[Formendacil]

In the course of doing my reading for class today, I stumbled across a couple lines in Milton's Paradise Lost that reminded me instantly of this passage. The wording is somewhat different, but the fact that I was struck by the similarity is, by itself, an indication of something--even if it is only that I am really and truly wrecked by Tolkien for reading anything else.

O Progeny of Heav'n, Empyreal Thrones,
With reason hath deep silence and demur
Seiz'd us, though undismay'd: long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light

Paradise Lost, Book II, 430-433 (emphasis mine)

Given the reversal of the terms "long" and "hard" in Aragorn's statement, and given the discussion already gone in this thread about how the statements sits well in archaic English, I hesitate to read too much into this chance finding. At most, it might be fair to say that I've stumbled across the still-clear shape of a leaf in the fertilizer.

On the other hand... it is tempting to see Aragorn's statement of his own journeys as his own voyage "out of Hell... up to light," and I feel like it wouldn't take much digging in the "Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" to make a prima facie case of being a deliberate reuse.

In any case, I put this stumbled-upon finding out there for your edification.