I’m beginning to think I have never read the LoTR appendices which surprises me. Regardless, there is some cool stuff in there. Appendix A treats mostly with the history of Numenorean kings picking up with the gap between the fall of Numenor and the return of the king, Aragorn.

That history is, in a word, depressing, much like the Silmarillion is. It’s a story of degradation, from something good, beautiful, and powerful, to something that is a shadow of its former glory. Numenor was a singular state of existence among men, the pinnacle in every way. Once it fell, Elendil was able to preserve a portion of its greatness by virtue of the strength that existed in his bloodline and the knowledge he brought with him across the sea. He was also able to leverage the assets of Numenor already established in Middle Earth such as Orthanc and Umbar.

But it was always a war against degradation in body, mind, spirit, and lore. From the moment he arrived with his household this was already in process.

Over time his bloodline became mingled with the blood of lesser men and women, which many said resulted in the line of Numenor slowly degrading to be on par with the line of lesser men. But Appendix A says it was less about this mingling than might be thought. After Eldacar, a half Gondorian, took the throne, we are told:

This mingling did not at first hasten the waning of the Dunedain, as had been feard; but the waning still proceeded, little by little, as it had before. For no doubt it was due above all to Middle-earth itself, and to the slow withdrawing of the gifts of the Numenoreans after the downfall of the Land of the Star.”

Eldacar lived to 234, which is down quite a bit from the Numenorean average of 350-400 in the line of the kings. At any rate, his lifespan was less from his being a half breed and more about the Valar slowly withdrawing their gifts and the nature of the world they inhabited.

Reading the story of these kings sounds an awful lot like what we read in Ether vis-a-vis its royal succession. Meaning, we hear a lot of similar stories of intrigue, degradation, good and noble kings, wicked kings, stupid kings, men who vie for the throne and men who lay it aside for the sake of the people. Of course, central to the tales told by Daymon is that the Jaredite line comes directly from Numenor so perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising.

Reading it got me asking some questions. For one, Tolkien’s tales make a big deal about the “return of the king”. Bill’s theory that Aragorn is Thingol seems to make sense as this king returning. A lot of good things came about as a result. Sauron was finally vanquished (although I wonder if he really was vanquished forever). The line of Thingol that had been sundered between men and elves was brought back together through Aragorn and Arwen’s union. I’m not sure why that mattered but it seems to have.

We got some really cool and fun stories preserved out of it too. The Red Book of Westmarch definitely would not have been preserved without the War of the Ring going like it had.

Having said all that, Aragorn’s kingdom amounted to a flash in the pan. He restored Gondor to some of its former glory. He made the roads safe again and such, which is great. I can imagine him strolling through Gondor with a bright red MGGA (Make Gondor Great Again) hat on. And make it great he did. But with his death the degradation carried on apace. In fact, Tolkien contemplated a sequel but gave up pretty fast b/c apparently the men of the 4th Age established a cult that worshipped the Dark, which means it was very likely that even in Aragorn’s day there was a secret combination at work to undermine him. He surely kept them mostly in the shadows but with his death they began working quickly to nefarious ends. It was too depressing a tale to write apparently so Tolkien laid it aside.

Whatever those evil men did apparently worked because there is essentially no remnant of Aragorn’s kingdom left in the world, at least not one that is easily identified.

So what, exactly, was the point of his return? I suppose you could say it was to take down Sauron which is reason enough, but Aragorn’s return to the throne occurred after Sauron’s defeat so what was gained by him doing that exactly? I think the only thing you could say is his union to Arwen. Elrond had told Aragorn that she would not be given away to any man less than the king of the reunited kingdom possessed by Elendil as the undisputed heir to the line of his brother Elros. Nothing less would be worthy of her. And without marrying Arwen, the sundering of the lines of Elros and Elrond could not be resolved.

Again though, I’m not sure why that mattered exactly.

Takeaways? Mainly I just wanted to point out how similar Gondorian history was to Jaredite history and point out that Aragorn even bothering to take the throne had to be more about Arwen than establishing an earthly kingdom. But that I also don’t know why it mattered so much given how fleeting that realm appears to have been.