most people do not fully understand why i like lord of the rings so much, and generally attribute it to me being a total geek. whether i am a geek or not can be debated, but that is not the reason.
i could speak about how grand the world is or how richly the cultures, languages, and way of life were created by tolkien, or how in depth the history of middle-earth was and how many events in lord of the rings could be explained by previous historical events from the hobbit or the silmarillion, or how it is the perfect story of good triumphing over evil. but as amazing as all these things are, the real reason is because the story of middle-earth is the gospel. most people think that the most important character of the lord of the rings is frodo, and to a certain degree that is true. frodo experienced pain and torment through the one ring and ultimately encountering sauron, but his final triumphant destruction of the ring may overshadow everything that aragorn had done.
aragorn is the most incredible character in the lord of the rings, and arguably the most incredible character in the entire middle-earth. he has been in countless times where he's had to question who he is. and he would eventually accept his identity and rise up to live it out.
aragorn was the son of arathorn, the surviving descendants of elendil and heir to both gondor and arnor. his father arathorn was killed by an orc ambush and aragorn became the sole heir at a young age. aragorn was then sent to rivendell to be raised by elrond. his mother gilraen decides that his lineage should be hidden from him until he comes of age so as to protect the last living heir. so he was given the name "estel" which means "hope". aragorn was to be the hope of men. at age 20, elrond revealed his true name and lineage to him, and gave him two artifacts: the ring of barahir (ancient artifact signifying lineage) and the shards of the sword narsil, which belonged to isildur his ancestor, used to cut the one ring off of sauron's hand. more importantly, he learned that he descended from a line of ancient kings of men. aragorn descended from the line of numenor, blessed with strength, wisdom, resilience, and long life. but elrond withheld the sceptre of annuminas from him. he will only receive the sceptre when he earned the right to possess it as the king.
a man can be told they are a king. but will he choose to live as a king?
after this, aragorn masked his identity and dedicated many years in the wilderness to train and fight against evil. he served thengel the father of theoden in rohan. he served ecthelion the father of denethor in gondor. he met gandalf and had many adventures together, eventually leading the dunedain (rangers of the north) to guard the borders of the shire to protect the hobbits. eventually his ultimate mission was placed upon him to join the fellowship of the ring and aid the ringbearer in his quest. the rest of that story should be familiar to most people, but i want to highlight a few things that most people would completely miss.
a pivotal event in the lord of the rings was aragorn's decision to take the paths of the dead and summon the dead men of dunharrow. these men had promised isildur many years ago that they would come to his aid when he calls. but when isildur called in his dire need, they abandoned him. so isildur cursed them and they would never find peace until they repaid their debt to the heir of isildur. we all know that summoning the dead men of dunharrow completely turned the tides of the battle at minas tirith. but what do you think aragorn was thinking? was this going to WORK? will these dead people honour their debt?
and ultimately, am i really the heir of isildur?
a second event was aragorn's use of the palantir (seeing stone) to look for sauron the enemy. there he showed his enemy that the heir of isildur was still alive, and that he wielded the sword that cut the one ring off his finger. this served as a distraction to frodo who was bringing the ring closer and closer to mount doom. he followed this up with the final battle to fight sauron right at the black gate. at the enemy's own front door.
will sauron take the bait? did sauron truly know the worth of the heir of isildur?
at the conclusion of the final battle, aragorn claims his kingship of gondor and arnor, and he is crowned with an ancient crown, given the sceptre of annuminas and the elfstone elessar, all of which finally signifies his kingship.
the person of aragorn is about identity, which has been an ultimate question for me, and why i've related so much to his character. do you know who you are? do you know that you are an heir of God and co-heirs with Christ? if you finally know that in your heart, then will you rise up and live in that identity?
1 comment:
wow... i loved reading this post. and though not teary eyed i knew it was swelling behind, because i can sense the importance of this message in general, and as well its meaning for you in particular.
"and ultimately, am i really the heir of isildur?"
what a great question. the question of identity, it is indeed one of the most significant we need ask.
been memorizing these verses lately:
GALATIANS 4:4-6
God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, SO THAT WE MIGHT RECEIVE ADOPTION AS SONS 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
EPHESIANS 1:15-22 (18-20 excerpted)
that you may know what is the HOPE to which he has called you, what are the RICHES of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable GREATNESS of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he RAISED HIM from the dead
If we truly believed this, how different our lives will be.
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