The realm of novels, trilogies, and fandoms is something that is often considered strictly for geeks and nerds. While a lot of fantasy series have nothing much noteworthy of emulation, J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, is quite pragmatic and inspiring. Aragorn, the protagonist of the movie, is a great man in all senses of the word. Here is why:
1. The nature of his rise to power
Some are born great, some acquire greatness, and greatness is thrust upon some. The Bard may have been apt in saying so, for Aragorn shows all the three characteristics. By virtue of his bloodline, he had the traits of the great Kings of Men that came before him. Throughout the books, as well as in the movies, he is reluctant to step up and claim the throne of Gondor, that by virtue of ancestry was rightfully his.
However, these things did not come easy. He was certainly skilled as one of the best fighters, and perhaps the best swordsman in Middle Earth, but he had to acquire his mastery through years of toil and patience in the forests. He spent much of his life fighting as a nameless soldier in battles and learning in the school of life.
2. The work behind his abilities
As has been written about on ROK several times, every great man had to go through a long phase of learning, toil, and grind. There was a time when Albert Einstein failed in school, and there was a time when Newton was temporarily driven insane by his work. No men are exempt.
Aragorn is no born superman, and had to undergo eight decades of training in combat and lore. Before he basked in the glory and comforts of the Halls of Kings, he spent years wandering in the wild as a ranger. Before he stood in majesty above all of Middle Earth, he was looked down upon with scorn by travelers and non-wanderers alike. Ultimately, it is the toil, the grind, and the years of experience that served his purpose during the war of the ring.
3. His use of mentors to learn about the world
The thought of striking gold on your own is alluring, but most men need a true expert mentor to guide them to the pinnacles of power. Aragorn grew up in Rivendell, with the wise Elf Lord Elrond. Thus from a very early age, he had a guide figure who counseled him, trained him, and kept him in line.
A few years after Aragorn came of age he found Gandalf, and they become close friends. Gandalf, who was one of the most powerful beings in Middle Earth, helped and guided Aragorn. It was Gandalf who devised the entire scheme of affairs to bring Aragorn back to the throne. A trustworthy, wise, and helpful mentor is something that many men lack in their quest for greatness.
4. His relationships with women
It is noted that women seldom occupy a big role in great men’s lives. But in Aragorn’s case, it is the opposite. His great virtue and his lineage drew to him Arwen Evenstar, one of the most beautiful and worthy women on Middle Earth. He understands that as a man of worth and lineage, he deserves even immortal maidens.
This belief in oneself is something characteristic of all great men. When he is faced with the dilemma to ride into the battlefield or stay behind with his love, he chooses the former. He places his goals before any woman’s love. This spirit ultimately wins him the hand of the best woman in Middle Earth.
While great men are usually found in biographies and historical books, it is important to note that certain fictional characters exhibit great virtue as well. If we look hard enough for inspiration, we can often find men of spirit in all spheres of human knowledge.
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5. He is Danish 🙂
6. He had a big sword 🙂
Aragon didn’t need PUA. More emphasis should be given to self realization than chasing women. I think chasing women is how most men (at least initially) attempt to establish their own identity.
Somebody should do an article about Legolas next. “Why Legolas is an effeminate mangina.” Basically GIRLS like Legolas, but WOMEN like Aragorn. That should explain a lot right there about how the female brain operates.
Notice how Legolas gets no adult female attention in both the LOTR trilogy and the Hobbit prequels. Meanwhile, even the masculine little Hobbit Kili gets to mac the tall hot Elves like that one in Desolation of Smaug.
Women like fun-loving, battle-scarred, facial-haired, masculine men.
“Women like fun-loving, battle scarred, facial-haired, masculine men”…….until they don’t. Women are way too unpredictable and emotion based to mould yourself into what you think they want. Be yourself, work to your strengths and live a happy life. The bleeders will come
Damn straight.
‘Be yourself’…terrible advice
Yeh I know. I interpreted his “Be yourself” comment as ” be true to yourself” and not what some one wants you to be, or other wise manipulated.
