[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Hilde Bracegirdle

Hmm. I formerly thought that each individual smelled in the athelas what was appropriate for them, but then again the others smelled it too. And how could that be? (And one wonders if all would share Ioreth’s thought that it was a ‘wholesome’ fragrance.) It seemly likely that Aragorn must have been some special skill such as directing a specific scent, or else kingsfoil would have been used for more than headaches in Gondor!
. . . .

Oh, I think you are quite right here, Hilde; each administration of athelas does produce a scent particular to each patient, and those watching Aragorn perform the healing rite apparently smell the scent appropriate to each patient.

Originally Posted by Faramir's healing

Then taking two leaves, he [Aragorn] laid them on his hands and breathed on them, and then he crushed them, and straightaway a living freshness filled the room, as if the air itself awoke and tingled, sparkling with joy. And then he cast the leaves into the bowls of steaming water that were brought to him, and at once all hearts were lightened. For the fragrance that came to each was like a memory of dewy mornings of unshadowed sun in some land of which the fair world in Spring is itself but a fleeting memory.

Originally Posted by Eowyn's healing

. . . as the sweet influence of the herb stole about the chamber it seemed to those who stood by that a keen wind blew through the window, and it bore no scent, but was an air wholly fresh and clean and young, as if it had not before been breathed by any living thing and came new-made from snowy mountains hight beneath a dome of stars, or from shores of silver far away washed by seas of foam.

Originally Posted by Merry's healing

And when the fragrance of athelas stole through the room, like the scent of orchards, and of heather in the sunshine full of bees, suddenly Merry awoke....

Each scent subtly takes on hues and perfumes of each patient's own culture. Faramir's suggests the inheritance of Gondor and its memory of Numenor and beyond. Eowyn's partakes of the bracing cool air of high mountain tops, snow capped all year long and perhaps the northern history of the Rohirrim. And Merry's is The Shire on a warm summer day, lazy with humming warmth. Aragorn/athelas recalls them to their homes. The effect seems consistent in reminding each patient of his home, calling each one back from the dark chill, although that home is unique for each of Faramir, Eowyn, and Merry. They are brought back to themselves and their rightful inheritance you might say.

How can this be? Athelas appeals to the same place in each patient's mind--the olfactory nerves and--I think this is correct--the olfactory bulb--but what it recalls them to is unique for each person. How of course everyone else in the room is swept up in each unique scent is a bit of a mystery. Presumably only Aragorn himself would experience the different aromas. And interestingly, the text does not tell us that others in Merry's rooms have the same sensory experience: the passage is rendered in without their reactions. We have only the omniscient narration.

Perhaps athelas functions like the letters in the Chinese alphabet. The letter is consistent across all the different Chinese dialects, but the word which the symbol represents is different. Such polysemy is particularly important in medieval times, where symbols were widely used in illiterate cultures. Each culture would 'translate' the symbol according to its own system of meaning.