Can you imagine the dilemma Peter Jackson would have if Tolkien had not changed the Hobbit Ranger Trotter into the Dunadan Ranger Aragorn? Who would be the big love interest in the LOTR movies? Would we have to put up with Pearl Took following along behind the Fellowship, steadfastly watching over her beloved Ranger? Instead of Arwen: Warrior Princess jokes, the Internet would be filled with Pearl: Warrior Hobbitess laments.
Trotter’s transformation into Aragorn gives the story of The Lord of the Rings a uniquely human perspective among a cast of strange and fantastic creatures. The Hobbits are human in many respects, but they are constantly stepping out of folklore and astounding people, and have to deal with prejudices they are unused to at home. Theoden didn’t believe Merry would be very useful in the war against Sauron. Was he ever wrong!
It is through Aragorn’s eyes that we often see just how desperate the plight of humanity really is. Unlike the Elves Men cannot sail over Sea to escape Sauron’s reach. If they did try to sail to other lands Sauron would be able to follow them. When Elrond says, “And they who dwell beyond the Sea would not recieve [the Ring]: for good or ill it belongs to Middle-earth; it is for us who still dwell here to deal with it”, he is referring to the Valar, who no longer dwell in the world of Men, but have been taken out of it by Iluvatar. Sauron doesn’t threaten the peoples of just one continent, but of all the continents.
Unlike the Dwarves, Men were not made to withstand domination by greater wills. Why Iluvatar should make them so corruptible, or so suppressible, is a mystery. But perhaps that makes their heroic resistance against Morgoth and Sauron all the more satisfying. Dwarves cannot be turned into wraiths simply because they are made that. Men must make the right choices in order to avoid that fate.
The death of Boromir promises to be one of the most moving scenes in any of the movies. It’s a very touching episode in the original book, and fans are right to hope, to demand that Peter preserve Aragorn’s heartfelt compassion for Boromir. It is a scene where man reaches out to man with the love for humanity that is so seldom captured in anything but the greatest of heroic actions and sacrifices. Aragorn keeps the truth of Boromir’s failure to himself, and lives with the burden of knowing that he could not have prevented that failure no matter what he might have done.
Sean Bean might have to pull off an Oscar-winning performance for people to come out of the theater saying, “He NAILED that scene”. But Viggo Mortensen will have to show time and again that he is the stolid, staid Aragorn who is nonetheless gnawed by self-doubt, fighting a hopeless war against an almost invincible enemy.
Aragorn has faced Sauron’s armies in battle before. He knows they can be defeated. But he also knows that Sauron has long been preparing for the final war. The Enemy has learned many lessons through the centuries. He’s sown dissension and distrust among the former allies who once defeated him. He’s weakened the Dunadan realms while recruiting and breeding new allies and servants for his own armies. He’s snipped away, bit by bit, at the great kingdoms which once governed much of Middle-earth.
Aragorn doesn’t go forth simply alone when he sets out to find Frodo and company. He’s going up against greater odds than any of his ancestors before him have ever done. Isildur had armies to defend him. Elendil had powerful allies to aid him. Aragorn has a broken sword. Cut off from Gandalf, having never met Frodo Baggins, he waits quietly by the roadside hoping that he’ll see a couple of Hobbits travelling along from the Shire. But he’s already heard from Gildor Inglorion that the Nazgul are on the road. His own people have been slain or driven off from their posts at Sarn Ford by the Nazgul. What goes through the mind of a Ranger who has nothing going for him?
Never give up, never surrender. No retreat, no pickles on the hamburger.
Aragorn is the kind of decisive leader who isolates situations and takes matters one step at a time. Once accepted by Frodo as a guide, Aragorn sets out for Weathertop. He looks no farther than that, though his goal is eventually to get the Hobbits to Rivendell. Arriving at Weathertop, he decides to take the Hobbits into Cardolan, cutting across the countryside and avoiding the Road for several days. He makes the journey in stages, and deals with each peril as it presents itself.
