Kate Neville
Well-Known Member
As I said elsewhere, I was reading LotR for 10 years before the publication of The Silmarillion, so I spent a lot of time going over the Appendices and have built up a personal headcanon of what people were doing in the 'between times.'
This I have gleaned from Appendix A:
During the reign of Theoden's and Denethor's fathers, Aragorn served Rohan and Gondor under the name Thorongil.
He left Gondor while Echthelion still ruled: "Though none could guess what those tasks might be, nor what summons he had received, it was known whither he went. For he took boat and crossed over Anduin, and there he said farewell to his companions and went on alone; and when he was last seen his face was towards the Mountains of Shadow."
The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen says, "then in the hour of victory he passed out of the knowledge of Men of the West, and went alone far into the East and deep into the South, exploring the hearts of Men, both evil and good, and uncovering the plots and devices of the servants of Sauron."
None of this is precise. Aragorn's 'errantry' was between 2957-2980, and he must have spent at least 5 of those 23 years "exploring the hearts of Men." We know he'd been far enough south to see different constellations, but it is also possible that he went South before he ever went into service with Rohan. As the last thing he did for Gondor was lead a raid on Umbar, it seems likely to me that he'd scoped out the Southrons early on in his journeying.
I think that his last undertaking, after he left Gondor, was to go East, and that his trip into the Morgul Vale in search of Gollum was not his first. I offer in support of this what is found later in the Tale of A&A: "It came to pass that when Aragorn was nine and forty years of age he returned from perils on the dark confines of Mordor, where Sauron now dwelt again and was busy with evil. He was weary and he wished to go back to Rivendell and rest there for a while ere he journeyed into the far countries; and on his way he came to the borders of Lórien and was admitted to the hidden land by the Lady Galadriel."
My headcanon then is that Aragorn began his errantry by exploring the South -- where many Numenoreans had settled long ago in the Second Age -- then served first Thengel (getting to know Gondor's chief ally) for 5-6 years, and Ecthelion for another 6-7 years, after which he took on the more dangerous exploration of the East, including Mordor. Whether he ran into Nazgul before 2980 or while tracking Gollum, he certainly had enough experience to know "they are terrible!"
And as an aside: I'd already read most of the Sherlock Holmes stories and quite a bit of Agatha Christie before I found Middle-earth. When I read "the deadly flowers of Morgul Vale" I thought of the deadly nightshade, a sometime source of poison in detective fiction. Oddly enough, it's also known as Belladonna.
This I have gleaned from Appendix A:
During the reign of Theoden's and Denethor's fathers, Aragorn served Rohan and Gondor under the name Thorongil.
He left Gondor while Echthelion still ruled: "Though none could guess what those tasks might be, nor what summons he had received, it was known whither he went. For he took boat and crossed over Anduin, and there he said farewell to his companions and went on alone; and when he was last seen his face was towards the Mountains of Shadow."
The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen says, "then in the hour of victory he passed out of the knowledge of Men of the West, and went alone far into the East and deep into the South, exploring the hearts of Men, both evil and good, and uncovering the plots and devices of the servants of Sauron."
None of this is precise. Aragorn's 'errantry' was between 2957-2980, and he must have spent at least 5 of those 23 years "exploring the hearts of Men." We know he'd been far enough south to see different constellations, but it is also possible that he went South before he ever went into service with Rohan. As the last thing he did for Gondor was lead a raid on Umbar, it seems likely to me that he'd scoped out the Southrons early on in his journeying.
I think that his last undertaking, after he left Gondor, was to go East, and that his trip into the Morgul Vale in search of Gollum was not his first. I offer in support of this what is found later in the Tale of A&A: "It came to pass that when Aragorn was nine and forty years of age he returned from perils on the dark confines of Mordor, where Sauron now dwelt again and was busy with evil. He was weary and he wished to go back to Rivendell and rest there for a while ere he journeyed into the far countries; and on his way he came to the borders of Lórien and was admitted to the hidden land by the Lady Galadriel."
My headcanon then is that Aragorn began his errantry by exploring the South -- where many Numenoreans had settled long ago in the Second Age -- then served first Thengel (getting to know Gondor's chief ally) for 5-6 years, and Ecthelion for another 6-7 years, after which he took on the more dangerous exploration of the East, including Mordor. Whether he ran into Nazgul before 2980 or while tracking Gollum, he certainly had enough experience to know "they are terrible!"
And as an aside: I'd already read most of the Sherlock Holmes stories and quite a bit of Agatha Christie before I found Middle-earth. When I read "the deadly flowers of Morgul Vale" I thought of the deadly nightshade, a sometime source of poison in detective fiction. Oddly enough, it's also known as Belladonna.