Accordingly, when asked by Celeborn during their farewells whether they are all going with Boromir,
Aragorn can only answer, "We have not decided our course ... I do not know what Gandalf intended to do." Boromir speaks up for the route to his city but "the others said nothing, and Aragorn looked doubtful and troubled." Celeborn carefully refrains from influencing them and instead gives them boats in which to float south downriver, a method of travel which Aragorn welcomes "not least because there would now be no need to decide his course for some days. The others, too, looked more hopeful." They leave with Celeborn's warning ringing in their ears that in the end they will have to face up to a choice, though Galadriel thinks perhaps the path of each one is already laid out for him without his seeing it yet.
They all live with the dilemma for many days during the voyage down Anduin, coming to no conclusions and hoping for outer events to give them a sign, until they reach the meadows at Parth Galen above the falls of Rauros. There Aragorn calls them together and, not voicing any preference of his own, puts the question to all: "What shall now become of our Company that has travelled so far in fellowship?" Shall all go to Mordor, all go to Minas Tirith, or some to one, some to the other? Nobody has a word to say. Aragorn then lays the burden on Frodo: "You are the Bearer appointed by the Council. Your own way you alone can choose. In this matter I cannot advise you." He thinks that even if Gandalf were present the decision would still be Frodo's. "Such is your fate."
While Frodo walks aside alone for an hour to make up his mind, his companions talk over the situation and make up theirs. They would all prefer to go to Minas Tirith, but if Frodo heads for Mordor now they all think they should go with him. Aragorn then argues that in so desperate a venture a smaller group has a better chance than a larger one, and suggests himself, Sam, and Gimli as companions for Frodo in Mordor. He thereby renounces his opportunity to fight for Gondor's capital, and all that goes with it— Arwen, the throne, the hope of leading an army cleanly against Sauron—for a share in what reason tells him is a hopeless enterprise. He has taken his stand. But he is dealing with a group of free agents who will have none of his proposal to leave them behind. Sam is sure that Frodo is screwing up his courage to go directly to Mordor as he knows he should. Pippin is all for stopping him. But Aragorn stands by a basically religious conviction that they not only should not but cannot force Frodo in either direction. "There are other powers at work far stronger."
In this he happens to be right, for at that moment Sauron and Gandalf are contending for Frodo's soul on the summit of Amon Hen. Frodo's resolve to steal away secretly from his companions to almost certain death in Mordor is his moral salvation, but his disappearance throws them into a confusion which Aragorn's best efforts cannot control. As they scatter in all directions he runs to the top of the mound to scan the surroundings, only to find that this move puts him too far away to help Boromir hold off the ores who are carrying off Pippin and Merry, too late to save Boromir's life or share his death. Aragorn suffers a stab of self-blame even before Boromir dies: "Alas! An ill fate is on me this day, and all that I do goes amiss." When Boromir dies in his arms confessing failure and begging him to save Minas Tirith, this pain deepens into an anguish in which he holds himself responsible for what he considers the whole sorry collapse of his leadership: "This is a bitter end. Now the Company is all in ruin. It is I that have failed. Vain was Gandalf's trust in me. What shall I do now? Boromir has laid it on me to go to Minas Tirith, and my heart desires it; but where are the Ring and the Bearer? How shall I find them and save the Quest from disaster?"
Typically, Aragorn shifts none of the blame to Boromir, whose sincere repentence and heroic death in battle with the ores completely redeem him in Aragorn's eyes. His grief for the fallen man is notably tender and generous, his funeral lament heavy with a sense of loss. It is much more than a conventional elegy for a brave stranger. Boromir was a subject of Aragorn's, and died on a mission to save the city they both love. The farewell song does not try to invest the dead man with virtues he never had but simply pictures the sorrow of the people of Minas Tirith as they wait in vain for the return of the captain they hold dear. After the burial, however, Aragorn does not let the pain of his self-reproach undo the mastery of his will over emotion or cloud the powers of observation and deduction by which he unravels the whereabouts of the other members of the expedition. Once these are known it is clear to him that his choice is either to take the remaining boat and follow Frodo into Mordor or else to pursue the ores on foot. Aragorn does not ask the opinions of Legolas and Gimli but makes the decision for all: "Let me think! . . . And now may I make a right choice, and change the evil fate of this unhappy day! ... I will follow the Ores." He would have gone with Frodo and Sam into Mordor but the Ring-bearer has decided otherwise. He cannot abandon the other two hobbits to torment and death. "My heart speaks clearly at last." He does not even mention Minas Tirith, where his personal advantage calls him to go.
As the pursuit begins, Aragorn shows again his appreciation of the ties binding different intelligent species together that will make him a trusted King. He knows how to bend to him his companion elf and dwarf: "We will make such a chase as shall be accounted a marvel among the Three Kindreds: Elves, Dwarves, and Men." This is the same breadth of understanding that will emerge in his statement to Éomer of the great moral imperative of Middle-earth: "Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men." Aragorn seems to have risen from his crisis of self-confidence all the stronger on its account, for when Gimli and Legolas cannot agree on the advisability of resting at night during the pursuit they spontaneously leave the matter up to him. He settles it neatly. When across the plains of Rohan he catches sight of the White Mountains beckoning him south to Minas Tirith, he has no trouble turning his eyes away.
