Footnote to the Aragorn quiz

[inzilbeth]

One of the things Estelcontar and I ended up discussing as a result of this quiz was the question of whether or not Aragorn [or the Dunedain in general] could understand the speech of the beasts and the birds.

We decided that the only refernce to this that we knew of was this one from chapter 9 'At the sign of the Prancing Pony': 

They were taller and darker than the Men of Bree and were believed to have strange powers of sight and hearing, and to understand the languages of  beasts and birds.

We decided that was not the same as saying they COULD understand the languages of the beasts. Then  Estelcontar sent me this passage from Return of the Shadow:

...As the evening deepened Trotter began to tell them tales to keep their minds from fear. He knew much lore concerning wild animals, and claimed to speak some of their languages; and he had strange stories to tell of their lives and little known adventures.... 

So from Trotter's own mouth we find he claimed to have this ability. I wonder what strange tales he had to tell and wouldn't it have been wonderful if we had got to hear them!

Comments

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

'I'm pretty sure though, that he most certainly dropped, maybe because as you said he thought it a little too radical, the idea of direct communication between Aragorn, or the Nortern Rangers and wild animals.'

That ultimately has to be my view too, Passolargo, but I still like the idea of writing a fic about Aragorn chatting to some unlikely creature whilst alone out in the wilds!

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

....and I would love reading it. *grin*

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

And I'd love reading it too!

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Gosh, thanks! Now that I'm freed from writing 'A of A' it is a new and rather nice feeling to think I can just write anything I want as the mood takes me.