Hello, Inzilbeth. This is Lalaeth from the LotR discussion group. I have a horrible habit of playing devil's advocate. I hope that's ok.
You make a good point; I hadn't thought of comparing Aragorn with Denethor.
Denethor suffered from too much pride, but to be fair, we only see him at the end of his life when he had almost given in to despair. How many people could hold things together as well as he did and as long as he could under the circumstances? Loss of a son and heir, leader of a country facing tens of thousands of foes bent upon annihilation. Most people would crack if faced with a single one of these situations.
Aragorn was both humble and wise in trusting others to play their parts although it would seem that he didn't have much of a choice.
He never really put aside his main ambition, which was to become the King of Arnor and Gondor so that he could marry Arwen. It just happened that, thanks to Elrond (with a bit of foresight, perhaps?), Aragorn's ambitions depended upon defeating Sauron. He knew the war was not over with the victory at Pelenor Fields; that was just the second battle in a wider war. Riding to the Black Gate was bold and intelligent, but it was something that had to be done to buy Frodo more time to reach Mount Doom.
Feel free to throw tomatoes at me if you disagree. :)
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-14 10:08 pm (UTC)You make a good point; I hadn't thought of comparing Aragorn with Denethor.
Denethor suffered from too much pride, but to be fair, we only see him at the end of his life when he had almost given in to despair. How many people could hold things together as well as he did and as long as he could under the circumstances? Loss of a son and heir, leader of a country facing tens of thousands of foes bent upon annihilation. Most people would crack if faced with a single one of these situations.
Aragorn was both humble and wise in trusting others to play their parts although it would seem that he didn't have much of a choice.
He never really put aside his main ambition, which was to become the King of Arnor and Gondor so that he could marry Arwen. It just happened that, thanks to Elrond (with a bit of foresight, perhaps?), Aragorn's ambitions depended upon defeating Sauron. He knew the war was not over with the victory at Pelenor Fields; that was just the second battle in a wider war. Riding to the Black Gate was bold and intelligent, but it was something that had to be done to buy Frodo more time to reach Mount Doom.
Feel free to throw tomatoes at me if you disagree. :)