Guide to The Lord of the Rings/Characters/Aragorn Elessar

Aragorn is a character in the Lord of the Rings trilogy series. He plays the part of a very strong, very athletic, and very good fighting warrior, who is part of the fellowship ( a group of nine people who set off in The Fellowship of the Ring, first of the trilogy, to destroy a ring created by Sauron to rule all of Middle-Earth.

Character
Aragorn has been described as a ranger, one of the nomadic soldiers who protect the lands on their own. He is, however, the last in a long forgotten line of kings, the heir of Isildur, king of Gondor. He comes to realize his fate to be the king in the third book, The Return of the King, and claims the throne after the destruction of the dark lord Sauron. He is humble, strong, and very agile, and comes from the race of the Numenor.

Friends
Aragorn befriends ( throughout the journey ) an elf, named Legolas. He also becomes friends with a stubborn Dwarf known as Gimli during the long journey to destroy the ring. Other people who might be considered by Aragorn as friends are: Gandalf, Eomer, Theoden, Frodo, Eowyn and the rest of the Fellowship.

Role in the first book
In The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn meets Frodo, Pippin, Merry, and Sam in the Prancing Pony Inn on a rainy night. He sees them from a croner, a dark corner. They see him, and Frodo inquires to the bar manager, "That man, in the corner. Who is he?" The bar manager says to Frodo, "He is one of them Rangers. Dangerous folk they are." Frodo then averts his eyes, hoping not to startle Aragorn, formerly known in the first book as Strider.

In the first book, Aragorn leads the group of four to Rivendell, the place of the Elves and where the council was made to make the company of nine, the "Fellowship," set off to destroy the ring. He was formerly known by the hobbits as "Strider" due to the fact that he did not reveal his true name. Aragorn plated the part of the "Swordsman" during the journey. In the Mines of Moria Aragorn fought gallantly to protect the Hobbits from a massive Cave Troll that attacked their party. In Lothlorien, later in the book, Aragorn comes to realize the fate of the Ringbearer, Frodo. He then reminds frodo of his oath to protect him, after Frodo escapes from the company to save them, only to find Aragorn and be frightened of him. In the end of the book, Aragorn is seen along with Legolas and Gimli "hunting" the orcs that took Merry and Pippin captive, and were heading off to Isengard.

Role in the Second Book
In the Second book, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Aragorn is first seen with companions Legolas and Gimli hunting after a party of Uruk-Hai that had recently taken hostage Merry and Pippin.

Role in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
In order to defend the city, Aragorn travelled the Paths of the Dead, and summoned the Dead Men of Dunharrow who owed allegiance to the King of Gondor. It had been prophesied by Isildur and Malbeth the Seer that the Dead would be summoned once more to pay their debt for betraying Gondor a millennia before. With their aid the Corsairs of Umbar were defeated.

Aragorn, a small force of Rangers, and a large contingent of men and soldiers travel the to Minas Tirithand fight with the armies of Gondor and Rohan rallied together and defeated Sauron's army.

The Steward Denethor II declared that he would not bow to a descendant of Isildur. Aragorn healed Faramir, Denethor's last heir, winning him the immediate recognition of Faramir as rightful heir to the throne; his humility and self-sacrifice gained him the hearts of the inhabitants of Gondor's capital city. Aragorn's healing abilities, moreover, were a sign to the people of Gondor of the identity of their true king; as Ioreth said, "The hands of the King are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known." The people hailed him as King that same evening.

Despite his claim to the throne, Aragorn decided to lay aside his claim for the time being. He knew that if he aggressively promoted his claim, rival claimants or debates as to his legitimacy were not out of the question, and this could be a fatal distraction for Gondor at a time when the West needed to be united against Sauron. So, to avoid conflict, after he had healed people during the following nights of March 15–16, he left Minas Tirith and symbolically refused to enter it again until he was crowned King on May first.

Upon Sauron's defeat, Aragorn was crowned as King Elessar.

He later dies in 120 of the Fourth Age.