Hmmm yep nice call out. Wrong choice of words on my behalf. I was talking about being true to yourself, working to your strengths and forging the life you want and achieving your goals. Not the ‘be yourself’ mentality of the SJW’s and the left in general. Thanks man, and good correction.
Thanks for the post, bro
Well said.
You actually watched The Hobbit?
What the girls are lusting after is an image of something they can’t have – Legolas isn’t Human after all…
This website can thank google searches for “Return Of The King” for bringing a lot of indirect traffic here. Might as well give them at least one or two LOTR themed articles. 🙂
I like Aragorn fine, but the actor Viggo Mortenson has played better roles. A History Of Violence or Eastern Promises. Brilliant.
Agree seen both. Whew, that Eastern Promises bathroom scene was over-the-top.
sauna
Seen him in the B-movie “The Prophecy”? He has a small role as Satan, and he just canes it. It’s like Aragorn goes to the Dark Side.
Not to be pedantic, but there is simply no way of telling whether a fictional protagonist is a “great man” or not. The only glimpse we get of them, is the one the author chooses to reveal. How they would respond if placed in a different situation, noone will ever know.
With real life biographies of fairly public figures, we at least get a richer picture. Thomas Jefferson was a “great man” by most accounts. But if the only thing you ever read about the guy, was some “trilogy” about him sneaking around boinking his slave girls, then letting his kids live as slaves, he wouldn’t sound so great. But because we do have a richer account, most people will sort of accept that while he may not have been every kid’s favorite daddy, the fact that he’s pretty close to every thinking daddy’s favorite “daddy” more than make up for it.
Many men have in them the potential to be “great”, if placed in the right situation. While many of those who are deemed “great”, would not have been so, had their situation been different.
Which resolves to something like; attempting to classify and rank order men according to “greatness”, is a largely useless pursuit. Useful for progressives, who then use their command of the educational system to pick who is and is great, and hence who their underlings should emulate.
What is more important, is simply creating an environment where everyone gets the maximum payoff for being as great as they can be, and maximum blowback for not. With no hands tied behind anyone’s back, and no preordained referee. Just let it rip, and see where the chips fall.
“Many men have in them the potential to be “great”, if placed in the right situation . . .”
. . . and having been influenced by the right models. Aragorn is the model of a great man, because he was constructed to be so.
” . . . attempting to classify and rank order men according to “greatness”, is a largely useless pursuit. Useful for progressives . . .”
Actually, that is the progressive stance, that there is no objective basis for determining the greatness of a man. The traditional point of view, since before that dawn of history, is that there are things we can define as signifiers of greatness. The whole of Classical literature stands for it and is the model for what Tolkien was trying to achieve.
“What is more important, is simply creating an environment where everyone
gets the maximum payoff for being as great as they can be . . .”
Now that I’ll buy.
He never backed down
Basically, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is this scene on repeat for roughly 40 hours or so.
He never backed off
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb195/Doktor_Jeep/aragorn_zps7b8d86e9.png
No matter how big the odds were.
For Gondor!
Eh, this left something to be desired.
Yes, a mentor is definitely a need in every man’s life. But not just his father. Also, his other mentor. A man, or men preferably, of renown in a discipline or two. Also, when you have a mentor, you may be their friend, but they are your master. You do not get to talk with them, usually in most cases, with familiarity until you have earned it.
Never before. To them, you are just a child until they recognize the man.
This website has a lot of young bucks trying to conflate expereince before it si earned. It is like feminists thoughts that claim women deserve a castle, prince, and wealth simply for being born with a vagina.
Being born with a dick does not entitle one to greatness either.
Though you glean from the story the concept, you fail in introducing the main tenets of the master/pupil dynamic.
A master is usually not one to be trifled with, especially in the martial/engineering disciplines. There is a hierarchy, and you start on the very bottom. You don’t mean crap. Often, the individual in question disdains you like a woman in her period.
You are no different to him. He will not judge you by your looks. But by your heart!
Your brain, and skill sets can be largely overcome if you have a noble, dynamic, and unrelentingly passionate heart. Something feminists try to identify and strip from young males long before they grow their horns. Let alone let you learn to get the felt off.
