if you've been in certain tolkien fan circles any time in the past couple years
you'd surely know by now that one frequent point of discussion is this quote by george rr martin
ruling is hard tolkien can say that aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years and he was
wise and good but tolkien doesn't ask the question what was aragorn's tax policy? did he maintain a
standing army? what did he do in times of flood and famine? and what about all these orcs?
by the end of the war saron is gone but all the orcs aren't gone they're in the mountains
did aragorn pursue a policy of systemic genocide and kill them even the baby orcs
and their little orc cradles? the reason i'm making this video is because i'd like to add
my own take on the subject for everyone who's new here hi i'm elena and welcome in the tower
if you want to listen to a different perspective on this subject i greatly recommend in deep geek's
take where they comment on aragon's kingship and influence throughout his time as a ruler in my
take i'd like to discuss the fact that while we do not know the exact details of aragorn's
tax policy we do know that aragorn himself is an incredibly competent and trialed ruler why
is that well that's why we're here today aragorn was born in third age 2931 in the angle and at two
years old he was brought by his mother gilraen to dwell in rivendell in fear that the enemy sought
to break the line of isildur after the death of his father arathorn, aragorn's entire childhood
and teenagehood was spent in the presence of some of the most brilliant minds in middle earth not to
mention the company of elrond lord of imladris who is considered the greatest scholar of the third
age elrond served under gil-galad fostered countless generations of dunedain scions in
rivendell and was instrumental in the safe keeping of isildur's line he also had in his protection
the symbols of the northern dunedain which are the sceptre of annuminas and the ring of barahir given
his age position and proximity to the dunedain kingdoms elrond must have given council to arnor
when it still existed aragorn had the perfect teacher that could bestow upon him all the history
customs genealogies and past laws of his people he also had glorfindel to teach him the history
of the elves and of beleriand he had elladan and elrohir to teach you how to ride a horse and
how to fight and he had erestor to teach him all possible dialects of sindarin and even quenya by
the time aragorn left rivendell in search of his people at age 21 he was a powerhouse of knowledge
yet theory without practice is more often than not useless so young aragorn assumed his proper
role as the 16th chieftain of the dunedain left the comforts of rivendell and lived by the side
of his people learning how to govern properly the funny thing here that prompted him to leave
rivendell for the dunedain settlements in the first place was aragorn falling in love with arwen
undomiel arwen rejected him and a fire was lit in aragon's heart that burned so bright that nothing
nothing in the whole of middle earth could quench it elrond told him that until he becomes king he
can't marry arwen so my man here said i'm going to become king of both gondor and arnor watch me
and he went and did it madlad actually did it i'm so proud of him after a couple years spent by the
side of his people doing his duties as a chieftain adventuring with his bestie halbarad aragorn said
i learned everything i could here so at 26 he left between the age of 26 and 49 he served in the army
of king thengel of rohan and that of echtelion the second steward of gondor going by the name
thorongil and his work raised the morality in the west and countered the threat of sauron echtelion
the second son of turgon was a man of wisdom he encouraged all men of worth from near or far to
enter his service in much that he did he had the aid and advice of a great captain whom he loved
above all thorongil men called him in gondor the eagle of the star for he was swift and keen-eyed
and wore a silver star upon his cloak but no one knew his true name nor in what land he was
born he came to echtelion from rohan where he had served the king thengel but he was not one of the
rohirrim he was a great leader of men by land or by sea but he departed into the shadows whence
he came before the days of echtelion were ended it was now that aragon earned priceless military
experience that helped him later during the war of the ring during his time as thorongil he even
led an assault against umbar and he burned many corsair ships and personally slew the umbarim
lord during the battle thorongil often counseled echtelion that the strength of the rebels in umbar
was a great peril to gondor and a threat to the fiefs of the south that would prove deadly if
sauron moved to open war at last he got leave of the steward and gathered a small fleet and he came
to umbar unlooked for by night and there burned a great part of the ships of the corsairs he himself
overthrew the captain of the haven in battle upon the quays and then he withdrew his fleet with
small loss but when they came back to pelargir to men's grief and wonder he would not return to
minas tirith where great honor awaited him after that he went south to harad and umbar then east
to rhun and came back to rest in lorien during his time in the south and east aragorn learned
the laws and customs of the haradrim umbarim and easterlings which came in handy at a later point
in life aragorn here only 50 years old now has both social and military knowledge on a variety
of countries most important he lived in gondor for a while and familiarized himself with gondor's
political system and noble families and the method the steward used in ruling minas tirith all that's
left to do now is wait for the right moment to claim the kingship it's incredible how pretty
much aragorn's entire life is just a tutorial on being king he was literally raised to be king
he has learned from the best and most illustrious minds from rich and poor from human elves dwarves
and a maia alike as he was very good friends with gandalf he spent 30 years learning about
the people he would one day rule even after he becomes king annuminas a city that stood deserted
for two thousand years is rebuilt minas tirith is rebuilt with gates of mithril he has enough
monarchal power to wage constant campaigns of war and annex harradrim and easterling lands the
reunited kingdom truly prospered under aragon's rule coming back to the question george rr martin
asks aragorn did not have a standing army he only had the garrison of minas tirith when an army
needed to be assembled he called upon the lords of the provinces of gondor who'd in turn raised
their people and marched them to where the king needed them to be what about the orcs? aragorn
led a campaign of complete genocide against the orcs hunting them down to near extinction until
they were forced to hide themselves high in the mountains in fear of him and his army what about
flood and famine? well according to gondor's geography a flood is very unlikely famine? they
have the fields of minas tirith which are said to be the most prosperous and fertile land in gondor
they also have the gardens of gondor in vicinity i truly believe a seasoned ranger like aragorn would
never allow a famine to spread through gondor he's lived a big chunk of his life as a northern ranger
he knows how to be prepared when food is little i don't think aragorn is simply a
good ruler because of his good heart to say so dismisses all the contextual evidence given to us
and is a disservice to tolkien's worldbuilding a song of ice and fire fans please don't come after
me i have kind things to say about asoiaf too i just haven't gotten around to making a video about
that yet i believe tolkien and martin's priorities just lie elsewhere in their worldbuilding
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