Humility & Heroes

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

Lalwendë,

I suppose I don't see the humility of Aragorn as easily as you do. He always seemed proud and rather stately to me, especially when he threatened mayhem to the Rohirrim if they so much as looked at Anduril sideways.

Perhaps it's a relative thing and his humility is great for one of royal blood (as opposed to more common folk).

Really? That's interesting as everyone I speak to has a different perception of Aragorn, some find him pious, others find him humble. I think he does have a tendency to be proud, being who he is, but we can see it shaken out of him somewhat when Gandalf tells him it is disrespectful to take weapons into Meduseld and eventually he becomes a marvellous leader who does not expect loyalty from the Men of Gondor but who earns it and will only accept his Kingship by consensus.

Something else I was thinking about following on from what davem says was whether different types of people are humble in different ways. The Hobbits of course are a humble people in comparison to the greater Men and Elves of Middle-earth, but what about people like Faramir, Galadriel, Aragorn etc? They are not humble people by nature, do they have to learn humility or is it a character trait? Certainly by the end of the books we see our 'heroes' brought humble in attitude (and the end result is really what I am interested in), but are they all like that to begin with and what turns them?

Do we meet many 'humble' people in the Lord of the Rings aside from the Hobbits? Not many....