Truly, it is no wonder why the craft of blacksmithing is often referred to for the process of making men. A man must be forged, over and over, before he can be made. He is allowed to cool only to be reheated, and beaten over and over again.
Then the salve on the wounds, like clay on a katana, right before being thrrust right back into the fire.
For he must be a precision instrument. Firm, yet flexible. If he is too rigid, he is no better than glass, and is easily broken in battle. Like a well forged blade, he is wielded like an extension of his master until he proves worthy of being the master himself.
Or he is the chaff thats used like consumables in the process of making one better than he.
Have heart, but don’t be foolish! You can be replaced.
And you will be!
Take care to make your mark while you can. You get only one life. Don’t make it only about women. Most are worthless.
If you wish to find your Arwen, you better be worth it. Or at least be prepared to live alone.
Life is not fair! Be thankful it isn’t. For if it was, we all would be dead.
“While a lot of fantasy series have nothing much noteworthy of emulation…”
I can tell that you haven’t read a lot of fantasy. 2/10 sick troll.
Gondorian Soldiers still suck.
Good effort by a young and learning writer. LOTR enthusiasts might also enjoy The Silmarillion.
Cheers.
The LOTR legend before the time of The Ring really is something, Noldorian families fighting each other, destruction of continents.
Yeah there are two or three great films hiding in The Silmarillion, just waiting to be made. Noldoran revolt. Beren and Luthien. The Fall of Westernesse. So forth. Assuming this culture had the time (and desire) to make such films, which it does not. Hollywood can produce crap and still be rich.
Anyway, we’d end up with the Queen of the Noldor somehow saving the day, with the help of a plucky Princess Elf who singlehandedly chases off Ungoliant. Etc.
Cheers.
Same with a lot of David Gemmell’s protagonists, given the setting of these novels anything less than a great man wouldn’t get the job done.
“I am Druss. Sometimes called the Captain of the Axe. The Drenai call
me the Silver Slayer. The Nadir call me Deathwalker. Amongst the
Vagrians I am called the Sender. But who are you? You pieces of
dung-eating offal! WHO ARE YOU?!”
This is what I said once after getting fired.
good call. i need to write this on a notecard to have ready, just in case.
Another great fictional character with leadership skills is Admiral Bill Adama from Battlestar Galactica. Edward James Olmos was amazing in that role.
William Adama in that series is one of the greatest masculine figures in all fiction. Ever. He is metaphorically the father of all humanity.
Until he became a fag and sided with the cyclones against his fellow human…
Henry V
Band of Brothers….
I get what you are saying bro, but this video is a bit out of place. This article is about Aragorn. If not, here is one of me favorites https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtwftQUxqpM
By my reckoning, the thread became a place of our favorite speeches of inspiration.
I read the book after watching the trilogy. And, the way Tolkien portrays him, Aragorn lives in fear, in a sense, that he will face the same fate that befell his Numenórean lineage. Time and again he lamented the fall of Men of the West due to their greed.
Prophecy?
Also: the dwarf takes no shit from anyone.
aragron was bethrothed to arwen when eowyn fell in love with him. he rejected her out of old-fashioned fidelity to his bride-to-be.
speaking of eowyn, anyone else notice how her story was feminized for the movie? not the worst case of the feminist warrior princess syndrome that has plauged all fantasy movies that i can think of for at least the last 12 years, but it was interesting to note.
Hell, Eowyn at least had the excuse of being required by the books to come out to fight on the Pelennor Fields. It’s Arwen who was turned into Xena Warrior Lesbian.
In the books she basically is nothing more than an elven Betsy Ross, sewing Aragorn’s banner for him but doing bugger all else. Her role is massively upgraded for the film, presumably because Pete Jackson was too scared of being accused of writing a sausage fest. In the films she comes out looking for Aragorn and carries Frodo to Rivendell – a role that Tolkien gave to Sir-Not-Appearing-In-The-Film, Glorfindel. It’s not like we didn’t have mysteriously appearing minor characters who couldn’t take up this role – Haldir of Lorien, anyone, and his valiant three hundred? 😉
Clearly Elrond’s powers of observation thanks to the elven ring he wears don’t extend to keeping his only daughter from taking the car and driving off to the horizon looking for her hot alpha boyfriend in the face of nine fucking Nazgul.
