Did we miss Aragorn's vision of kingship?

MattfromWI

New Member
I am one of the many, I'm sure, who is working feverishly to catch up. I just finished Episode 138, in which you and the group discuss the exchange between Aragorn and Boromir (the first one) during the Council of Elrond. In your discussion of Aragorn "casting" his sword on the table and in the parsing of Boromir's proud response, I wonder if we missed learning something essential about Aragorn: his vision of Kingship. I have also posted this in the forum for the other students, but wanted Corey's interpretation as well, because I think what Aragorn proposes to Boromir aligns with a medieval conception of kingship where the King is essential to the well-being of the land and people of a Kingdom.

Consider that Aragorn is the first to respond to Boromir during the Council of Elrond. "He cast his sword upon the table that stood before Elrond, and the blade was in two pieces. ‘Here is the Sword that was Broken!’ he said." Boromir then expresses his fear and confusion: “Is then the doom of Minas Tirith come at last? But why then should we seek a broken sword?” These are good questions, and again is the first to respond to Boromir.

‘The words were not the doom of Minas Tirith,’ said Aragorn. ‘But doom and great deeds are indeed at hand. For the Sword that was Broken is the Sword of Elendil that broke beneath him when he fell. It has been treasured by his heirs when all other heirlooms were lost; for it was spoken of old among us that it should be made again when the Ring, Isildur’s Bane, was found. Now you have seen the sword that you have sought, what would you ask? Do you wish for the House of Elendil to return to the Land of Gondor?

In a sense, Aragorn’s response is comforting. The poem does not mean the doom of Minas Tirith in the sense of “the end of Minas Tirith,” but rather that the time has come for great decisions that will change Minas Tirith. The doom of Minas Tirith is a judgement or a fate. Yet Aragorn still asks a very hard question, “Do you wish for the House of Elendil to return to the Land of Gondor?” What does Aragorn mean by this? Is he testing Boromir, to see if he (Boromir) would accept his claim to the throne? Is he asking Boromir to show a sign that he would acknowledge Aragorn as his King? Is he asking whether, having found the sword that was broken, Boromir would accept it’s help knowing that it “comes packaged with” (as it were) a claimant to the throne?

I believe that Aragorn is actually making an offer here. From the beginning of this exchange--which started after Boromir recited his poem and eloquently summed up Gondor’s desperate plight--Aragorn has been offering himself to the service of Gondor. When he first reveals the Sword that was Broken, he “cast” it on the table. He didn’t set it there gently; he didn’t sweep aside his cloak to show it hanging at his side; he cast it upon the table as if to say, “here is the Sword that was Broken, and I am it’s wielder. Will you have us?”

When he answers Boromir’s doubt, Aragorn also emphasizes the responsibility that comes with being the heir of both Isildur and Elendil by describing “the Sword that was Broken [as] the Sword of Elendil that broke beneath him when he fell,” not the Sword that Isildur used to defeat Sauron originally. Aragorn is not emphasizing the victory of the Last Alliance (which Elrond earlier called “fruitless”), he is emphasizing that Elendil’s quest is unfinished. It is part of his offer to Gondor (through Boromir) to finish that task and defeat their greatest enemy.

And when Aragorn gets to those final questions, “what would you ask? Do you wish for the House of Elendil to return to the Land of Gondor?” he even avoids personalizing it to himself. He doesn’t ask, “Would you like me, Aragorn son of Arathorn, to return to the land to whose Kingship I am heir?” He asks if Boromir wishes for the “House of Elendil” to return. He’s not asking if Boromir would like Aragorn to be his King, he’s asking Boromir wants the Land of Gondor to have a King again. That is a much bigger question.

In this interpretation it is clear that Aragorn does not think of the kingship as a right to be claimed. He is not challenging Boromir with his claim, or even suggesting that Boromir take him as lord. Aragorn is offering a different vision of Kingship, where the King renews the Kingdom rather than demands fealty. In fact, when he declares himself to Boromir, Aragorn offers comfort (“The words were not the doom of Minas Tirith) rather than demand acknowledgement. In this first exchange with Boromir, he is acting as a caretaker rather than a lord. He is acting like the King who who will bring healing later to the victims of battle and to the whole kingdom.

Could it be that Aragorn has always intended to restore the Kingship of Elendil--not as his right (as the heir to Elendil), but out of his love for the Kingdom? Does Aragorn recognize that he is actually is Gondor’s “hail mary” in this situation, the one person who can return a King to the land, finish Elendil’s task and end Gondor’s greatest threat, and renew the Kingdom.
 
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Could it be that Aragorn has always intended to restore the Kingship of Elendil--not as his right (as the heir to Elendil), but out of his love for the Kingdom? Does Aragorn recognize that he is actually is Gondor’s “hail mary” in this situation, the one person who can return a King to the land, finish Elendil’s task and end Gondor’s greatest threat, and renew the Kingdom.

I think you are right about Aragorn's view of the Kingship. But he also knows - as does Elrond - that if the Kingship is to be restored, it will be done by Aragorn. He always has a sense of his peculiar fate, I think, and we will see this grow as he gets close to Gondor and Minas Tirith, beginning as early as in the boat from Lorien, as he begins to stake his claim.
 
We should also remember that Aragorn is hearing the dream of Boromir for the first time. He already knew about the Ring and what its 'sudden' appearance in the hand of a hobbit means for the war against Sauron, but the words of that dream clearly tie his desire to restore Elendil's kingdom to the fate of the Ring. And so the reforging of the Sword That Was Broken becomes a promise, or a prayer, for the reforging of the broken kingdom of Arnor and Gondor. His fate is not to be the Ringbearer, but the Swordbearer.

And, of course, a sword is a symbol of the responsibility to defend and preserve -- and for Christians, a sword also bears the image of the cross, and so should remind the bearer of his duty to lay down his life for the weak and defenseless.
 
Thanks all for responding! I wrote this too soon, a bit--in subsequent episodes Corey and the group did distinguish that Aragorn is being Kingly by prioritizing the salvation of Gondor, and is expressly NOT pursuing a crown.

(I mean, he probably wants a crown so he can wed Arwen, but his purpose seems to be the salvation and he seems almost indifferent to the crown. He declares that he'll come to Minas Tirith to bring the Sword of Elendil--he doesn't even mention the crown).
 
I was thinking about this discussion yesterday and realized that if Aragorn doesn't become King, the Kingship will never be restored because the line of Isildur will die out. He needs to become King to marry Arwen and have children.

He tells Frodo in Bree that his story is wound up with Frodo's errand. There are some things we do in life that are not just for ourselves, but for the generations past and yet to be as well. There are all the generations of kings in exile involved in this quest for him. The dream poem is a call for him, a sign that the time is near. Think of the courage it took for him to swear to Frodo that if he can save Frodo by his life or death, he will, knowing all that that means for the world as well as for him.
 
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