Aragorn has been criticized for nearly getting lost in the hills north of the Road after crossing the Last Bridge over the Mitheithel river. Hey, he’s only human. And it’s not like Tinkerbell was hanging around, ready to go on scouting missions for him. One of his limitations is that he doesn’t know every inch of northern Middle-earth like the back of his hand. But if Aragorn can find himself in uncertain territory, how much more confused should the Nazgul be, knowing only where their destination lies, but not their quarry? Aragorn makes a good call in risking the northern hills.
The Aragorn of the movies probably won’t be nearly so complex a character as the Aragorn of the book. How many allusions will we see to his background? We’ve already heard that Bombadil won’t be there to tell the Hobbits the history of the Dunedain. Valuable screen time has been given to what promises to be a great battle between Saruman and Gandalf (and undoubtedly this battle will be used to show that great powers are at work, but that they have limits — so people should not be aghast at the inclusion of a non-canonical scene even at the expense of a valuable section of the story).
Jackson’s Aragorn may be more of a man of action than Tolkien’s Aragorn because there won’t be enough screen time to dwell on the legacy of precedent and failure that Aragorn inherits. Wouldn’t it be great to someday see a documentary of Arnor’s rise and decline on the HISTORY CHANNEL? Don’t hold your breath, but perhaps Jackson will include something like that on the DVD version of “The Return of the King”. You never know. Hey, Peter — call me. Maybe we can work something out.
Viggo’s portrayal of Aragorn aside, his character will have to be contrasted with several key human characters: Boromir, Denethor, and Faramir. Boromir represents the man of action who is too prone to action. His downfall comes from the fact that he thinks in terms of armies and lordships. Denethor’s downfall comes from the fact that he is a man of tradition. He thinks in terms of preserving what he holds, even though it is not really his to hold. Faramir is the man of vision. He sees deep into the hearts of others, and he perceives the clear designs of the Enemy.
But Faramir is crucial to Aragorn’s own future. If Boromir lives to reach Minas Tirith, he and Aragorn will become rivals in Gondor’s wars. Faramir understands this because he knows his brother well. He himself does not threaten Aragorn’s leadership on the field even though he is a great captain. When Aragorn heals Faramir, Faramir immediately clears all doubt by acknowledging Aragorn as king.
“The Fellowship of the Ring” therefore sets up a conflict which is never realized. Aragorn and Boromir meet under poor conditions. Boromir goes looking for the answer to a dream he and his brother feel is vital to the future of their realm and people. He finds the answer but he also finds the end of his own family’s rule over Gondor: Aragorn is the Heir of Elendil, determined and ready to restore the Royal House to Gondor. What is Boromir to do and say? He doesn’t tell Aragorn to mind his own business. He doesn’t withhold his friendship from Aragorn. But he remains aloof, distant.
It is Boromir’s aloofness, perhaps, which ensures he will die. He doesn’t reach out to the Hobbits emotionally like Aragorn does. Aragorn doesn’t think much of Frodo upon their first encounter: Frodo nearly gives up the game when he accidentally vanishes in Bree (a scene, alas!, which is almost certainly not to occur in the first movie, except perhaps in very abbreviated fashion). Later Aragorn says, “It would take more than a few days, or weeks, or years, of wandering in the wild to make you look like Strider. And you would die first, unless you are made of sterner stuff than you look to be.”
Nonetheless, by the time the issue of the Ring is settled and Elrond is deciding who should accompany Frodo to Mordor, Aragorn is more than willing to make at least part of the journey. His road and Boromir’s lie in the same direction anyway. Yet many weeks later, when the Fellowship are attacked in the Chamber of Mazarbul, Frodo is wounded by an Orc and Aragorn picks him up. Is the Ranger concerned for the Ring, or for his friend? He thinks Frodo is dead until the Hobbit speaks (and don’t you wonder how they’ll handle THAT scene in the movie, if they do — here’s hoping).