i didn’t have as much of a problem with arwen’s upgraded role as i did with warrior princess syndrome in other movies. it was annoying in some ways, but hollywood needs a love interest for the leading man, and it did simplify things a bit (essential when adapting a work as massive as LOTR) by eliminating the need to introduce glorfindel as a character.
a much more egregious example can be found in the train wreck john carter movie from a few years ago. i know, no one cared about that movie, but the john carter of mars books they are based on are actually great, savage early-20th-century pulp fiction of the type that they just don’t make anymore in our degraded feminist age. i read them as a wee lad, and i think they helped implant red pill ideas in me at an early age. dejah thoris, the princess character, is actually a convincing “strong female character” in the books, an accomplished scientist and diplomat who bravely stands up to the threat of torture by the green martians when she’s captured. but of course, that’s not good enough for hollywood, so they had to ditch the subtle feminine dignity she has in the books and make her a smart ass you-go-girl warrior princess who can hold her own fighting alongside john carter himself, which is patently ridiculous because the whole premise of burrough’s mars books is that an earthman on mars is vastly stronger than a martian, thus making him essentially a superhero.
i hear that they just flat out introduced an elvish warrior princess in the new hobbit movies to “correct” tolkien for his lack of female characters in the book. i hear she makes small dick jokes too. i didn’t bother with those movies.
I prefer Eowyn, to be honest.
Somebody needs to do an article on Optimus Prime now.
Sure this wasn’t Frodo?
Wrong on both counts. The protagonist and hero of LOTR was Samwise Gamgee.
I knew someone would eventually pull that out of their ass.
C’mon, bro, that subject always invites the Samwise card being played. 😛
Sam and Frodo… Queer for each other?
Well played sir!
I’m curious who says that “women seldom occupy a big role in great men’s lives”? I’ve read the opposite: http://uk.askmen.com/money/successful_100/147_success.html
LOL. The article has as examples the wives of four Presidents. Its header image is Jackie Kennedy, for Christ’s sake, to whom JFK was apparently so devoted and found necessary to his life that while married to her he consistently fucked every piece of ass that threw itself at him, not excepting Marilyn Monroe.
Make no mistake: wives are needed for prominent politicians solely for the image and for their electability, not for any substantive purpose. They occupy no large role in the lives of politicians, and most politicians are not great men.
The only wife presented in that article who’s not married to a politician is Melinda Gates, Bill Gates’ wife. And her contribution to the supposed “great man” is said to be “bringing perspective”. What a load of vague, unquantifiable shit. What perspective did Melinda bring Bill that stopped him committing anti-trust violations via his company? What perspective did she bring him that consistently causes Microsoft to bring in shitty, second-rate software? What perspective did she bring him to try and get some brownie points with Jesus before he has to go explain himself personally?
While you make some fair points, I don’t think unfaithfulness necessarily reduces the role a significant other plays in a person’s life. I doubt JFK thought he was risking his relationship by getting some on the side.. .
Anyway, it’s not just politicians who rely on their wives for advice and support:
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7057-most-trusted-advisor.html
Even in India:
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-07-04/news/40371810_1_himanshu-kapania-idea-cellular-kishore-biyani
“I doubt JFK thought he was risking his relationship by getting some on the side…”
JFK knew he wasn’t risking his relationship in any meaningful way. Jackie understood, just like Hilary Clinton, that the man in her life was her meal ticket and without him she was basically a nobody. She understood that quite well given that her name at the time of her death was Jacqueline Onassis.
I agree. That still doesn’t go against the premise of the article, though.
7. He Had friends, that were true and loyal. His friends came from multiple walks in middle earth. He didn’t care about height, prejudices, or color…
8. When his friends spoke, he listened to their ideas and counsel. A truly wise man learns to listen first, plan then execute.
Tall, handsome, and while not immortal rather long lived, plus a royal bloodline: damn I wish I had his problems.
LOTR IS THE GREATEST THING. IN THIS UNIVERSE. MAINSTREAM RATS,HAIL TO GREATNESS!