'Thus Came Aragorn' by Ted Naismith
Elessar Telcontar Magnus, Rex Pater Gondor, Restitutor Imperii
‘Verily, for in the high tongue of old I am Elessar, the Elfstone, and the Renewer […]’
Gallant, Richard Z. (2020) "Elessar Telcontar Magnus, Rex Pater Gondor, Restitutor Imperii,"Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol. 9 : Iss. 2 , Article 1.
I. Introduction
In Tolkien’s Legendarium, the Elvish historical narrative is a narrative exemplified by wyrd and its corollary Northern courage. The “wheel of fortune” turns from innocence in Valinor towards the ‘Long Defeat’ by means of Fëanor’s freedom to choose3 not to surrender the Silmarils to the Vala Yavanna (Gallant 2021, forthcoming) and his hamartia of the Kin-slaying (Gallant 2014, 116-120). The Elvish narrative is one of downward movement which Northrop Frye describes as “… a tragic movement, the wheel of fortune falling from innocence toward hamartia, and from hamartia to catastrophe.”
The Wheel of Fortune — “… a tragic movement, the wheel of fortune falling from innocence toward hamartia, and from hamartia to catastrophe.”
The eventual price to be paid from Fëanor’s (and consequently the Noldor’s) choices is that the Elves leave Middle-earth in their Tragic Autumn (following Frye’s terminology).
In contrast to Fëanor, Aragorn’s choices (such as his choice and determination to pursue the renewal of Gondor) are morally correct and he uses his gifts (such as freely choosing Ilúvatar’s divine gift of death to Men) according to the divine plan. This negates the need to invoke wyrd as a corrective function to realign Men to Ilúvatar’s divine plan.4 Consequently, the old warrior-ethos of Northern courage wanes with Elvish wyrd.
What, then, replaces this warrior-ethos bound inextricably to the Doom of the Noldor?
Surely there is still heroism in Middle-earth; The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are both filled with heroism, and not just by the Elves! Answers may lie in Aragorn’s exemplary nature ad bonum exemplum of Tolkien’s ideal heroic ethos. An ethos that appropriately emerges in the ideal Renewal King at the beginning of the Age of Men.
Aragorn’s task is to renew the heroic ethos, because as the Elves have experienced, strictly following the ethos of Northern courage leads to ‘the long defeat’.
Aragorn’s great heroic deeds and ethos originate from the core tradition of Elvish Northern courage. These heroic deeds constitute a new, proto-chivalric heroic ethos and heroic identity. This happens in three ways: firstly, Aragorn’s character is structured as an exemplum of a Renewal or Restoration King. My mentor Thomas Honegger (forthcoming, 8) writes that Aragorn-Elessar is
one of the most ‘archetypical’ characters in The Lord of the Rings” who “becomes ’the ideal prototype’ for all later rulers and the numerous parallels to kings historical, semi-historical, mythical or fictional are intended and the result of Tolkien’s (successful) attempt to create an archetypical figure.
The ‘archetypical’ Renewal King — Carolus Magnus / Karl der Große / Charlemagne
This ideal prototype of the ideal king embodies the communal values of a new heroic ethos. The new heroic ethos, in its ideal moral5 (or sententia), “effects the [communal] value’s reemergence with the obligatory force of moral law” (Scanlon 1994, 34). Because Aragorn’s career culminates as a Renewal King, certain themes are interwoven within his character from other traditions of exempla of the Renewal King figure, of which Charlemagne6 provides an excellent example.
Secondly, Aragorn carries ancient core traditions (Traditionskern) and artifacts7 reaching back to his ancestor and Stammvater (the tribal founder or “father”) Bëor the Old, which are vital to Aragorn’s legitimacy.
The Ring of Barahir
The Ring of Barahir, although not a ‘Ring of Power’ is nevertheless a very powerful ring in that its power is symbolic of Aragorn’s pedigree and the core traditions of the Edain. It is a symbol of the “obedience and love;” the friendship and bond of Elves and Men; a reification of the love between King Finrod Felagund and Aragorn’s ancestors Barahir (S, 176) and his son, Beren (ibid. 198). Such traditions of pedigree, and heirlooms representing that pedigree, provide the foundation for Aragorn’s legal, moral, and cultural authority. Indeed, Aragorn’s narrative in The Lord of the Rings progressively enacts cultural authority (Scanlon 1994, 34) from his beginning in the shadows as Strider to his coronation – a cultural authority that needs legitimatization. That he carries ancient core traditions not only gives him identity and legitimacy as king but also serves to implement the authority to renew.
