Master of Middle Earth (21 page)

Through use of the
Palantír
Aragorn grows to maturity. Hitherto he has been to a large extent
the pupil of Gandalf. Now he is his own man. By his independent action he has
set the basic strategy of the West, which is to seize and keep the military
initiative at all costs in order to throw Sauron off balance and distract his
attention from the real peril creeping unseen into his inner realm. Although,
after the victory in the Pelennor Fields, Aragorn announces that he will obey
Gandalf as supreme commander, the policy Gandalf adopts is really this same
policy of Aragorn's. In pursuance of it a pitifully small army sets out to
flaunt its banners at the very gates of Mordor. Aragorn can properly say then,
"As I have begun so I will go on." His beginning is at Helm's Deep
when he dared to match wills with Sauron over the
Palantír,
with the
throne of Gondor as the ultimate prize between them. Aragorn's real political
rival is never Boromir or Denethor or Faramir but" the Enemy whose thirst
to rule Minas Tirith is personal and obsessive. The contest in the end is
between the would-be tyrant and the lawful King.

Among these world
issues the love of Éowyn for Aragorn blooms like a small and pathetic but
lovely flower. Since Aragorn's manner of perceiving and rejecting her love
reveals an intimate side of his nature that appears nowhere else, its right
interpretation is vital. Tolkien himself makes it easy for us to go wrong by
writing almost too well about Éowyn and not well enough about Arwen. Éowyn we
see at some length in the flesh, living, loving, suffering; Arwen is like a
beautiful legend in whom Aragorn believes but we hardly do, because we see her
briefly only once, never hear her talk, never watch her act, until after the
affair with Éowyn is all over. Consequently, out of sympathy for Éowyn, we may
be tempted at the time to think Aragorn pretty much of a wooden fool, or a
prude, or we may look for signs that he flirts with her at first meeting. Any
of these attitudes would certainly be mistaken. Careful attention to the not
always obvious clues Tolkien plants in the body of the epic (not to mention the
full story in Appendix A) must convince us that Aragorn and Elrond's daughter
remain constant lovers after their betrothal in spite of the separations
imposed by circumstances and by Elrond's ban. This conclusion is not merely in
keeping with the traditions of faithful love between hero and heroine in fairy
tales but with an honest reading of the several meetings Éowyn has with
Aragorn.

At first exchange
of glances in Théoden's hall Aragorn sees her as "strong . . . and stern
as steel, a daughter of kings" and "thought her fair, fair and cold,
like a morning of pale spring that is not yet come to womanhood." He notes
her cool pity for her besotted uncle. None of this suggests love-liking on his
part, though it does imply admiration and perhaps compassion. Legolas, too,
thinks her "cold," in the sense, I suppose, of interest in martial
prowess at the expense of a gender femininity. "And she now was suddenly
aware of him: tall heir of Kings, wise with many winters, grey-cloaked, hiding
a power that yet she felt." His kingliness and strength are the features
that attract her, being precisely those which have been wanting in the aging
uncle she has been forced to nurse in recent winters. As Éowyn offers the
stirrup cup to the captains riding west to war, she looks at Aragorn with
shining eyes and he returns her look with a smile. Their hands touch on the cup
and he feels hers tremble. At that moment he knows where her thoughts are
tending. They greet each other by name, "but his face was troubled and he
did not smile." Had he returned her interest in him he would certainly not
have been troubled by it. Rather, he finds himself now the object of an
infatuation he never sought and, in honor, cannot encourage. Out of courtesy
and fear of hurting her feelings he cannot even acknowledge openly that it
exists. Her farewell words, "A year shall I endure for every day that
passes until your return," are ostensibly for Th6oden but actually are
addressed to Aragorn, to whom her eyes turn as she speaks. He tries to keep the
situation impersonal by pretending nevertheless that her words are for the
king: "The king shall come again . . . Fear not! Not West but East does
our doom await us." Whether he likes it or not, her love for him has
created a special relationship between them, to which he must respond in some
way. His words are a kindly signal of rejection.

