asked. To that, Aragorn responds:
"I will not, lady. For that I could not grant without leave of the king and of your brother; and they will not return until tomorrow. But I count now every hour, indeed every minute. Farewell!"
"Without the leave of the king and of your brother?" Really? You just had to remind Éowyn of that which she is already so painfully aware of: that because she is a woman, no matter what else, her life will always be dictated by her male superiors, which is to say her brother and uncle. If the roles were reversed, would Éomer have had to ask leave of his sister and uncle to depart? Of course not!
Not to mention that the addition of "but I count now every hour, indeed every minute" continues to add to that theme of Aragorn belittling Éowyn throughout this conversation by adding comments on her "love" for him, his false half-returning of it, and of her beauty. Not to mention that this softens the blow of all his arguments and of hers, which is also present in Éowyn's ending line, "they go with thee because they love thee." This paints the entire scene in the light of Éowyn's wishing to go with Aragorn because she loves him so much that she cannot bear to part with him and not because she is a warrior in her own right and deserves something greater than the role of a housemaid in Dunharrow. Moreover, this line reflects the entire point (in a very hypocritical way, yet again) of Éowyn's grief and desire for more—that she will "always be chosen" to stay, will only have a role to "find [the warriors] food and beds when they return." Aragorn says he "counts[s] every hour, indeed every minute" until that very moment—the moment when Éowyn again comes into the story for her "valour without renown", which is to say finding food and beds for the returning warriors, because she is a woman and that is her part.
Finally, Éowyn is unable to bear this thought, and reasonably so. She falls to her knees and begs Aragorn to let her ride, but still he refuses. He only kisses her hand, and they depart, again reducing the entire scene down to a hysterical woman losing her sanity over a man that she "loves" and planting yet more false hope within her.
There. Now you see why I hate that scene. Now let us move on to Aragorn's later conversation with the Gondorian healer Ioreth, which, thank God, is shorter:
For context, the Battle of Pelennor Fields has ended and Aragorn is now tasked with healing Faramir and Éowyn, who fell in it and can be healed by no one else. He meets with Ioreth, a main healer in the citadel, and asks her if she has any "herbs of healing." Ioreth answers in the affirmative, saying: "Yes, lord, but not enough, I reckon, for all that will need them. But I am sure I do not know where we shall find more; for all things are amiss in these dreadful days, what with fires and burnings, and the lads that run errands so few, and all the roads blocked. Why, it is days out of count since ever a carrier came in from Lossarnach to the market! But we do our best in this House with what we have, as I am sure your lordship will know."
Then Aragorn says shortly, "I will judge that when I see. One thing also is short, time for speech. Have you athelas?" And Ioreth says, "I do not know, I am sure, lord, at least not by that name. I will go and ask of the herb-master; he knows all the old names." Then Aragorn continues, "It is also called kingsfoil, and maybe you know it by that name, for so the country-folk call it in these latter days."
Then, Ioreth exclaims, "Oh that! Well, if your lordship had named it at first I could have told you. No, we have none of it, I am sure. Why, I have never heard that it had any great virtue; and indeed, I have often said to my sisters when we came upon it growing in the woods: "kingsfoil", I said, "'tis a strange name, and I wonder why 'tis called so; for if I were a king, I would have plants more bright in my garden". Still it smells sweet when bruised, does it not? If sweet is the right word: wholesome, maybe, is nearer.'
To which Aragorn ends the conversation with, "Wholesome verily. And now, dame, if you love the Lord Faramir, run as quick as your tongue and get me kingsfoil, if there is a leaf in the City."
Do I even need to say why and how this is disrespectful and belittling? "So the country-folk call it" and "one thing also is short, time for speech" and "run as quick as your tongue?"
Firstly, Ioreth is quite literally the only healer in the entire citadel both knowledgeable and collected enough to even speak to Aragorn of what he needs to know, and he treats her like a common serving woman. Secondly, though Aragorn constantly says that he "does not want kingship" and there is an entire plot point in the Return of the King book of how Aragorn refuses to even sleep inside Minas Tirith after the Battle ofPelennor Fields because he is "not a true king yet" and is "not worthy." Despite that, he seems to fall into his role of ordering people about quite easily, as though he rules Gondor already, even as they speak of Faramir himself, who is by law the current ruler. Thirdly, seeing as Ioreth is the only woman Aragorn really speaks to other than Galadriel (briefly) and Éowyn (twice) and one of the only women in the entire trilogy, this conversation says a lot. Fourthly, it is incredibly ironic and hypocritical that Aragorn called Éowyn's duty of staying behind and guarding her people "valiant" even though it was "without renown" yet he treats the actual woman who stayed behind and guarded her people in Gondor and who is the only reason many of his soldiers even survived after the battle like nothing?