Thirdly, in the process of Gondor’s renewal, Aragorn ‘fuses’ the old traditions and ethos with the new. It is a fusing of the old unyielding will of Northern courage with a new merciful, mild, and just warrior-ethos. The “sad light of fatalism” (Stanley 2000, 94) of the ‘long defeat’ is replaced with the ‘hope’ for the renewal of a golden age. The fusion constitutes a new, proto-chivalric warrior-ethos and identity.
It is an ethos that resides in, again following Frye, the Romantic era of Summer appropriate for the new Era of Men in Middle-earth’s Fourth Age.
II. Exemplum
Tolkien makes use of the narrative technique of illustrative narrative (exemplum). Illustrative narrative employs an agent, who by their actions, “illustrate” a moral. Fritz Kemmler (1984, 187) explains the function of these agents thusly:
… in illustrative narratives their [the agents’] function is clearly defined by the thematic base-structure underlying and determining the sequence of events depicted in a narrative. Agents are relevant in respect to the norms and values mediated in a narrative.
It is a device that is used to show modes of behavior to be either emulated or shunned by the actions of a protagonist or agent. Aragorn is an agent of his own illustrative narrative and functions as an ideal king prototype. Aragorn, as an agent, provides the thematic context, which is determined by a set of particular norms and values (the ideal king) which may be observed in a particular community (ibid. 181). The base structure is the theme of Aragorn becoming king, through the defeat of great evil, and the renewal of Gondor and Arnor for the Age of Men. The new norms and values are a fusion of heroic ethos as well as hope for the future. This new, hopeful heroic ethos lies in opposition to the previous, fatalistic ‘long defeat’ which, in the Elvish narrative had produced “some hypothesis of continuous degeneration from a Golden Age lost in Antiquity” (Frye 2000, 110).8
Thus, Aragorn’s illustrative role in the narrative functions as “a traditional epic/romance hero who combines Northrop Frye’s romance and high mimetic modes” (Flieger 2012, 142) as a Renewal King. His mythological messianic role as redeemer is displaced by that of a human king of romance who renews a declining world. His task is to provide hope.
Aragorn’s conflict with the overpowering evil represented by Sauron seems to signal the final end for the Free Peoples of Middle-earth who really have no hope. Only Gandalf holds a shred of hope ‘There was never much hope,’ he says, ‘just a fool’s hope…’ (RK, V, iv, 88). Never much hope, of course, is not the same as no hope at all. The hope that Aragorn represents is expressed by his great deeds. Aragorn, as an exemplary agent, exemplifies norms and values that illustrate a moral because they recount the enactment of that moral, which establishes a form of authority (Scanlon 1994, 33).
Aragorn quite literally appears out of legend upon the Fields of Pelennor
The exemplary nature of Aragorn’s illustrative narrative is explicitly combined with cultural authority (Scanlon 1994, 4). He already possesses aspects of authority inherent in his character; for instance his bloodline gives him the authority and the willpower to confront Sauron in the palantír. Aragorn carries symbols of his pedigree, such as the Ring of Barahir and the Shards of Narsil/Andúril, which also bestow him with authority. This authority and legitimacy is already recognized by a core of elite warriors in the Dúnedain of the North, The Grey Company. Nonetheless, Aragorn, because he quite literally appears out of legend upon the Fields of Pelennor, recognizes the fact that he needs to earn the legitimacy as king from the people of Gondor – and without question. His Traditionskern, that is, his cultural core of tradition carried by him and his core comitatus of Dúnedain rangers of the North, enables him to gain his legitimacy and eventual coronation.
III. Aragorn’s Traditionskern and Northern Courage
Aragorn springs from the ethos of Northern courage in Middle-earth. He is of the Dúnedain, who are descended from the Númenóreans, who are in turn descended from the Edain (a “Naturvolk” or idyllic people) of the First Age. Christopher Hans Scarf (2007, 322) notes that “in his mythological ‘Story’ Tolkien’s heroic kings and their societies have their “deep roots” in the distant past.” Those ‘deep roots’ are what may be termed the core of tradition: “Traditionionskern, consisting of legends about ancestors and great deeds of the heroic past, carried the consciousness of these tribes for centuries” (Maas 2012, 75). The great deeds of the Edain’s past epitomize their Northern courage, such as Barahir’s shield wall.