That she has
refused to read them as such becomes evident when he returns with his band of
Dúnedain, with Gimli, Legolas, and the sons of Elrond, to Dim-harrow to take
the Paths of the Dead. She is "stricken." Having herself just found
in her love a reason for living, she cannot understand why he seeks death, as
she interprets his errand. She follows him to his lodging to ask him why. He
explains that only by following those paths can he do his part against Sauron,
and adds as plain a discouragement to her affections as he can without
referring to them direct: "Were I to go where my heart dwells, far in the
North I would now be wandering in the fair valley of Rivendell." She
ponders his words in silence and their probable allusion to his love for some
other woman. Her resolve then is to die with him. Their colloquy in the dark
proceeds on poignantly from his reminder of her duty to guard Dunharrow, to her
rebellious cry that her duty is a cage from which she must break free to do
noble deeds of arms, to her broken plea that she be allowed to go with the
companions who "would not be parted from thee—because they love
thee." She has spoken what is as close to an outright declaration of love
as her maiden modesty allows before she turns away into the night.

Intolerable to
both for different reasons is their farewell in the light of dawn. Acting as if
they had never spoken of love, Aragorn drinks "to the fortune of your
House, and of you, and of all your people." She weeps as she asks him,
"Aragorn, wilt thou go?" Then, "wilt thou not let me ride with
this company?" Finally, on her knees, "I beg thee!" To each plea
Aragorn answers with merciful curtness, "I will"; "I will not,
lady," "nay, lady." Then he kisses her hand and rides away
without looking back, "and only those who knew him well and were near him
saw the pain that he bore." Her loss of Aragorn, capping the frustrations
of her life as an unregarded girl in Théoden's house, drives Éowyn to ride in
disguise with the host of Rohan looking for glory and death on the Pelennor
Fields.

Her slaying of the
Nazgûl chief brings her the one and would have brought her the other also had
not Aragorn's powers of healing called her back to life. Standing with Éomer at
his sister's bedside in the House of Healing, Aragorn tries delicately to
diagnose for Éomer the origins of her malady without mentioning her passionate
love for himself. But Éomer has been present when the two first met and has had
eyes to see what happened. "I hold you blameless in this matter, as in all
else," he says forthrightly. Gandalf adds the other element of the
diagnosis, which Éomer has not noticed, the frenzied beating of the wings of
Éowyn's spirit against the walls of Edoras, wanting freedom. Aragorn then takes
the occasion to unburden his heart to his friend about the suffering he felt in
having to act as he did: "Few other griefs amid the ill chances of this
world have more bitterness and shame for a man's heart than to behold the love
of a lady so fair and brave that cannot be returned." Sorrow and pity for
her rode with him all through the days of his summoning the faithless dead, and
he feared for what she might do in her despair. Yet, says Aragorn, she did not
love him as she loves her brother Éomer. To her Aragorn was only "a shadow
and a thought: a hope of glory and great deeds and lands far from the fields of
Rohan"—in short, a method of escape from home. The truth of this insight
is borne out by her sure and swift turning to Faramir as she comes to know his
manliness and love for her during their long convalescence together. Her public
troth-plighting to him closes the chapter between her and Aragorn. She looks at
Aragorn, now King, and asks, "Wish me joy, my liege-lord and healer!"
And he answers, "I have wished thee joy ever since first I saw thee. It
heals my heart to see thee now in bliss." It is symptomatic of his ease that
he now dares to use to her the familiar
thee
with which she addressed
him in her wooing but which he avoided in addressing her. Never has Tolkien
looked into the human heart to better purpose than in this inset tale of Éowyn
and Aragorn.

