Earendil a Man? Or Aragorn as King of Arnor?

[Firefoot]

Welcome to the Downs, swiftshadow!

Aragorn did in fact wear the silver star of Elendil on his brow:

But before all went Aragorn with the Flame of the West, Andúril like a new fire kindled, Narsil re-forged as deadly as of old, and upon his brow was the Star of Elendil.

-RotK, Book 5, Chapter VI, The Battle of Pelennor Fields

So it didn't mean a literal star, as in Eärendil's case. The figure with a star on his brow is meant to refer to Aragorn.

The hobbits were obviously witnessing the unbroken line of kings stretching from even the fore-fathers, first kings of Numenor, through the Elendili, to the present descendants of Isildur.

This is an interesting statement. It had never occurred to me that the figures might be the line of kings; I had always thought that they were seeing the shadowy shapes of the Dúnedain - this description of grim men with bright swords befits them well. Though now that I think about it, it would most sense for it to possibly be neither, precisely: perhaps it is the line of the Chieftains of the Dúnedain (since Tom was, after all, talking about the Dúnedain in particular), which would explain why Aragorn came last.