The Battle of Dagor Bragollach9 clearly illustrates the Northern courage of Men. The account is full of shield walls, desperate last stands and subsequent oaths of fealty between lord and liegeman:
Finrod gives Barahir his ring — Anke Eißmann
The sons of Finarfin bore most heavily the brunt of the assault, and Angrod and Aegnor were slain; beside them fell Bregolas lord of the house of Bëor, and a great part of the warriors of that people. But Barahir the brother of Bregolas was fighting further westward, near the Pass of Sirion. The King Finrod Felagund, hastening from the south, was cut off from his people and surrounded with small company in the Fens of Serech; and he would have been slain or taken, but Barahir came up with the bravest of his men and rescued him, and made a wall of spears about him; and they cut their way out of the battle with great loss. Thus Felagund escaped, and returned to his deep fortress of Nargothrond; but he swore an oath of abiding friendship and aid in every need to Barahir and all his kin, and in token of his vow he gave Barahir his ring. Barahir was now rightful lord of the house of Bëor… (S, 176)
Aragorn is descended from this Edain warrior-elite caste which carries on old traditions of the heroic ethos and an almost foederati-like relationship10 with the Eldar. These traditions sustain the identity of the tribe (for example the identity of the Dúnedain) by affording the community of Men an origo gentes. There is no evidence, however, that the Edain had their own traditional sense of ‘Northern courage’ previous to Finrod Felagund’s first encounter with them and the text quickly moves onto the process of their assimilation, or as I’ve discussed elsewhere, their ‘Noldorization’.11 They assimilate quickly without, purposely, dwelling on their past veiled in shadow and therefore their prior culture is also shrouded in mystery.
The ‘primal deed’ of the Edain’s origin. Illustration by Ted Naismith
This is an identity, modelled on the Germanic hero, that started in an ancient First Age with a chieftain-vassal / Elf-lord relationship between the Edain chieftain Bëor the Old (from whom Aragorn is descendent) and the Noldo Fingolfin. The establishment of the Elf and Elf-friend power-structure functions as the “primal deed” of Edain origin (cf. S, 163-165).
Herwig Wolfram (1997, 33) suggests that “[S]tories of origins speak of “genuine and old names,” in our case the “Edain”, which:
… sum up their origins in three motifs: First, once upon a time there was a small people […] they set out [wandering] under divine guidance […] The first test demanded the performance of a primordial deed, be it crossing of a sea like the Baltic or North Sea or a river like the Rhine, Elbe, or Danube, be it victorious […] in a situation that seems all but hopeless, divine aid is given to a select groups of the homeless tribe. In this way the primordial deed establishes a new tribal identity, which derives its legitimacy and attraction from the nucleus of tradition, that is to say, from the group of leaders with better gods and organizational structure than exist in the world around them. Both qualities establish the superior status (nobilitas) of a people over its neighbors. Second, […] a change of religion and cult takes place during the primordial deed; tradition presents this process also as a singular event [...] Third, if the primordial deed was a victory against mighty enemies, those remained the model enemy par excellence […] What lived on in these sorts of stories was the memory that one’s own gens had once been a subordinate group within a larger tribal confederation from which it had broken away by force, thus triggering or accelerating the confederation’s downfall. (Wolfram 1997, 33-34)
Wolfram’s paradigm also applies to the Edain, and Aragorn as a Traditionsträger13 (that is, one of the elites who remembers, instills and acts out the core traditions of a gens). For instance, the Dúnedain (west-men) carry the “genuine and old name” of the Edain (men) within its etymology and its accompanying cultural values and traditions, such as Aragorn’s ring.
The Elf Lords at the Dagor Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame — Alan Lee
Secondly, the Edain performed a “primal deed” consisting both of crossing the Blue Mountains (rather than the Rhine) and establishing themselves as “Elf-friends”, which instilled hope within their hearts. In so doing, they received “divine aid” (“even if once or twice removed”14 (Honegger 2017, 11)) in the form of art and knowledge “and their sons increased in wisdom and skill, until they far surpassed all other of Mankind [nobilitas], who dwelt still east of the mountains and had not seen the Eldar, nor looked upon the faces that had beheld the Light of Valinor” and their “years were lengthened” (S, 173).
