If Denethor hadn't committed suicide

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Morwen

The word "disguise" does seem to indicate some change in physical appearance. To merely change your name and give someone a phony backstory about yourself seems to me the actions of some who wishes to be incognito not "in disguise". The disguise need not be that radical. It does not mean that Aragorn had to cease to look like someone with Numenorean blood. The idea could simply be to alter his appearance enough so that on the off chance that someone from Gondor or farther afield had ever seen Aragorn they would not think that Thorongil was the same person.

Aragorn does this all the time.

When Frodo first meets him in Bree, he is merely "Strider"--tall and lanky, foul rather than fair, and certainly no King. However, this is more than a mere question of a change of clothes in Rivendell--that is noted on at the end of "Many Meetings" but there is nothing else--he's still Strider, just in nicer clothes. When he's back in his regular clothes for the Council of Elrond, Tolkien makes a point of mentioning that Boromir looks him over doubtfully--little does he resemble the graven images of Elendil and Isildur in the Hall of the Kings.

However... if we jump forward to the approach of the Argonath:

Originally Posted by The Great River

'Fear not!' said a strange voice behind him. Frodo turned and saw Strider, and yet not Strider; for the weatherworn Ranger was no longer there. In the stern sat Aragorn son of Arathorn, proud and erect, guiding the boat with skilful strokes; his hood was cast back, and his dark hair was blowing in the wind, a light was in his eyes: a king returning from exile to his own land.

No change of clothes, no change of circumstances... but a complete and total change from Strider to Aragorn. My memory wants to say there's a few more instances of similar transformations--perhaps in Rohan somewhere and certainly "The hands of a king are the hands of a healer" but this is the only quote I'm going to cite. I don't think another can top it.

I also think I hardly need to explain what I'm saying--Aragorn's "disguise" is to hide his kingliness. He's still clearly a Ranger, a Númenorean--the Dúnadan, as Elrond's people call him--but as Aragorn son of Arathorn he is something unique.

Now... exactly how that works, I don't claim to know.

[Morwen]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Aragorn does this all the time.

When Frodo first meets him in Bree, he is merely "Strider"--tall and lanky, foul rather than fair, and certainly no King. However, this is more than a mere question of a change of clothes in Rivendell--that is noted on at the end of "Many Meetings" but there is nothing else--he's still Strider, just in nicer clothes. When he's back in his regular clothes for the Council of Elrond, Tolkien makes a point of mentioning that Boromir looks him over doubtfully--little does he resemble the graven images of Elendil and Isildur in the Hall of the Kings.

However... if we jump forward to the approach of the Argonath:



No change of clothes, no change of circumstances... but a complete and total change from Strider to Aragorn. My memory wants to say there's a few more instances of similar transformations--perhaps in Rohan somewhere and certainly "The hands of a king are the hands of a healer" but this is the only quote I'm going to cite. I don't think another can top it.

I also think I hardly need to explain what I'm saying--Aragorn's "disguise" is to hide his kingliness. He's still clearly a Ranger, a Númenorean--the Dúnadan, as Elrond's people call him--but as Aragorn son of Arathorn he is something unique.

Now... exactly how that works, I don't claim to know.

I agree with you that Aragorn seems to have an ability to keep the essence (?) of who he is under wraps. He can seem unassuming enough but there is "a light in his eyes that when they were kindled few could endure".(Appendix A (v), Tale of Aragorn and Arwen)

There is also a "clothes make the man" transformation in Appendix A in the tale of Arwen and Aragorn.

"... and Galadriel bade him cast aside his wayworn raiment, and she clothed him in silver and white, with a cloak of elven grey and a bright gem on his brow. Then more than any kind of Men he appeared, and seemed rather an Elf-lord from the Isles of the West."

About 2 or 3 paragraphs before this description we are told this about Aragorn's appearance:

"His ways were hard and long, and he became somewhat grim to look upon, unless he chanced to smile; and yet he seemed to Men worthy of honour, as a king that is in exile, when he did not hide his true shape. For he went in many guises, and won renown under many names." (emphasis mine)

At certain points it seems he did do more that simply hide his kingliness. I suppose more drastic alterations to his appearances might be necessary when venturing into places where the population did not look like him.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Morwen

At certain points it seems he did do more that simply hide his kingliness. I suppose more drastic alterations to his appearances might be necessary when venturing into places where the population did not look like him.

Precisely. Aragorn's forays into Rhûn and the Harad come to mind. In those places, anyone pegged as a 'Westerner' would probably have been killed.

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Precisely. Aragorn's forays into Rhûn and the Harad come to mind. In those places, anyone pegged as a 'Westerner' would probably have been killed.

Yes... but would Aragorn necessarily have been pegged as a Westerner? Black Númenoreans settled the coasts of Middle-earth everywhere but the northwest. True, they do not seem to have had kingdoms in the sense of Gondor or Arnor--Umbar is the closest thing we have--but they seem to have been prominent in the service of Sauron from Herumor and Fuinil in the days of the Last Alliance down through the Mouth during the War of the Ring. To me it seems possible that Aragorn, if looking scruffy and unkingly, may well have appeared a stranger, but not necessarily a Westerner. And where wasn't he a stranger--he was a stranger in Rohan, Gondor, and Bree? That this'd be his modus operandi in Rhûn and Harad is not a surprise...

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Yes... but would Aragorn necessarily have been pegged as a Westerner? Black Númenoreans settled the coasts of Middle-earth everywhere but the northwest. True, they do not seem to have had kingdoms in the sense of Gondor or Arnor--Umbar is the closest thing we have--but they seem to have been prominent in the service of Sauron from Herumor and Fuinil in the days of the Last Alliance down through the Mouth during the War of the Ring. To me it seems possible that Aragorn, if looking scruffy and unkingly, may well have appeared a stranger, but not necessarily a Westerner. And where wasn't he a stranger--he was a stranger in Rohan, Gondor, and Bree? That this'd be his modus operandi in Rhûn and Harad is not a surprise...

Though there's nothing concrete to suggest this, whatever Black Númenóreans remained by the time of the War of the Ring were, it seems to me, likely to reside in Mordor. The Mouth did, and had done so for most of his life, it seems.
I think the Easterlings had a different physical appearance from the Men of the West, and certainly the Haradrim did. They were much more dark-skinned and swarthy.
At any rate, there would probably have been cultural and regional norms regarding appearance that Aragorn would have had to have observed so as not to stand out.

[Erendis]

Wasn't it Sam who said the Southerlings are black with white tongues or something like that?

Yes,yes,I can see that picture!Aragorn with black leather's dye on his face and a white tongue!
If only cameras and tabloids were invented in Middle-Earth,Denethor would have ensured stewardship for at least another Age.

[The Mouth of Sauron]

You have to remember that when JRRT wrote LOTR he could get away with many references, like "swarthy men" and "swertings" that would be deemed racist today.