But before all
this can happen Aragorn must show the stuff of which he is made by winning
Gondor. He grows in strength and sureness of touch with each passing test. His
companions are drawn after him along the grim underground Paths of the Dead not
only by the strength of his will but by their love for him, says Legolas.
"For all who come to know him come to love him after their own fashion . .
." He is the heir of Isildur in action as well as name when he holds the
unresting spirits of the oath-breakers to their pledge, and leads them on the
wild ride that sends the Haradrim and the pirates of Umbar reeling in terror
from Pelargir. There, and on the plains of Pelennor, he overcomes the enemies
of Gondor by arms. But Gondor itself he overcomes by love. Éomer is already his
loyal friend and supporter. Prince Imrahil and the city's other leaders in the
field he wins as much by forbearing to press his title to the throne lest it
rouse untimely divisions in the city as by its inherent validity and his own
increasingly obvious ability to rule better than anyone else. He camps outside
the walls on the night after the victory only as lord of the northern Rangers,
and when called in by Gandalf to heal the sick enters heavily cloaked. His
power over sickness, resembling that of medieval kings to cure the "king's
evil," is taken by all as a divine gift, which can belong only to a
sovereign. Under its virtue Faramir, recalled from the shadows, looks up at
Aragorn with "a light of knowledge and love" and asks, "What
does the king command?" His fealty is instant, complete, and lasting. And
he occupies the crucial post of ruling Steward by reason of Denethor's death.
The hearts of the citizens likewise turn to Aragorn while he labors all night
among the wounded. They are looking for leadership anyway, and Aragorn comes to
them with all the authentic marks of monarch and savior.

Much has been
written, and justly, about the self-sacrificial courage of Frodo and Sam in the
last stages of their journey through Mordor. But few or none have remarked on
the equal if less solitary unselfish daring displayed by the mere seven
thousand men whom Aragorn and his peers lead up to the Black Gate to challenge
the ten times ten thousands inside. They come as a decoy knowing they are bound
to be overwhelmed unless Frodo and Sam are still alive (they have not been
heard from in weeks) and can first throw the Ring into Mount Doom. Destroying
it even an hour too late will not save the little army outside. But meantime
they are there to give the Ring-bearer his maximum opportunity by distracting
Sauron's attention for the longest possible time. So desperate are the odds
that some of the boldest have quailed along the way and have been sent back by
Aragorn to posts of lesser terror where they can still be useful.
Characteristically, he has done it with pity for weakness but without giving up
the principle that duty requires those to go on who can: "But keep what
honour you may and do not run!" he tells those he dismisses. The rest
march on to face despair in the final parley, when the Mouth of Sauron produces
Frodo's mithril coat and Sam's sword as proof that the two are taken and that
the seven thousand have acted as bait in vain. Without hope they stand firm
against Sauron's onsets until suddenly the sounds of ruin inside Mordor tell them
that their gamble has actually worked. Frodo, or rather Gollum, has saved them
at the last breath, but they no less have saved the hobbits and so the West.

The ceremonies by
which Aragorn ascends the throne are just what they should be. Magnificent in themselves,
they reenact and refer back to the historical events from which he derives his
title, and they unite all the elements of the kingdom in a common consent which
will assure its future political stability. On the morning of the coronation
Aragorn, accompanied by Gandalf, Éomer, Imrahil, and the four hobbits, steps
out from the ranks of the returning army and walks up to the city walls, where
he is met by Faramir as Steward. Faramir, calling himself "the last
Steward of Gondor," holds out in surrender the white rod of his office.
Aragorn returns it with the command to carry out his function. This proves to
be a full, stately recital of all the titles that identify Aragorn as the
rightful King returned, ending with a question called out to the assembled
citizens of Gondor: "Shall he be king and enter into the City and dwell
there?" In answer "all the host and all the people cried
yea
with
one voice." If this is not democracy by secret ballot it is certainly
enthusiastic popular consent. The people as well as the chief have been
consulted. Sauron would have done everything opposite.

Now comes the
coronation itself. Faramir produces from the house of tombs the crown worn by
Eanur, the last king before the line of Stewards began. It bears the seabird
wings and the seven gems surmounted by the great jewel star of Eärendil, worn
by Elendil when he founded Gondor. Holding up the crown, Aragorn repeats in
Elvish Elendil's promise when he landed from Númenor: "Out of the Great
Sea to Middle-earth I am come. In this plaice will I abide, and my heirs, unto
the ending of the world." Aragorn is making the promise his own. But he
does not crown himself. He asks that the circlet be carried by the Ring-bearer
to Gandalf, who is to set it on Aragorn's head. This is his modest and deeply
felt recognition that "by the labour and valour of many I have come into
my inheritance" and that Gandalf "has been the mover of all that has
been accomplished, and this is his victory." Gandalf invokes religion as
he crowns the kneeling Aragorn: "Now come the days of the King, and may
they be blessed while the thrones of the Valar endure!" And with this,
King Elessar enters the Citadel and unfurls the banner Arwen sewed for him.