They also, in their first major conflict, fight as vassals to the Elf Lords at the Dagor Bragollach, the Battle of Sudden Flame. Thereby they establish Morgoth and his armies as “model enemies” par excellence. There is no “change” of religion or cult but rather an enlightenment represented by the Valar and Eru Ilúvatar. It is an ontological difference that their brethren left behind do not, at this time, come to know.
This core of tradition and its accompanying heroic ethos form the structural basis of the themes that support Aragorn’s claim to the throne of Gondor and his cultural authority.
Aragorn greets Frodo as he prepares to hear a secondary-world history written — or in this case sung — for a secondary-world audience in Rivendell. Illustration by Anke Eißmann.
For the reader, Scarf (2007, 264) notes “this deliberate “looking back” is a ‘structural’ device that creates verisimilitude by its interlacement through the narratives of the Legendarium. The reader more readily ‘receives’ the ‘Story’ as though it were about actual historic people, whose way of life had been philologically deduced.” On an intradiegetic level, that is as a secondary-world history written for a secondary-world audience, they are an actual historic people (Gallant 2020, 30). As the people of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings (as well as the reader) look back they become more aware of their identity and the significance of Aragorn as king, similar to how a Christian ‘looking back’ at the old stories of the Old Testament gains a deeper understanding of the New (Scarf 2007, 262).
IV. Dynamic versus Static Heroic Ethos
In a paper given at the Second International Saga Conference in Reykjavík, John Lindow (1973, 18) addressed the Icelandic Sagas as ethnographic documents. The problem he discussed was the view of the Germanic heroic ethos as an unchanging, monolithic structure ranging from the time of Tacitus until the thirteenth-century. This view, Lindow explains, was prominent in nineteenth-century philology and Germanism; however, it does not stand up to scrutiny. On the contrary, the Germanic heroic ethos changed greatly over time in our real, or primary, world:
… We may be quite sure that around 100 A.D., at approximately the end of the common Germanic period, the Germanic chieftain was essentially a great warrior, a leader of men in battle. His closest followers were those who pledged allegiance to him in war and peace, making up his *druhtiz or comitatus, as Tacitus calls it. We also may safely assert that West Scandinavian kingship in the thirteenth century was rather like its European model; the king was a grand figure who ruled over virtually every aspect of human life. His closest followers made up a corporation called the hirð, which itself was only one part of the complex court. This wide and far reaching change characterizes the differences between common Germanic and medieval Scandinavian society, and it is pointless to assume that any Germanic ethical concept or institution, like honour, could have survived so long virtually unchanged. (Lindow 1973, 18)
If a heroic code is performed identity, that is a code that identifies a warrior by the way he acts, then the implication is that Germanic identity changed as the modes of its society changed over the course of generations.
This is a view taken by contemporary historians and medievalists like Lindow which is more or less today’s consensus.
The heroic code is performed, acted out, even in death — ‘The Death of Beowulf’
This is not, however, how the change manifests itself in either The Lord of the Rings or the larger Legendarium for several reasons unique to Tolkien’s Legendarium. Firstly, the nature of narrative fiction means that such a thematic cultural change must be compressed within the parameters of either the text itself, or the ‘Stoff’ of the Legendarium. The ‘history’ (any history15) is simply a narrative of the chronicle events and may not concern itself with such changes. Secondly, within the mythology of the Legendarium there is the issue of the Elves and their immortality. The Noldor, along with their heroic ethos that exemplified Northern courage, are still present either in the generations born in exile (e.g. Elrond) or were the original rebels themselves (e.g. Galadriel).
In Tolkien’s Legendarium there is no gradual societal or cultural change nor any transition from one generation to another: the Elvish heroic ethos is a static, monolithic structure. The transition happens as the Elves wane and Men wax with a new ethos, rather than a gradual cultural change as convincingly described by Lindow. The new ethos still has traces of das Heroische (the heroic) but it now privileges a dedication to something bigger than simply the lord and the comitatus; something greater than just lof ond dom; it privileges hope.
