The Riddles of Aragorn # 2: Aragorn The Leader

Aragorn leading the Gray Company and the Shadow Host
through the Paths of the Dead.

''Not all who wander are lost."

Although it can be sometimes hard to spot, there is a difference between being chosen to be a leader, and always seeking to be a leader. Aragorn falls into that rare category of men who, although he is a leader, does not often put himself forward as one, letting the people (whether it be Frodo or King Theoden) decide if they want his aid and skills or if they do not. Even though he is a mighty warrior and has many decades of well-honed survival and leadership skills he rarely flaunts them openly, preferring to be wanted and loved for his own sake and not just because he is good with a sword or can lead fearful men into hellish places and battles.
This is the second main reason why he rejects Eowyn's advances towards him: he knows she does not love him for himself (indeed neither of them hardly knows the other at all) but rather the glory and the power that surround him, and the greatness she could achieve by being with him, instead of always serving her King and guarding the people of Edoras.  After he heals her in Gondor, he says to her brother Eomer: ''Eormer, I say to you that she loves you more truly then me; for you she loves and knows; but in me she loves only a shadow and a thought: a hope of glory and great deeds, and lands far from the fields of Rohan.'' Ages earlier he told the suspicious Hobbits in Bree: ''...I must admit...that I had hoped you would take to me for my own sake. A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship.'' This is Strider the Ranger speaking, and to the hobbits he resembles a vagabond and a thug; his looks are against him because of his many hard journeys, and there is nothing kingly or noble about him when they first meet.
After Gandalf falls in battle with the Balrog in Moria, Aragorn takes up the leadership of the Fellowship, though he is neither pleased nor happy with this turn of events. Here Tolkien allows him to express some of the fear and doubt he has and the internal agony he goes through over choosing which way to go and who to follow after the Fellowship is broken. Even after be becomes leader, he never simply orders the rest of the Company around like he does in the movie; he allows everyone to voice their thoughts and opinions and listens to them before making a final decision.

 Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli on their way
to Minas Tirith via the Anduin river

But as the War of the Ring heats up, Aragorn knows that his hour is coming and slowly his behavior begins to change: he becomes more assertive, more direct and firm in his choices and paths. He slowly leaves his quiet background Ranger mode and starts acting like who he truly is: a leader and a king. Still, he never directly commends anyone to do what he wants, everyone who follows him or does anything for him does so out of their own free will, because, as a heartbroken Eowyn tells him: ''They love thee.'' which is what he wants most of all: to be loved for is own sake and not simply because he is a great warrior or a king. It is the virtues within him that draw people to him, and when sword-skill and leadership are added to this, then Theoden and Eomer and their people know that here is a man who will do everything in his power to fight with them against the treachery of Sauruman and the malice of Sauron. And he does. The chapter ''The Passing of the Gray Company'' in The Return of the King is the most telling one about the kind of person Aragorn is, not only by his words but in his deeds, and the testimonies of those who encounter him. And when he enters the Paths of the Dead, none of the Elves or Rangers or horses or even a terrified Gimli himself turns back. As Gimli tells Merry and Pippen afterward: ''Upon that road I was put to shame: Gimli Gloin's son, who had deemed himself more tough then Men, and hardier under the earth than any Elf. But neither did I prove; and I was held to the road only by the will of Aragorn.''
''And by the love of him also,'' said Legolas. ''For all those who come to know him love him after their
own fashion...In that hour I looked upon Aragorn and thought how great and terrible a Lord he might have become in the strength of his will, had he taken the Ring to himself. Not for naught does Mordor fear him...for is he not of the children of Luthien? Never shall that line fail, though the years lengthen beyond count."

Aragorn with Anduril

After the victory at Minas Tirith, Aragorn, Gandalf, Eomer and Prince Imrahil lead the final remnants of the armies of Gondor, Rohan and Dol Amroth to the Black Gates of Mordor in a great suicidal attempt to cause Sauron to empty his land and unleash the rest of his hordes upon them so Frodo and Sam can reach the Cracks of Doom and keep the Eye turned away from them while they are still alive. Aragorn and the other lords know full-well the irony and folly of this final move: that even if Frodo should destroy the Ring they might all be slain in the meantime in the battle before Mordor's walls.
''As I have begun, so I will go on,'' Aragorn tells the assembled Captains during the last debate. ''Nonetheless I do not yet claim to command any man. Let others choose as they will.''
Again, Aragorn sets aside his right to to command as King, allowing once more others to make their own choices without force or compulsion. None of the Captains refuse to turn away from the deed at hand
but in this dark hour, when 'hope and despair are akin' not all the soldiers from Rohan and Gondor can
bring themselves to go on to the end, for 'these were young men from Rohan, from Westfold far away...
and to them Mordor had been from childhood a name of evil, and yet unreal, a legend that had no part in their simple way of life; and now they walked like men in a hideous dream made true, and they understood not this war nor why fate should lead them to such a pass.' Aragorn is filled with pity rather of anger at their plight and dismisses some of them to go and hold other places against Sauron while the rest march on. They arrive and challenge the Dark Lord, and the Mouth of Sauron mocks Aragorn, saying: ''Is there anyone in this rout with authority to treat with me?...Not thou at least! It needs more to make a king then a piece of Elvish glass, or a rabble such as this. Why, any brigand of the hills can show as good a following.''
Aragorn says nothing to this 'Black Numenorean' but taking the Mouth's eye he shows his power by assaulting the other mentally, perhaps (in my view), showing him an image of himself as he could have been, even as Aragorn secretly is, if he had not renounced his heritage, his faith and history so he could
be Sauron's most trusted Lieutenet; the ambassador of the Dark Tower.
But in the end, the Captains of the West reject the Mouth's terms and the temptation to despair and make ready for their last great battle. The hosts of Mordor surround them and 'fair and desperate was raised the banner of the Tree and Stars' and Aragorn stands beneath it, 'silent and stern, as one lost in though of things long past or far away; but his eyes gleamed like stars that shine the brighter as the night deepens.' Here is where all his struggles and hopes come to an end-point and no more can be done by any of them except wait on the Ringbearer; and he along with Gandalf, Merry, Legolas, Gimli and all their faithful allies prepare to fight to the last, awaiting the final stroke of doom.

 Aragorn at the Black Gate of Mordor

Thus they follow him, even to their own deaths, not because he orders them to, but out of love for him and for Middle-Earth; because he will not fail them; because he is not in it for himself; because he is a real hero - not an anti-hero, not a self-hating/doubt-infested hero full of angst, but the kind of hero no one hardly writes about (or believes in) any more: self-giving: saintly and kingly; more moved to pity then anger, more merciful then judging; fierce in battle and a healer to the suffering; a 'vision of the splendor of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world.'

To be continued...