Miranda Otto as Éowyn and Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS 2002 | dir. Peter Jackson

One of my favorite things about Tolkien's writing is that he has a very specific, recurring trope. For lack of a better term, I'm dubbing this the Tolkien Wife-Guy.

This is mainly obvious in the Silmarillion, but Tolkien loves to write couples where the man is a notable individual- nobility, commits a great deed, or both- but the wife is at least equally notable, if not more beloved or powerful. Manwe is the king of the Valar and Eru's main representative in Arda? Everyone loves Varda more, and Melkor fears her more than his own brother. Elu Thingol is the king of the Silvan Elves? His wife is Melian, whose Girdle is the magic that keeps Morgoth's forces at bay. Beren is a chief among the Edain, who befriends animals and survives one of the most nightmarish places in Beleriand? His wife is Luthien.

Even in Lord of the Rings we see this occur, though the couples are on more even footing. Tom Bombadil is... Tom Bombadil, but Goldberry is the River-daughter, and Tom adores her above everything else, and the hobbits are completely taken in with her when she's their host. Similarly, while Celeborn is a mighty lord among Elves, Galadriel is one of the only Noldor in Middle-earth who saw the Two Trees, and her hair inspired Feanor to make the Silmarils, not to mention her own accomplishments in the war against Morgoth. Aragorn is the king of Gondor and Arnor, but Arwen is the Evenstar of the Elves, the descendant of three(?) different royal Elven lines. And Faramir becomes the Steward of Gondor and is one of the noblest men alive, but Eowyn killed the Witch-king, so you know. She got the grander moment for the saga.

But with (most) of these couples, we never get the impression that the man views his wife as Less-Than, or as a junior partner. Thingol is the main exception to this in how he dismisses Melian's counsel, and that's made out to be his foolishness within the text. Otherwise, Manwe treats Varda as his co-ruler, Beren never tries to downplay Luthien's achievements, and I'm pretty sure most of Tom Bombadil's dialogue is about how gorgeous Goldberry is. It's really sweet.

All of these examples really testify to how much Tolkien loved his wife. People rightly point to Beren and Luthien as the prime example of that, but I think you can find it in these other couples too. Even though Edith is mainly known to history as Mrs. Tolkien, it's evident to me that Jirt saw her as a whole person worthy of admiration outside of being his wife.

This is my own personal Roman Empire.

Everyone please never forget that his Second Age defeat by itself is not the only reason why Sauron hated Isildur and his descendants including Aragorn - he hated them even more so because they were the descendants of Lúthien, the very first being in all of Arda to defeat him, which she did so completely that he literally hid away for the rest of the First Age. In the Palantír, Sauron looked into Aragorn’s face, and in him he didn’t just see the eyes of Isildur who defeated him so long ago. He saw even further back. He saw in Aragorn’s face the eyes of Lúthien. And he hated Aragorn for it because he was terrified. Though she had long passed beyond the circles of the world, through her descendants, Lúthien continued to come back to haunt him and destroy him.

If anyone ever dares to even consider the notion that Lúthien was somehow not a badass in each and every single possible capacity, make sure they remember this. Lúthien was such a badass in each and every single capacity that Sauron - the literal Lord of the Rings - never stopped being afraid of her, long after she was gone.

Aragorn is a very friendly guy

I thought about it a little bit actually, but recently I saw this Tumblr post in Pinterest, and it got me thinking...

Aragorn has a very friendly nature, even though he's not an extravert (an infj myself, I can totally understand him). I think that as a heir to the throne of Gondor, he must have some skills in speech and persuasion. Combined with his friendly nature, it could make him very successful in any social situation without using any weapons.

I think he could befriend Sauron if he wanted to :D Imagine: Gandalf: Sauron is too strong, we have to use our last chance... Elrond: Oh no... We have to unleash the beast... Sauron, later that day: What the f... Aragorn, standing near the Black Gate and smiling: Helloooo!

random LOTR gifs pt ???????

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ARWEN AND ARAGORN LOTR FORE-EDGE PAINTING

Hello ♥ I created a separate instagram account for my fore-edge painting, here: Veronis_BookNook 💗

And also an ETSY store, if you're interested in any of the books, I'm also moving my commissions here 🌻 VeronisBookNook ETSY store

I'm slowly working on different books, I'll post about those available on my insta!

soooo heeere it iiissss :D

this was gonna be posted sooner but the software I was using shut itself down suddenly when I was literally just about done and I almost threw my laptop across the room 😃

(Hobbit one coming soon)

the way aragorn runs is so chaotic

I saw a post saying that Boromir looked too scruffy in FotR for a Captain of Gondor, and I tried to move on, but I’m hyperfixating. Has anyone ever solo backpacked? I have. By the end, not only did I look like shit, but by day two I was talking to myself. On another occasion I did fourteen days’ backcountry as the lone woman in a group of twelve men, no showers, no deodorant, and brother, by the end of that we were all EXTREMELY feral. You think we looked like heirs to the throne of anywhere? We were thirteen wolverines in ripstop.

My boy Boromir? Spent FOUR MONTHS in the wilderness! Alone! No roads! High floods! His horse died! I’m amazed he showed up to Imladris wearing clothes, let alone with a decent haircut. I’m fully convinced that he left Gondor looking like Richard Sharpe being presented to the Prince Regent in 1813

*electric guitar riff*

And then rocked up to Imladris a hundred ten days later like

"Nice characters are boring" to YOU. I love characters who no matter what, will always have genuine love for humanity in their heart. Characters who dance and laugh and sing with sincerity. Characters who believe in others, and are willing to extend a helping hand to people when no one gave them the same luxury. Characters who have gone through so much but believe, no matter what, that humanity and life is something beautiful and worth protecting

I think the reason so many LOTR ripoffs fail is because they make their Aragorn analogue the main character, when the entire point of Aragorn is that he’s “the person the villains think is the main character, but is Not.”

Aragorn seems like a traditional King Arthur style hero— he has huge Main Character Energy because he’s supported by destiny, by bloodline, by all these magic artifacts and prophecies, and etc etc. Frodo and Sam are Just Some Guys. Aragorn recognizes that Sauron understandably thinks he’s the main hero of this story ….and he pretends to believe it too, spending the entire series using himself as a diversion to prevent Sauron from seeing Frodo and Sam.

Aragorn’s whole thing is that knows he seems like the Main Hero of this legend to people who don’t know better —- but he also knows that he isn’t, and that his role is just to keep Sauron’s eye on him in order to protect the people around him.

And it works! Sauron is so fixated on defeating his Legendary Destined Archenemy with Extreme Main Character Energy that he completely overlooks the two ordinary little guys who were the real threat to him all along.

I bet after Aragorn became king he would continue to be Just Some Chill As Fuck Dude. You go to the market and there’s the king of Gondor. Buying turnips.

Taking a 5-second break from the Bagginshield angst to bring you this meme I created after an all-nighter, enjoy.