It is a proto-chivalric ethos that we see galvanizing in the Men of Middle-earth by way of Aragorn’s example; that is, his exemplary performance.
The Death of Roland
In a recent article, Thomas Honegger (2017, 12) examines chivalry and Tolkien’s distaste for it, and notes that “[Tolkien] does his best to avoid associations with the classical chivalric period and harks back to a simpler, more primitive and above all more secular form of chivalry” (which this discussion refers to as proto-chivalry).
To better understand the motifs (Stoff) of a Germanic heroic ethos in transition from one tradition to another, it serves us well, as an acute example, to look at the Carolingian Franks when we examine Aragorn, Gondor, and the new heroic ethos. There are two prominent reasons for this: firstly, because Tolkien referred to the Holy Roman Empire (Letters, 376) when he envisioned Gondor; and secondly because Old French literature offers us an insight into an actual, historical and transitive proto-chivalry. As Honegger (2017, 20) suggests,
[T]his development parallels the one in primary world literature where we have also an evolution from the epic-heroic chanson de geste (e.g. the late 11th century Le Chanson de Roland) to courtly romance (e.g. Chrétien de Troyes Yvain, Erec et Enide, or Lancelot, all after 1160) as the dominant genre.
This is not to suggest that Old French literature, Le Chanson de Roland in particular, is the only source where a shift in heroic ethos is visible; there is an entire corpus of early medieval literature that incorporates the subject matter, themes and motifs (or Stoff), of an early medieval heroic ethos in transition. For example, other works such as Das Nibelungenlied, composed circa fifty years later than Roland, also transitions by use of remnant heroic elements and chivalric or proto-chivalric responses. “In terms of his own age the poet of the Nibelungenlied aimed at an accommodation of traditional heroic subject-matter with newly-received chivalric notions and with the new fashion of ‘biographical’ romances, that is, narratives of a leading character’s life” (Hatto 1980, 170).
Nonetheless, Le Chanson de Roland provides a prime example of this transition in a literary framework from the Germanic heroic ethos of Northern courage to a proto-chivalric ethos in which we may envision the transition in The Lord of the Rings more clearly.
Only after Roland loses twenty thousand men and is left with sixty, that he decides perhaps, just maybe, now is a good time to sound his horn!
For example, in Le Chanson de Roland (Laisses 83 through 87), three times Oliver pleads with Roland to blow his horn Oliphant and call Charlemagne and the main Frankish host, and three times Roland refuses because he believes to do so will dishonor him and his men: ‘I’d rather die than be disgraced’ (Roland, 86.1091).
It is only after Roland loses twenty thousand men and is left with sixty, that he decides perhaps now is a good time to sound his horn (Roland, 132.1752). In the following Laisse (87.1093-1094) Roland is not condemned but rather exalted: “Roland is worthy and Oliver is wise: / Both have amazing courage…”. This action is reminiscent of ofermōd and Earl Byrhtnoth in the ‘Battle of Maldon,’ who in his pride let the Vikings cross the causeway to fight. He subsequently lost because of it (Maldon, 89-95).
Roland, like Earl Byrhtnoth, suffers from ofermōd, his overmastering pride, which prevents him from blowing his horn for help when it would have been most useful. The refusal causes strife and hostility between Roland and his friend Oliver and Oliver strikes Roland with added insult and condemnation. However, when Oliver is mortally wounded, impaled by a spear from behind, he begs forgiveness from Roland:
I struck you, please forgive me this!
Roland replies: “I have suffered no injury,
I forgive this here and before God.”
After he said this, they bowed to each other,
See them now parting with such affection! (Roland, 149.2005-2009)
Boromir is not reluctant to blow his horn, yet he falls defending Merry and Pippin, and the motif is altered
The Lord of the Rings shows us the same Stoff or motifs (albeit altered) and the most comparable to the verse above is the death of Boromir. In this case, Boromir is not reluctant to blow his horn, yet he falls defending Merry and Pippin, and the motif is altered:
Aragorn knelt beside his. Boromir opened his eyes and strove to speak. At last slow words came. ‘I tried to take the Ring from Frodo,’ he said. ‘I am sorry. I have paid.’ His glanced strayed to his fallen enemies; twenty at least lay there … After a moment he spoke again.