Aragorn forgets about Frodo’s injury in the excitement — after all, he meets his first Balrog and loses Gandalf all in the space of a few minutes — but soon enough calls a halt to the flight of the Fellowship to tend Frodo’s wound. “We have done nothing to ease you, as we ought, though all the Orcs of Moria were after us,” he tells the Hobbit. Clearly by now Aragorn’s concern is for more than just the Ring. And yet, we never really get to see Aragorn relax with Frodo. They are soon parted and driven on to fulfill their roles in the coming war. Aragorn’s one lazy scene befalls in Isengard, where he, Legolas, Gimli, Merry, and Pippin relax and share a meal amid the ruins of Saruman’s dreams.
There is so much story to tell that one cannot but look at it and concede most of the little moments will fall by the wayside. Even some of the intense drama will be cut from the original story in order to preserve a sense of coherency for the film-story which must be told. So the audience will have to get to know a different Aragorn, and yet the critics will howl with rage if he is not identifiably similar to Tolkien’s Aragorn.
This is the man who would be king for all the right reasons, and the king who would gladly give up his life for all the right people. He is a warrior, a wanderer, a story-teller, path-finder, a loyal and trusted friend and ally, and a man of ambition, ruthless when dealing with his enemies in battle, yet tempered by compassion even for the Orcs of Isengard, whom he warns to leave Helm’s Deep before they are destroyed. Why should Aragorn leap up on the walls of Helm’s Deep and look out upon the enemy warriors massed below him, if not to show them some mercy? He knows it is not his time to die. He has great faith in Gandalf, and in the valor and courage of the Rohirrim, among whom he has lived in years past.
Aragorn in fact has more confidence in those around him than he has in himself. Tolkien does a fantastic job of showing how his character’s doubts rise up every now and then. Aragorn is not overwhelmed by his flaws. He seems to be comfortable with them. He has long lived with the knowledge that he alone cannot defeat Sauron and that he needs help. But he finds himself set adrift in a position of responsibility sooner than he expects. Should he go after Frodo and leave Merry and Pippin to the mercy of Saruman’s Orcs, or should he trust in Fate and the determination of Hobbits and leave the Quest to the Ringbearer?
In the book Aragorn chooses the path where his help seems less likely to affect the outcome of the war, but he chooses to give his help where it is most needed. The Aragorn of the film version will have to do the same, but will he seem as sincere? Will he move through the moment of personal growth and emerge a stronger character for it, or will he seem shallow and robotic? That’s not so much in Viggo’s hands as it is in the script’s foreshadowing of the moment. How many times will we see Aragorn revealing his uncertainty in “The Fellowship of the Ring”?
The choice to follow the Orcs or the Ring is a moment of crisis for Aragorn in several ways. He himself has rejected the Ring, long before, and is at peace with his choice. But he knows what happened between Boromir and Frodo. Are Legolas and Gimli also at risk? They seem too noble, too selfless to be tempted by the Ring, but already they have come further than they had agreed to in the first place. What doubts which might be gnawing at them would the Ring be able to use against their own selfless natures? It was a grave peril even to the greatest among the Elves who well knew its power.
And Frodo’s immediate safety seems assured, whereas the Orcs who carried off Merry and Pippin might learn all manner of secrets from them, such as who held the Ring, and where he was going, and who travelled with the Ringbearer. How much less alarming would Aragorn’s eventual revelation of himself to Sauron be if the Enemy learns of him from Orcs returning from a successful raid, rather than after Aragorn peers through a Palantir formerly held by Saruman?
