Tony Meade
Active Member
Going back through the end of "Many Meetings" and into "The Council of Elrond", I noticed something about the names used by Aragorn that seems significant, though I'm not sure what exactly that significance is.
At the end of the scene in the Hall of Fire, as Frodo and Bilbo are leaving, Frodo sees a vision of Elrond, Arwen, and Aragorn from the threshold, and he is struck by the sight of Aragorn. What is significant about this is that it is the first moment that the narrator uses the name Aragorn in the text. Gandalf, Glorfindel, and Strider himself have all used the name Aragorn in dialogue, but up until this point, the narrator has referred to him exclusively as Strider, just like Frodo. The narrator then briefly code-switches back to using Strider at the beginning of the Council, when he is again dressed in his traveling clothes, but permanently code-switches to Aragorn at the moment when he casts the broken sword on the table and addresses Boromir.
What are we to take from these naming conventions? Since we assume that the majority of this text is written by Frodo, it might make some sense to assume that these are moments when he actually changes his view of Aragorn from the rascally Ranger called Strider to Aragorn, son of Arathorn. That works, except that it doesn't take into account the fact that he and the other three hobbits will continue calling him Strider in dialogue for the remainder of the story. May we suspect that this is an editing decision by Findegil? The thematic shifts in the use of his names are clear, but the in-story reasoning is unclear.
Any thoughts?
At the end of the scene in the Hall of Fire, as Frodo and Bilbo are leaving, Frodo sees a vision of Elrond, Arwen, and Aragorn from the threshold, and he is struck by the sight of Aragorn. What is significant about this is that it is the first moment that the narrator uses the name Aragorn in the text. Gandalf, Glorfindel, and Strider himself have all used the name Aragorn in dialogue, but up until this point, the narrator has referred to him exclusively as Strider, just like Frodo. The narrator then briefly code-switches back to using Strider at the beginning of the Council, when he is again dressed in his traveling clothes, but permanently code-switches to Aragorn at the moment when he casts the broken sword on the table and addresses Boromir.
What are we to take from these naming conventions? Since we assume that the majority of this text is written by Frodo, it might make some sense to assume that these are moments when he actually changes his view of Aragorn from the rascally Ranger called Strider to Aragorn, son of Arathorn. That works, except that it doesn't take into account the fact that he and the other three hobbits will continue calling him Strider in dialogue for the remainder of the story. May we suspect that this is an editing decision by Findegil? The thematic shifts in the use of his names are clear, but the in-story reasoning is unclear.
Any thoughts?