‘Farewell, Aragorn! Go to Minas Tirith and save my people! I have failed!’
‘No!’ said Aragorn, taking his hand and kissing his brow. ‘You have conquered. Few have gained such a victory. Be at peace! Minas Tirith shall not fall!’ (TT, III, i, 16)
Anke Eißmann — ‘Death of Boromir’, 2000
Like Roland at Oliver’s death, Aragorn offers forgiveness with a contradictory statement to the fallen’s remorse (‘I have failed’ and ‘You have conquered’) and shows that love forgives all prior strife and hostility. It is Tolkien’s heroic ideal that “is the heroism of obedience and love, not pride and wilfulness, that is most heroic” (TL, 148). Tolkien shows that love in this passage, and while we do not know if Aragorn bestows hope upon Boromir, at the very least he consoles him.
Aragorn’s mild qualities of mercy and pity allow him to deal with his subjects according to their measure, giving them hope to contribute to the effort while still retaining their honor. He asks only those that are willing to accompany him to the Black Gate and not all can find it in their hearts to follow their king. In a Germanic ethos like Northern courage, those that quailed would be considered cowards only worthy of death. But Aragorn, seeing the gravity of the situation, forgives those who are terrified of marching further:16
‘Go!’ said Aragorn. ‘But keep what honor 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 defense of Gondor and Rohan!’ (RK, V, x, 162)
This is a transitional change in the heroic code and, as Christopher Scarf has pointed out, it is a noteworthy example of Aragorn’s heroism deviating from the core tradition of Northern courage:
Aragorn may still have exhibited something of the ‘hopelessness’ of the northern spirit of courage when he pursued the Hobbits. Nevertheless, Aragorn, whose name, Estel actually means Hope, now had the Christian ‘Hope’ of life, as he put it, “Beyond the circles of the world.” (Scarf 2007, 339)
While Aragorn carries on in the face of a hopeless situation with unyielding will, the fusion of hope with Germanic Northern courage may be the most important aspect of Aragorn’s new warrior ethos. Hope is inextricably bound with recovery and renewal.
Judy Ann Ford supports the concept of a Germanic hope in that
[T]he myth of the revival of Rome in The Lord of the Rings is presented by Tolkien as an Anglo-Saxon hope and more broadly a northern European Germanic hope, in which the idea of a revived Roman Empire, or Western Empire, had been expanded to include not only the Romans but also themselves. (Ford 2005, 68)
With Roland’s example, Aragorn’s hopeful, new proto-chivalric ethos becomes clearer. Elements of Northern courage are still there, but we can discern a change happening. We no longer see the prevalence of overmastering pride, the burning of ships and halls, the blasphemous oaths and other vices within the framework of “the sad light of fatalism” and the “long defeat’. Instead, we see a heroism that still shows unbending will and defiance in the face of certain defeat (such as the last stand before the Black Gate), but this has been fused with a sense of hope and mercy and justice provided by the example of an ideal king wielding his legitimate cultural authority.
Estel means ‘Hope’ and hope is brought to Men on the Pelennor Fields
And here we should stop until next week…
Links to previous diaries in the series
Notes
1 Cf. Tom Shippey (Road, 172-73).
2 Themes, motifs and subject matter. Cf. Elisabeth Frenzel, Stoffe der Weltliteratur: Ein Lexikon dichtungsgeschichtlicher Längsschnitte. 10th ed. Vol. 300 Kröners Taschenausgabe (Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner 2005).
3When freedom of choice contradicts the divine plan, wyrd serves a corrective and judicial function to return to the divine plan. This includes the use and misuse of gifts, which originate from the divine. In this context, they would include the light encased within the Silmarils and even Fëanor’s exceptionally creative talent. The misuse of these gifts is an affront to providence and the divine plan and wyrd may be invoked to correct the misuse. Wyrd, therefore, is subservient to providence.
4 One may think of the difference between the determined Aragorn of the text and the reluctant Aragorn Viggo Mortensen portrayed in Peter Jackson’s work. If Jackson’s conflicted Aragorn had chosen wrongly, then there may be a need for a corrective function to realign with the divine plan. This is not an issue to be considered with Tolkien’s steadfast Aragorn.
