How hard and long was it, Aragorn?

[Mithalwen]

I have a feeling that I have misread that as "a hard life and long" for years but now I look at it it does seem a bit peculiar - if you use the substitution trick - the first thing that came to mind was "I have had a red sweater and a blue"...... then it seems clear that two separate thigs are referred to as opposed to I have had a red and blue sweater. Now obviously it is far more likely that my grammar is at fault than the Prof of Philology's but it still seems peculiar.

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

I have a feeling that I have misread that as "a hard life and long" for years but now I look at it it does seem a bit peculiar - if you use the substitution trick - the first thing that came to mind was "I have had a red sweater and a blue"...... then it seems clear that two separate thigs are referred to as opposed to I have had a red and blue sweater. Now obviously it is far more likely that my grammar is at fault than the Prof of Philology's but it still seems peculiar.

It seems to me that "a long life and hard" is a hendiadys, of which Wikipedia says:

Originally Posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendiadys

The basic idea is to use two words linked by a conjunction to express a single complex idea.

As Wikipedia also says on that same page, it's a figure of speech used for emphasis. Instead of saying "long, hard life," the use of a hendiadys to break up "long" and "hard" gives emphasis to both the length and hardness of the life, rather than one of them singly.

I quote Mith because I think she's right to say that it seems peculiar, because this isn't how we normally speak--but insofar as the main examples (both on Wikipedia and in the contexts in which I've learned about them) of hendiadys tend to be Biblical, epic, and Shakespearian, they are indicative more of rhetoric, perhaps, than ordinary speech.

In Aragorn's case, to emphasize both long and hard puts him in a doubly superior position towards Boromir: Aragorn is both older than Boromir (giving him more time to accumulate experience and wisdom) and has had a harder life than Boromir (giving him more "experienced experience," if you known what I mean--as well as a possible morally superior claim). Aragorn and Boromir are definitely testing each other in this early part of their relationship to establish (in cruder sociological terms) a "pecking order." Notably, I think, Boromir will ultimately accept Aragorn's superiority, as Frodo attests to Faramir.