The meeting with Éomer and his troop just returning from wiping out the ores Aragorn also handles with great skill. He understands the Rohirrim well, having ridden anonymously in their ranks many years before: "They are proud and wilful," he has told Gimli, "but they are true-hearted, generous in thought and deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned . .." The touchiness of his two companions at a slur against Galadriel's reputation almost precipitates a suicidal fight with the suspicious Riders of Rohan, but Aragorn springs between with a timely apology. Challenged to give his true name, he responds with one of those magnificent roll calls of his royal titles which sometimes blaze from him. He draws Anduril, shouting his battle cry: "Elendil! ... I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dunadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again!" He takes the offensive, "Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!" With the bold be bold. The stance he takes appeals perfectly to the warrior Rohirrim. Corner is impressed, even awed enough to accept the identification claimed and thereafter to listen to Aragorn's inquiries and news with the respect due to a man of royal blood, the more so since he finds Aragorn condemning the neutralist policy that King Théoden has adopted toward Sauron and which he himself thinks wrong. Aragorn gives him a message to Théoden as from one king to another: "You may say this to Théoden son of Thengel: open war lies before him, with Sauron or against him . . . But of these great matters we will speak later. If chance allows, I myself will come to the king." After hearing about the alliance being formed against Sauron, and the loss sustained in the deaths of Boromir and Gandalf,
Éomer begs him to come straight to Théoden as the present law of Rohan demands of all visitors. But Aragorn's insistence that he will fight the whole band if necessary to continue his search for the hobbits wins from Éomer permission to pass, together with a loan of prized horses, in exchange for a promise to come to court immediately afterward. Éomer risks his rank as Marshal, and perhaps his life, in going so far.
Éomer is moved by more than mere considerations of policy; he is moved by affection. He will tell Ar
agorn at the climax of events that he had loved him ever "since you rose up out of the grass before me." This love is reciprocated. Aragorn, looking after Éomer, Merry, and Théoden as they ride away from Helm's Deep some days afterward, tells his kinsman Halbarad, "There go three that I love." In this first encounter with Éomer Aragorn gains a close friend and ally who will become King of Rohan in the battle of the Pelennor Fields and will unhesitatingly support his title to the crown of Gondor. He also begins the realignment of Rohan against Mordor, which is soon to be completed by Gandalf in person.
It would be improper for Aragorn to thrust himself into the limelight in the scenes at Edoras and Helm's Deep, and he holds himself in the background with reserved power. The awakening of Théoden to Saruman's treachery belongs to Gandalf, who has uncovered it. Aragorn does no more than make known to the Rohirrim almost casually that he is Elendil's heir wearing Elendil's sword. The defense of Helm's Deep against Saruman's armies belongs to Théoden and his thanes. Aragorn merely lends the weight of his arm to repelling attacks on the walls and to leading sorties with Éomer. He does not try to be more than a hard-fighting ally who knows his place. At only one point, on an errand of mercy, does he step out of that subordinate role to stand alone upon the battlements at dawn and warn the enemy, "Depart, or not one of you will be spared . . . You do not know your peril." He is giving the enemy, particularly the hillmen in their ranks, a last chance to escape. His senses as a Ranger tell him that Fangorn huorns, which will engulf them, are already arriving. At Isengard he takes no prominent part either. While the royal party goes off to survey the ruins he stays behind for a friendly chat with Merry and Pippin and, invited by Gandalf to broaden his experience by listening to the wiles of the captured Saruman, he listens without a word.
Aragorn begins to stir with the recovery of the Palantír of Orthanc, which is his by right of inheritance from Elendil. When Gandalf offers it to him merely for safekeeping since it is a "dangerous charge," he asserts his title to it as the rightful owner: "Dangerous indeed, but not to all. There is one who may claim it by right .... Now my hour draws near. I will take it." Acknowledging the claim, Gandalf hands it to him with a bow and respectful caution: "Receive it, lord, in earnest of other things that will be given back. But if I may counsel you in the use of your own do not use it—yet! Be wary!" Gandalf distrusts his own strength to challenge Sauron by looking into the Palantír which Sauron has warped to his own uses, and thinks its possession should be kept secret. Aragorn thinks otherwise. When he is joined that same night by his band of Dúnedain from the North bearing a hand-woven banner and message from Arwen, and by the two sons of Elrond reminding him of the prophecy that he must summon the faithless dead to his aid, he decides to disregard Gandalf's advice. After a struggle of wills he breaks Sauron's hold over the Palantír and purposely reveals himself as Elendil's heir about to take the throne of Gondor. His aim of alarming Sauron is fulfilled. Remembering his defeat by Elendil, the enemy hurries to launch his attack on Gondor before it is quite ready. This anxiety and haste make possible his repulse. Most important, they keep Sauron from discovering that Frodo and Sam are slipping quietly into Mordor under his very eyes.
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 hi
m. 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.
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