5 For Tolkien, it is the “heroism of obedience and love, not pride or willfulness, that is the most heroic and the most moving…” J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son." In Tree and Leaf (London: Harper Collins 2001), 121-150.
6 See also, Elizabeth M. Stephen, Hobbit to Hero: The Making of Tolkien’s King (Moreton in Marsh (Gloucestershire): ADC Publications 2012), 183-185; and Michael D. C. Drout, ed. J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopaedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. (New York: Routledge 2007), s.v. “Elessar” and “Aragorn.”
7 Cultural traditions and material artifacts that define the identity of a group of people. According to ethnogenesis theory (Traditionskern), these traditions and artifacts are carried by a small group of the aristocratic warrior elite that define themselves and their followers. Cf. Reinhard Wenskus, Stammesbildung und Verfassung: Das Werden der frühmittelalterlichen Gentes (Köln: Böhlau Verlag 1961).
8 See also Honegger 2011.
9 The first major battle against Morgoth in which Men participated.
10 That is, a similar relationship to that which Rome had with various tribes, peoples, and confederations who allied themselves with, and fought for, Rome.
11 “a sort of acculturation process or Romanization is also occurring that is affecting identity. Perhaps we may coin this process Noldorization, as it has significant impacts on questions of ethnic identity of Men in the narrative. It is not an aggressive conquering policy the way Rome sometimes engaged in but rather a voluntary symbiotic endeavor on the parts of both the Edain and Noldor.” (Gallant 2020, forthcoming).
12 Christopher Hans Scarf’s views seem to support this discussion, and it is worth citing him in full:
“Small wonder that the seemingly endless Wars of Beleriand in which Elven Kings (the “Gnomes”) and the Chieftains of the Men of the Three Houses of the Edain were involved, found heroes who fought relentlessly, in spite of feeling sure they were fighting a hopeless series of battles against the powerful Morgoth. Tolkien relates their plight as being like the Beowulfian “common tragedy of inevitable ruin.” He creates a vivid picture of ultimate despair, in which the “history of kings and warriors,” where “all glory … ends in night.” [BMC, 23] Tolkien’s Chieftains of the Edain ‘develop’ into Kings as a reward for their consistency and their heroic efforts in these wars. One of their number, Eärendil, obtained aid from the Valar, by which Morgoth was defeated in the Last Battle. The Valar rewarded the Edain with the gift of the island realm of Númenor, and with the divinely authorized gift of Kingship, as Tolkien revealed it.” Christopher Hans Scarf, The Ideal Kingship in the Writings of Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Dissertation (Sussex: University of Sussex, 2007), 334.
13 „So viel dürfte deutlich geworden sein, daß in allen Fällen ein kleiner traditionstragender Kern zum Kristallisationspunkt einer Großstammbildung wurde. Das deckt sich mit den Erfahrungen der Ethnographen, die aus den verschiedensten Gegenden Beispiele dafür anführen können, wie an Zahl geringe "Traditionskompanien" gewaltige Expansionsbewegungen auslösen…“ Reinhard Wenskus, Stammesbildung und Verfassung (Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 1961), 75.
14 Honegger is speaking of the “divine” beauty of Galadriel, but aptly sums up the “demi-god” status as once or twice removed from divinity itself that I am attempting to illustrate here.
15 Cf. Hayden White, “Historicism, History, and the Imagination,” In Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University press, 1985), 109.
16 Charity may not be the complete story here, either. Like Charlemagne, Aragorn is a shrewd military commander and he surely knows that some soldiers are more suited to support, logistics, and rear echelon roles than others who serve as frontline shock troops. Indeed, such soldiers may be more dangerous to their comrades if they panic in the face of the enemy. Nevertheless, his wisdom and prudence in handling the situation is not unlike, and very much in character with, Notker’s anecdotes of Charlemagne and his wise, prudent decisions and actions in various situations exalting his subjects as well as humbling them.
Works Cited
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About the Author
Jeff Dem holds a BA in Russian and Eastern European Studies and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan (Residential College), a MA in Germanic Languages and Literatures from the University of Virginia, and a Dr. phil. (magna cum laude) from the Philosophische Fakultät of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena in Anglistische Mediävistik. His dissertation 'The Germanic Narrative of the Eldar in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Legendarium: Northern Courage, Wyrd and Redemption' is soon to be submitted as a book.
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