In part 1 I discussed the
relationship between Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron, and the Balrog.
Part II: Of Aragorn, Númenor, and third age Elves...
Thank goodness Tolkien wrote his books back when he did and not today.
Because in today's climate of political correctness the coolest parts of the
Middle Earth mythology have to do with the fact that not everyone is equal.
You see, there are men and then there are MEN. Aragorn, the human hero of Lord
of The Rings, is not just "some guy". He's Númenorean. A very special type of
man. A super man. One Númenor could take out many normal men. The movie
can't really convey just how powerful Aragorn is.
Númenor was founded by a man named Elros. Elros was Elrond's brother. That's
right, Elrond is not a full elf himself and neither is his daughter Arwen.
Elros and his people did great deeds in the battle against Morgoth and as a
reward, the Valar raised a huge, beautiful island in the ocean west of Middle
Earth for Elros and his followers to live on. To his followers were given
unusually long life. Hundreds of years of life. And Elros, being half
elvish, chose to be human. And Elrond chose to be elvish. It was a choice
they were given long ago and they made their choices.
For awhile, Númenor prospered. But eventually it became corrupt. They began
to fear death more and more. When you live hundreds of years in relative bliss
and perfect health, it must be tough to deal with getting old and dying.
To make a long story short, Sauron, who could appear at that time in the guise
of a good and noble person, took advantage of this and convinced the Númenoreans
that they could live forever if they simply sailed off into the furthermost west
where the Valar lived and conquered that. Sauron lied and claimed that it was
the lands of the Valar that made the Valar live forever instead of anything
inherent.
And so Númenor prepared for war. But not all. Some of them had enough
wisdom to recognize Sauron for what he was. And so a small group of
Númenoreans secretly fled to Middle Earth. These were Aragorn's ancestors. The
Valar made short work of the foolish Númenorean attackers. Sauron, who
remained on the island thought himself pretty clever until the Valar decided to
destroy the actual island itself in punishment for the attack. This destroyed
Sauron's first body. In time he obviously returned but he no longer had
the potency of spirit to construct a body that was fair and pleasing to the eye.
Meanwhile, the Númenoreans who fled set up two kingdoms. One was called Arnor.
The other, in the south, was Gondor. Elendil and his son
Isildur eventually found themselves battling Sauron once he took shape
again. Elendil died (we see that in the opening part of Fellowship of the Ring).
Isildur took the ring but was slain by orcs (also seen). But Isildur had
children at this point. And through a line of succession we get to Aragorn.
So while the typical man might live 70 years. Aragorn can expect to live a
couple hundred years. In fact, at the time of our story, he's already in
his 80s. He's been, ahem, dating Arwen (who's 3000 years old herself) for 40
years. They are the ultimate case of waiting until you get married as both
of them are chasted.
Which brings us to Elrond. Elves get progressively wimpier as each
generation passes. In fact, one of the themes of Tolkien's mythology is that
things lose their potency and strength over time. The elves created
directly by Eru (Illuvitar, i.e. "God") are by far the most powerful. Think of
it as the potency of their spirits being disispated through their children.
If the first elves had a potency of 10 and two of them have 5 children, then
those 5 children would share a power level of 20 (so 4 each). And so as
time has gone on, that potenecy has been divided over and over again. Of
course, there is the case of Feanor who was the ONLY child of two first
generation elves and as a result was actually the most powerful elf of all.
No elves of that power exist in middle earth anymore. One of those
elves could taken on Sauron one on one. The most powerful elf left in
Middle Earth is 3rd generation and that is Galadriel (Elrond is 6th generation).
Which is why you see magical things in her realm but you don't see it (as much)
in Rivendell where Elrond is (except for the enchanted river but know one knows
if Elrond was the one who actually did that or whether Gil-Galad or some other
high elf set it up for him). But even Galadriel is a shadow of what the most
powerful elves once did.
And we don't even get into the wood elves who aren't much better then normal
men other than living forever and thus having a lot longer time to get good at a
bow or fighting or whatever. The thing to remember is that Aragorn, being
of the race of Númenor is inherently more hardy, stronger, faster, more skilled,
wiser, more intelligent, etc. than the normal man or the normal elf. The elves
you see generally in the movie are butt kickers but only because they've lived
so long as to be well practiced. Aragorn is a butt kicker because it's part of
what he is. He is inhernetly better at pretty much everything than anyone else.
Only a handful of descendents of Númenor exist such as Faramir, Boromir, and
Denethor but in their cases, they are not "pure" Númenorean. Their blood is
mingled with "common men" and hence their wisdom, strength, and life are
shortened. But they're still far above the typical man but not as powerful as
Aragorn who is the only pure blooded Númenorean left that we know of.
So when you watch Return of the King or The Two Towers and you see Aragorn
perform feats that make you go "Oh yea, how would he survive that?" the issue is
that the movies can't translate the vast differences in skill between normal men
and one of Númenorean heritage. Aragorn is the closest thing to a super hero
you're going to see out of the men of Middle Earth.