Some very nice points about Aragorn that I would like to pick up on, as this really is his chapter.
The issue of choice and Destiny (lovely distinction you make,
davem, between Frodo-Aragorn and Fate-Destiny) undergoes a profound shift in this chapter. To this point, the story has been concerned with the choices that Aragorn must make, but with his introduction to Eomer, suddenly something new happens. Rather than Aragorn making a choice, he becomes the choice:
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Aragorn threw back his cloak. The elven-sheath glittered as he grasped it, and the bright blade of Anduril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out. 'Elendil!" he cried. "I am Aragorn son of Arathorn, and am called Elessar, the Elfstone, Dunadan, the heir of Isildur Elendil's son of Gondor. Here is the Sword that was Broken and is forged again! Will you aid me or thwart me? Choose swiftly!"
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This has already been quoted, but I thought it deserved to be so again (I just love it so). The choice that Aragorn is presenting to Eomer is a simple one: “aid me or thwart me” – in effect, he is demanding that Eomer make a choice between Aragorn and not-Aragorn. This is part and parcel of that other choice Eomer must make: or, rather, it is just another way of looking at or thinking about the choice that Eomer must make – that between right and wrong:
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“Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.”
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The choice of whether to accept or reject Aragorn has become the same choice as between “good and ill.” This is not hubris on the part of Aragorn, but his acceptance of his own nature as a tool of Providence. His mission is of and for the Good, aid him and you aid the Good, hinder him and you do ill. What is breath-taking to me is that Aragorn not only knows this now but is able to bear up with the responsibility without it crushing him. He has taken upon himself the really hard part (Doing Good) leaving everyone else the (relatively, comparatively) easier choice of helping him or not. This is what a hero is supposed to be, I think (at least for Tolkien): someone who is willing and able to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, and not in a militaristic/warrior mode. It’s significant that the destruction of the orcs and the rescue of the hobbits is
not accomplished by Aragorn. In this chapter we learn quite explicitly that the job of killing has been left to the Rohirrim, and that Aragorn’s heroic task is quite different. It is to emerge from legend and claim his right as the leader of Men; at the same time, he presents his followers with a real challenge – it’s no easy thing choosing to aid him, as it entails real dangers.
That light which flickers around his brows is seen only by the Elf, so I have a hard time seeing it as some kind of overt sign of his right to rule Men. Instead, I think that moment speaks more about Legolas than Aragorn, for it charts the Elf’s reaction to the challenge presented by Aragorn. To Men, he appears as a great Man and King of old; one who commands their allegiance and demands that they make a hard choice about him. For the Elf, over whom he does not have sovereignty, he reveals that Numenorean aspect of his lineage that is Elvish.
It’s as though Aragorn is finally so confident and integrated in himself that he begins to present the same challenge to others that he has successfully overcome in himself. One of the nicer ways that this is demonstrated in the chapter is his use of his tracking, Ranger skills. To this point in the story, he has only really ‘been’ a Ranger from Bree to Rivendell, so it might appear ironic that in the very chapter that he emerges as the heir of Elendil that he is also acting as a Ranger once more – but I think it makes perfect sense insofar as he is no longer torn, but an integrated self. He is both Strider (Telcontar) and Aragorn (Elessar), and its this unity of self that gives him the remarkable strength and purpose with which to command (or challenge?) the loyalties of other men.