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Old 04-13-2017, 05:32 AM   #2
PrinceOfTheHalflings
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Morsul the Dark View Post
As we all know Strider was once a Hobbit.

I'm curious if there's any evidence when this change occurred?

I'm asking because listening to Fellowship again there's a narrative quirk. In book one Tolkien calls him Strider (Strider said this Strider did that.) it's not until book two the Council where he becomes Aragorn in narrative.

I see three possibilities.

A) Tolkien wrote Strider as a Hobbit changing his mind at the council, adding a letter from Gandalf and some minor tweaks he doesn't have to change much.

B) he decided it wasn't until Aragorn's full stature is revealed in Rivendell that he "became" Aragorn in Frodo's mind. (This is a bit of license to the idea the Hobbits wrote the book).

C) just a narrative quirk nothing more.... boring.

It was during what Christopher Tolkien calls the "Fourth Stage of Writing" that the idea of Aragorn first appeared, although JRR Tolkien had been puzzling over Strider's (AKA Trotter's) real identity since as early as the first draft.

He is first established as a descendant of Isildur in a letter from Gandalf - and then once at Rivendell Tolkien started to flesh out Aragorn's background in the Council of Elrond - including his connection to the Numenoreans (and therefore to Elrond).

So in a sense your possibility A) is the most correct, but the story got to Rivendell multiple times with "Trotter" as a hobbit before Tolkien changed his mind and made him Aragorn.
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