Tumblr crosspost (4 November 2020)

[anghraine]

I think one of the more intriguing remarks about Elrond in all of LOTR is Aragorn’s when he comes to the Houses of Healing:

“Would that Elrond were here, for he is the eldest of all our race, and has the greater power.”

Rambling under the cut!

Aragorn cannot by any stretch of the imagination be considered an Elf, and there are obviously many Elves older than Elrond, anyway. The half-Elves in Aragorn’s lineage are separated from him by a truly vast number of generations, and he is emphatically and invariably described as a Dúnadan or a Númenórean throughout LOTR and all of Tolkien’s work. So the implication here is that Aragorn considers Elrond a Númenórean—the supreme elder of the Númenórean people, even.

Additionally, Aragorn seems to be associating Elrond’s healing powers with that shared Númenórean identity; he might have wished Elrond were there because he’s an Elf-lord of great power, but instead, it’s because Elrond is a fellow but more senior and powerful member of Aragorn’s own people.

Now, this is Aragorn’s perception and may not be entirely accurate. But he was raised by Elrond. In all probability, his understanding of Elrond’s identity comes from Elrond himself.

Also, Elrond’s Númenórean identity is separately implied by Tolkien’s translation of Elladan in the Letters as ‘Elf-Númenórean.’ Elladan could only be considered any kind of Númenórean through Elrond, of course. And the mere fact that Elrond and Celebrían actually named him after a joint Elvish and Númenórean heritage seems to suggest that it was a matter of great significance to them.

(According to the same letter, Elrohir is also a reference to the siblings’ Elvish+human heritage; it’s not specifically Elvish+Númenórean as Elladan is, though ‘rohir’ only exists in Númenórean Sindarin. Undómiel seems to deliberately call back to the name of Elros’s daughter Tindómiel.)

But Aragorn’s remark is in the actual body of LOTR, which makes it doubly interesting—and something that a lot of takes on Elrond really overlook, I think.

Tagged: #people are very elves elves elves about elrond but his mannish and in particular númenórean heritage seems incredibly important to him #in lotr itself