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COMING OF AGE: CHANGES OF HEART

Growth and enlightenment in "Lord of the Rings"

The chief change that comes to mind when considering Aragorn is his accession to the Kingship, which naturally alters his life for ever; from wandering, unacknowledged Ranger to supreme ruler of an ancient and powerful kingdom, and in addition changing his lonely single state to that of husband and father. Such radical changes of circumstance might well overwhelm a man, except that Aragorn has been preparing for them all his long life. Nevertheless he does change when his goal is achieved, gaining in power—the right kind—and fitting himself to the mantle of kingship. He daunts with his authority when necessary, in order to save Merry and the others wounded by the Black Breath; and he surrounds his coronation with dazzling pomp, because he knows his people need such symbolic enchantment to mark their hopes of a new beginning. Yet he is still, as the hobbits divine, still the old Strider at heart. Never puffed up by riches or power, he appreciates the simple fundamentals of life, and this is perhaps something his hobbit friends have helped to teach him.

Though his accession is his greatest change, Aragorn comes to it by way of many lesser, but important, milestones along his path. All his adult life he has been honing himself, pitting his skills and his courage against his enemies, but until he meets Frodo Baggins all this has been essentially repetitive; probably the only major landmark of this period has been the winning of Arwen, something he has also been striving for all his adult life. At Cerin Amroth he wins her pledge, and so knows that if he succeeds in his ordained task he will gain not only his inheritance, but also the most fervent wish of his heart. If ever a man had an incentive to do well, it was Aragorn Elessar.

But the event which marks the beginning of the final stage of Aragorn’s road to the Kingship, is his meeting with the hobbits at Bree; because here he comes into contact with the Ring. Strider, as he names himself there, could easily take the ring from Frodo. He seems never to be tempted, unlike Boromir, no doubt because he has learned all that Elrond and Gandalf had to teach of Sauron, the Ring and its perils, and has also taken to heart lessons of humility and service, many of them from Gandalf’s example. But he knows that this marks the crucial period of his life, and while confident in his own abilities, he does not find the task an easy one. From the first, when they are unable to slip away from the inn because the ponies have been stolen and they need to find a replacement, he is forced to take decisions that could make or break the success of his mission. At the summit of Weathertop, surrounded by Nazgûl, it surely must seem to him that his path has been wrong. Yet he does what he can, defending the terrified hobbits with fair odds that they will all die, and is quite puzzled afterwards that their unbeatable enemies have withdrawn. So he learns more of the Nazgûl: that terrible as they are, invoking the power of the Valar brings fear to them. Certain of their eventual superiority, they are not prepared, as he was, to risk all, and so for the time being, he conquered. Their confidence is misplaced; not knowing who Aragorn is, they have left him to counteract the expected effects of Frodo’s poisoned wound, and left Isildur’s true heir alive. Had they been less arrogant, more prepared to endure an unpleasant conflict, they could have put an end to him then and there, and made sure of Frodo’s compliance by taking him prisoner. The Nazgûl are at one and the same time contemptuous of their foes, and too careful of their own incorporeal existence; mistakes their royal but unassuming adversary has learned not to make.

So it continues, Aragorn coming step by step to ever greater commands, always leading from the front, as at Helm’s Deep, the Paths of the Dead, the expedition to the Black Gate; and his decisions likewise become ever harder. Could he have chosen the last wild throw of the Black Gate, without the vindication of his other seemingly hazardous decisions behind him? With each victory, his strength and stature grow. Yet the greatest change within him comes in Lórien, again.*  Gandalf has been lost, who led the company, and has been Aragorn’s mentor since he first left Elrond’s care and began his task. In Lórien, under Galadriel’s penetrating eye, he has to come to terms with that loss, and realise that now he stands alone to lead, not only the Fellowship, but all men of Middle-earth in the conflict against Sauron. This is Aragorn’s final ‘Coming of Age’. So before they leave, he walks again on Cerin Amroth, remembering his joy with Arwen, and bids a final farewell to all that went before.  “He... never again came there as living man”,  the narrative tells us.4 Aragorn came to Lórien still in part Estel, a Ranger, Hope of the Dunedain. He leaves it Isildur’s heir, to rally all who will follow him against the darkness that seeks to swallow Middle-earth, or else to fight alone; victory may bring him his inheritance, but that is not the chief reason he seeks victory. A king both represents his people, and sacrifices himself for their weal. Aragorn leaves Lórien in the knowledge he may have to do both.

* The first change there being his pledge with Arwen.

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First published in Mallorn [journal of the Tolkien Society] #39