Why March 1st?
Mar. 1st, 2009 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inzilbethI've been busy for most of today doing final preparations for lambing which all kicks off this week, and while I was setting up lambing pens and cleaning my kit, I was thinking about Aragorn! I tend to do that anyway [surprised?] but especially so as this is his special day being both his birthday and the day of his death.
I'm sure though, I'm not the only one to have wondered at the reason why Aragorn chose to die on his birthday. 1st March has no particular significance in any Middle-earth calendar. Nor does it relate to ours in the way that, for instance, 25th March does, which was not only the 1st day of the New Year in Gondor after the war, but it was also the 1st day of the New Year in England until 1752, something Tolkien, I'm sure, didn't arrange by accident [it was the Christian feast of Annunciation which he would surely have known].
There is no connection like this though for 1st March, yet it can be no accident that these dates are the same. This is after all Middle-earth and Tolkien we are talking about! My take on it is that it was all tied up with Aragorn's decision to give up his life. Why not chose your birthday? There's a certain symmetry in doing so and I think it was Tolkien's way of reinforcing to the reader that Aragorn's death was a matter of conscious choice, not pot luck. The fact that Aragorn chose to give up his life is hugely significant to his status as one of the most important characters in all Tolkien's works. I think in Tolkien's eyes, it was the most important thing about him. Maybe not in ours though!
Any thoughts?
Here's my favourite Viggo/ Aragorn photo.
Foot note:
Thanks to all who commented, this riddle is suddenly very clear to me and now quite obvious! Aragorn chose his birthday on which to die as he was effectively being born again into another existance. How simple, yet I never realised that until this morning, thinking about it while feeding the cows!
I'm sure though, I'm not the only one to have wondered at the reason why Aragorn chose to die on his birthday. 1st March has no particular significance in any Middle-earth calendar. Nor does it relate to ours in the way that, for instance, 25th March does, which was not only the 1st day of the New Year in Gondor after the war, but it was also the 1st day of the New Year in England until 1752, something Tolkien, I'm sure, didn't arrange by accident [it was the Christian feast of Annunciation which he would surely have known].
There is no connection like this though for 1st March, yet it can be no accident that these dates are the same. This is after all Middle-earth and Tolkien we are talking about! My take on it is that it was all tied up with Aragorn's decision to give up his life. Why not chose your birthday? There's a certain symmetry in doing so and I think it was Tolkien's way of reinforcing to the reader that Aragorn's death was a matter of conscious choice, not pot luck. The fact that Aragorn chose to give up his life is hugely significant to his status as one of the most important characters in all Tolkien's works. I think in Tolkien's eyes, it was the most important thing about him. Maybe not in ours though!
Any thoughts?
Here's my favourite Viggo/ Aragorn photo.
Foot note:
Thanks to all who commented, this riddle is suddenly very clear to me and now quite obvious! Aragorn chose his birthday on which to die as he was effectively being born again into another existance. How simple, yet I never realised that until this morning, thinking about it while feeding the cows!