If Denethor hadn't committed suicide

[PrinceOfTheHalflings]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

It seems to me that all the remaining Dúnedain in Middle-earth were confined to two areas: Eriador and Gondor. If Aragorn had been known to have been of the Dúnedain, where could he reasonably have said that he came from, if not the North? If he claimed to be from 'outside' and was obviously Númeórean by looks, I think that would have raised some questions.
If he claimed anywhere in Gondor as his origin, that claim could have been investigated. I can well see Denethor 'checking Thorongil's references', perhaps with the hope of catching him in a lie.

Denethor certainly had suspicious about Thorongil and he must have wondered where he came from. Since I raised the question about Aragorn's "obviously Numenorean appearance" I will add that I don't just mean Aragorn's hair, skin or eye colour but also his height. He was extremely tall.

One reason why Aragorn can't have had much of a physical disguise is that his resemblance to Denethor was noted at the time. Given that Aragorn played the part of Thorongil for 23 years, it's hard to think that he could have maintained a physical disguise for that long! I think the "disguise" just refers to his assumed name and background.

I can understand why a young fellow like Eomer doesn't recognise Aragorn, since he wasn't born in the time of "Thorongil". Even Theoden was fairly young at the time but in Gondor some people were relatively long-lived.

Outside of Minas Tirith, Gondor was fairly sparsely populated. Aside from Pelagir and Dol Amroth there weren't many major 'population centres'. Aragorn wasn't blonde-haired or blue-eyed so he would have had a hard time passing himself off as one of the Rohirrim! Clearly he was Numenorean - so not from Rohan or Laketown etc. Denethor (and for that matter Ecthelion) must have had a pretty good idea of where Thorongil was from. Thorongil's championing of Gandalf might have been another indicator, since Gandalf spent most of his time in the North. Perhaps some rumours of the Northern Dunedain were heard in Gondor, but Aragorn must have been the first proof of their existence, unless one of his more recent ancestors had also spent time in Gondor.

As for the original question - I suspect that Aragorn would have been very sensitive to Denethor's feelings. Perhaps he might have come up with some way for Denethor to save face? Maybe Denethor would have accepted some role like "Prince of Ithilien". Aragorn would have no doubt tried as hard as possible for Denethor to retain his dignity and usefulness. Otherwise Denethor would just have become a thorn in Aragorn's side - a bitter old man with little to live for since he would regard King Elessar as an upstart who had robbed the rightful family of their legacy.