There will probably be no projections of Aragorn’s thoughts in “The Two Towers” movie as he struggles to decide which path he must take. Viggo will have had plenty of time to show the audience that he is a warrior in “The Fellowship of the Ring”, but will the script have given him the opportunity to show that Aragorn is still coming to grips with who he is and who he must be? Sean Bean will be lucky if the costuming department doesn’t put him in a red shirt. Poor Boromir has so little to do until he tries to take the Ring, and then he goes on to face dozens of Orcs all by himself. Wouldn’t it be great to see his last battle fully detailed on the screen? There will be no Han Solo swooping in to drive Darth Vader off his tail. Bean’s moment will come when Boromir is all that stands between Saruman’s soldiers and two desperate Hobbits.
But when will Aragorn’s moment come? When he gets off the ship and meets Eomer (hopefully) in the midst of battle? When he sits on the throne at the Field of Cormallen and honors Frodo and Sam? When he marries Arwen? To be honest, I think Aragorn’s moment comes early in The Two Towers: when he finds Boromir and learns of what has befallen, and instead of pursuing the Orcs takes time out to tend the fallen warrior; and when he decides in the one brief moment of crisis to follow the Orcs instead of the Ring.
Aragorn’s life leads up to those two decisions. They show that he puts people first, but they also show that he is not consumed with putting himself first. He has somewhere (in a story never told) learned to trust others. Until now other people have been trusting Aragorn: Frodo trusts him to get them safely to Rivendell; Gandalf trusts him to lead the party over the Redhorn Pass in the midst of winter. And when Gandalf is lost in Moria the others trust him to lead them to safety without question.
So it’s a crucial moment when Aragorn must choose between doing everything for the Quest himself and trusting to others to complete it. Though it wasn’t his intention to go all the way to Mordor originally, after Gandalf’s death Aragorn feels constrained to see that the Quest was completed. How can he do that? He has no real knowledge of Mordor itself, nor any means of forcing or persuading Frodo to destroy the Ring once they get that far.
It’s not his Quest anyway. The Ring is not Aragorn’s responsibility. His role is different from Frodo’s and it takes a certain humility to realize that. Denethor fails to accept that his part in the war is not to hold the Ring but rather to serve as a distraction. It is beneath Denethor’s dignity to be a decoy but not beneath Aragorn’s. Aragorn embraces the challenge of pretending to be the claimant to the Ring. Denethor flees from it.
And therein lies the great challenge for Viggo and Peter: to raise Aragorn to the status of a lead character while portraying him as Tolkien’s self-humbling hero. He cannot be a sacrificial Christ-like figure, but must be a warrior and a rascal. He must have the endearing qualities of the well-travelled advisor, and the reassuring air of the valiant hero. Yet the audience must know he’s not perfect without being led to believe he is a rogue or anti-hero. Aragorn is innately good, as good as any man can be who chooses to do what’s right for others over advancing his own ambitions.
But he is ambitious. He is dedicated, determined, and sure of what he wants though he has no idea of how to achieve his goal. He is neither naive nor ruthless. He does not wallow in bitterness or self-deprecation. Aragorn is the flower about to bloom, the young buck about to take charge of the herd, the long lost prince who is about to come into his own. He’s like no man you or I have ever known, but he is like every man should be. He’s smart and yet he can be outwitted (as Gollum persistently eludes him). He is brave and yet he can be daunted (as when he travels uncertainly down the Anduin, plagued by doubts and fears over the consequences of the choices he must make).
In the final analysis, Aragorn’s role is pivotal in Tolkien’s story because he is always where he needs to be, setting into motion events he cannot guarantee will turn out the way he wants; ensuring that others complete their tasks; supporting others such as Theoden and Frodo when their needs are greater than his own. He is Aragorn, Middle-earth’s handyman. He makes few mistakes but he learns from them. Yet he comes so perilously close to making other mistakes that he comes across as a very realistic character.
Peter Jackson could have picked a worse lead for the trilogy. He could have shown the story from Sam’s perspective, and had Rosie Cotton chasing Sam all over the landscape. And then we’d have to ask, why is Sam in this movie? I don’t think we’ll be asking that about Aragorn, but the greatest danger for the character is that too much will have been cut for his choices to seem believable.
This article was originally published on March 10, 2000.
