Aragorn the Barbarian

Two strands of fantasy are not so far apart

I read J. R.R. Tolkien years before Michael Moorcock told me to hate J. R. R. Tolkien. I like both Tolkien and Robert E. Howard, some don’t.

L. Sprague de Camp had met Tolkien in the late 60s. He had sent Tolkien a copy of the anthology Swords & Sorcery (Pyramid Books, 1963). Tolkien did not care for some of the contents but “rather liked’ the Conan story in the book.

If a reader of Lord of the Rings takes the time to read the appendices in the back of The Return of the King and then tackles The Silmarillion, you will see, there is not an especially great distance between J. R. R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard.

Take the case of Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings. This is the reader’s first introduction to Aragorn:

“Suddenly Frodo noticed that a strange-looking weather-beaten man, sitting the shadows near the wall, was also listening to the hobbit-talk. He had a tall tankard in front of him, and was smoking a long-stemmed pipe curiously carved. His legs were stretch out before him, showing high boots of supple leather that fitted him well, but had seen much wear and were now caked with mud. A travel-stained cloak of heavy dark-green cloth was drawn close about hi, in spite of the heat of the room he wore a hood that overshadowed his face; but the gleam of his eyes could be seen as he watched the hobbits.”

Gandalf’s letter to Frodo describes Aragorn as “lean, dark, tall.” Tolkien described Aragorn as ”lean, dark, and tall, with a shaggy head of dark hair flecked with grey, and in a pale stern face a pair of keen grey eyes.”

Here is the very first description of Conan of Cimmeria from “The Phoenix on the Sword”:

“Behind an ivory, gold- inlaid writing-table sat a man whose broad shoulders and sun-browned skin seemed out of place among those luxuriant surroundings. He seemed more a part of the sun and winds and high places of the outlands. . . He wore no ring or ornaments, and his square-cut black mane was confined merely by a cloth-of- silver band about his head.”

Conan and Aragorn are tall, have dark hair and light eyes. Both bear the mark of living outside in the wild.

Aragorn is the descendant of Isildur and the kings of Arnor, of Numenorean blood, ultimately descended from Beor and Hador in the First Age. Indeed the houses of men in The Silmarillion are barbarians themselves.

Aragorn may have an impressive bloodline but he is little more than a barbarian himself. The northern kingdom of Arnor collapsed fifteen generations earlier. Aragorn is the chieftain of the remnants of the Dunedain who live a precarious existence fighting wolves, trolls, orcs.

Aragorn spent thirty years as a man of action:

“He rode in host of the Rohirrim, and fought for the Lord of Gondor by land and by sea; and 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.”

One of Aragorn’s exploits were as Thorongil serving the Steward Ecthelion II of Gondor. Aragorn lead a fleet to Umbar for a raid where he burned a great part of the Umbar fleet. Aragorn himself “overthrew” the Captain of the Haven of the Corsairs.

So you have exceedingly competent man serving in foreign armies and making intelligence forays into the heart of enemy territory.

Aragorn himself said “I am but the heir of Isildur, not Isildur himself. I have had a hard life:”

Aragorn may be the heir of Arnor and Gondor but the kingship does not fall into his lap. He made himself king in a time of strife as did Conan.

Tolkien saw something reading “Shadow in the Moonlight” in Swords & Sorcery, a sort of kinship between his Chieftain of the Dunedain and a barbarian from Cimmeria who makes himself king

.