Fifthly, when Aragorn goes to speak with the lore-master who is to get athelas for him, as Ioreth recommended, he speaks even longer and more wordily than Ioreth. I mean, the man recites a whole poem, for God's sake! Yet Aragorn treats him just as he would anyone else.
Finally, going back to Éowyn for a minute, there is a scene not a page later wherein Aragorn comes up to Éowyn and speaks so to Éomer as he heals his sister's wound:
"Alas! For she was pitted against a foe beyond the strength of her mind or body. And those who will take a weapon to such an enemy must be sterner than steel, if the very shock shall not destroy them. It was an evil doom that set her in his path. For she is a fair maiden, fairest lady of a house of queens. And yet I know not how I should speak of her. When I first looked on her and perceived her unhappiness, it seemed to me that I saw a white flower standing straight and proud, shapely as a lily, and yet knew that it was hard, as if wrought by elf-wrights out of steel. Or was it, maybe, a frost that had turned its sap to ice, and so it stood, bitter-sweet, still fair to see, but stricken, soon to fall and die?"
Firstly, Aragorn undermines Éowyn's achievements and skill in battle here when she literally permanently killed the Witch King of Angmar, which no one has been able to do in the entire history of Arda. Second, as is a running theme in the books, he remarks much more extensively upon Éowyn's beauty rather than her strength at having survived at all. He refers to her first, again, extensively, as a flower, and only then as "wrought (...) of steel." This is exactly how Éowyn is seen by all around her—first for her fairness, then, only as an afterthought, for her bravery and skill. Then, speaking with Éomer and Gandalf, Aragorn speaks much more and for much longer of Éowyn's love for him and the fact that, really, all her sorrow was rooted in that it could not be returned and not in the injustice of her situation. He mentions her brave deeds only once, in a final, passing line.
There. Now I have justified most of the bad traits I previously thought present in Aragorn at the beginning of this part of this essay, save for those I spoke about already elsewhere online. Also with the exception of "idealist" and "holds unrealistic standards of 'manhood' and what 'a man should be' and shames anyone who doesn't meet them." That shall be elaborated now, in what I have come to call... *Drumroll please*
...The Cair Andros Enigma.
What is the Cair Andros Enigma, you ask? It is an incredibly over-dramatic name of mine for a phenomenon of Aragorn's character during the last leg of Return of the King, the book. It entails Aragorn and his company riding up to the Black Gate in preparation for battle there, a fight meant to draw the Eye of Sauron away from Sam and Frodo. As the land becomes dark and fell around them, a sizable group of Aragorn's men become afraid and can no longer go on. Aragorn looks upon these men with "pity" and declares to them:
"Go! But keep what honour you may, and do not run! And there is a task which you may attempt and so be not wholly shamed. Take your way south-west till you come to Cair Andros, and if that is still held by enemies, as I think, then re-take it, if you can; and hold it to the last in defence of Gondor and Rohan!"
At this, some of that group overcame their fear as they felt "shamed by [Aragorn's] mercy" and others rode off to do as he had ordered, "taking hope" at this "manful deed within their measure" that they could do.
The words that Aragorn uses ("keep what honour you may", "wholly shamed", etc.) are already bad enough, serving to shame men rightfully scared of Mordor itself, shoved into a suicide battle for which they did not sign up. Indeed, many of them are only barely healed from Pelennor. But it gets worse, because it is specified that these are "young men from Rohan," specifically from the Westfold, and older soldiers from the edges of Gondor. Why is that important? Well, let me ask you another question:
Where was Gondor when the Westfold fell?
The answer is simpler than one might think: defending the passes at Cair Andros and Osgiliath, and thus unable to answer the call of Rohan for aid. During the fighting, they quickly became overwhelmed and ceded the passes to the enemy, who flooded in and took Cair Andros. Then they ran to join with their brothers in Osgiliath, but there was almost nothing to be done there. By the time they even received word of the strife in Rohan, the Westfold was already ash.
Now, Aragorn is sending young men who lost their families, their wives, in the Westfold to take back the city that is the very reason for its having fallen! And, worse, they are to fight alongside the Gondorian soldiers that failed to hold the passes and let Cair Andros be overrun as the Westfold smoldered. All because they are young, married, and do not wish to die in the suicide mission that is the Battle of the Morannon, and still Aragorn shamed them for it.
You see now why I made the points I did on Aragorn, but there is still more to be said on him. Our next conversation is on the portrayal of Aragorn in Peter Jackson's iconic adaptation of his source material, and I have much indeed to say on that...
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part 2 soon <3