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Virtuella's Idiosyncratic Literary Criticisms by Virtuella	37 Review(s)
Leithian	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 8/17/2024
Thank you Virtuella for posting this thought-provoking essay on Aragorn and his interactions with the female characters in the Lord of the Rings. While I do not disagree with the point that Aragorn is not particularly feminist, I do not find him very misogynist either. I find him patriarchal rather than misogynist; I find that there is a thin line between the two. Aragorn’s interactions with Eowyn at Edoras before leaving for the Paths of the Dead, should not, I believe be used to paint him as misogynist. It is to be remembered that he was starting off for a very dangerous mission and the people going with him were hardier and more used to facing supernatural horrors (e.g. long undead soldiers) as compared to Eowyn who has led a life, relatively sheltered from actual battle, in Meduseld. Adding to this is the fact that King Theoden had left Eowyn in charge of Edoras till he returned. How could Aragorn allow Eowyn to accompany him knowing that this would break the trust of Theoden and Eomer? In any case Eowyn had to remain at her position since she was ordered to so by the King. Any other action would rightly be considered betrayal and desertion of position. Aragorn’s arguments as to why Eowyn should remain in Edoras are based on nothing but fact. There is nothing misogynist or even patriarchal about telling a soldier to hold their position or to follow orders. Let’s remember that Aragorn knew Eowyn’s feelings for him, which made the whole exchange rather awkward. In Aragorn’s first interaction with Arwen he says “How comes it that we have never met before? Surely your father has not kept you locked in his hoard?” I can excuse him here, as it is not imaginable that Arwen spent 20 years journeying in the wild. Presumably, Aragorn has also heard the story of Celebrian’s capture and torture by the orcs and made some inferences of his own. In Tolkien’s universe the race with the greatest gender equality are, in my opinion, the Elves. Aragorn, having lived among and near the Elves for most of his lifetime must have absorbed their views on gender parity. Also, the Numenoreans had several Ruling Queens, and Princesses too were held in high regard. (Elendil and Isildur were descended from Silmarien who being the eldest daughter of Tar-Elendil, inherited important heirlooms including the Ring of Barahir, the sceptre of Annuminas, Narsil, etc which were passed down to her descendants who became the Lords of Andunie and later Kings of Arnor and Gondor). Thus, I find Numenorean society and by connection the Dunedain more egalitarian than for e.g. Rohan which by law barred female heirs of the King from ever ascending to the throne. Also, I don’t think that Arwen Lady of Rivendell would marry Aragorn if it meant that she would have merely a decorative purpose as Queen of Gondor. This does not mean that I consider Aragorn perfect. As you have said, he does not describe a woman other than fair and this same adjective he uses for Arwen, Eowyn and Galadriel. He tells Eomer that he has given the fairest thing of his realm to Gondor: thus, reducing Eowyn to an object given by one lord to another and with no will of her own in the matter. The only praise he finds for Eowyn is that she is beautiful: no mention is made of her bravery, determination and hardihood in battle nor the great deed of the felling of the Witch-King. Aragorn does not feel it beneath his diginity to bow to the hobbits and arranges the celebration at the Cormallen fields in their honour. Yet he gives no thanks to Eowyn for risking her life for ‘his’ city. No one ‘praises her with great praise’. Will her deed even be remembered? But worse I consider Aragorn’s words to Galadriel: "for the gifts you have given me I thank you, O Lady of Lorien of whom were sprung Celebrian and Arwen Evenstar. What praise could I say more?" As you have highlighted too, Galadriel is much more than a mother and a grandmother. She is the Keeper of Nenya, Lady of Lothlorien who takes an active part in the defense of the land using her powers. What’s more she is able to perceive the thought of Sauron and is able to stop Sauron from reading her mind. Sauron is also unable to deceive her as he did Denethor. Yet, all Aragorn has got to say in praise is the one pitiful line quoted. I don’t understand why Tolkien gave this dialogue to Aragorn and I hope you give your opinion on this matter. Throughout the LOTR, the Silmarillion and related works, Galadriel is presented as a major player in the Age long fight against Sauron and her great influence throughout the Third Age cannot be gainsaid. Tolkien has written Galadriel as the ultimate symbol of womanhood: Galadriel is Wife, Mother and Queen all rolled into one. She has power and influence in her own right, is wielder of the Elven ring Nenya and openly uses it. She and her husband are presented as equals in their rule and she easily corrects her husband without said husband getting annoyed. All the other characters are happy to praise her long, yet Aragorn sees her only as a mother and a grandmother. One might ask: is keeping the Dark Lord’s power at bay for almost 3000 years lesser than the birthing and rearing of a child? In the matter of Aragorn’s interactions with Gilraen and Ioreth, I completely agree with you, no respect their either: for the mother who raised him or for an old woman deemed wise and capable by those who know her before him. In answer to your question, I am myself stumped that the Tolkien who created many beautiful and open-minded male characters such as Faramir turned one of the main heroes of the saga: Aragorn into a sexist person. Even when reading the LOTR even as a pre-teen, I was struck by Aragorn’s lack of respect for the women in his life. Other examples from the Legendarium spring to mind: Feanor, who chose his wife Nerdanel not for her beauty but for her intelligence, Caranthir, who treated Haleth with the greatest courtesy, Thingol, who took advice from Melian, etc. No, I could not find a single example of Aragorn treating women respectfully (but he defends Galadriel from Boromir: "Speak no evil of the Lady Galadriel. You know not what you say. There is in her and in this land, no evil, unless a man bring it hither himself." Does this count?) And no, I don’t have any objection to your take on Aragorn, he’s not my favourite character in the LOTR by far (it is Glorfindel and Galadriel by the way). Stories, while carrying their own message are also open to the interpretations of the reader and that interpretation is subject to the readers’ own background. I am from a traditionalist society of the eastern part of the world hence I cannot enter the debate of whether Aragorn and the LOTR are feminist enough for the post-Victorian Age England when the books were written. However, I can confidently state that he is patriarchal: with the kind of benevolent patriarchal mindset that holds women in high regard yet as something to be protected and considers motherhood to be the highest duty of a woman. Thank you for reading this and I hope you’ll give your opinion. Also, English is not my first language (something like third or fourth language) so there may be some mistakes, which I hope you will excuse.

	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 8/14/2018
Thank you for this essay! l have long been pondering the same question myself. Aragorn was very much a childhood hero for me, growing up in a very patriarchal culture. But as l got older, moved to the West, and got a more balanced view on the gender question, boy, l began to wonder if there's something off about him. Thank you for confirming it for me! Decmeber

GUada	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/16/2017
I think I agree in most of your points. But I sadly think that Eowyn seems to have resigned herself to adopt a more traditional gender role at the end. I mean, you CAN want to be a healer, but the way Tolkine narrates it always sounded as Eowyn did this amazing thing and then she mgrew up and married and did all the right things a good girl should do. I know it's oversimplified but as a teen I just couldn't understand why wouldn't she be fighting side to side with Faramir or even better, be fighting while he grew gardens and read books. I understand he was a conservative catholic and all, but so were my parents and my dad did the cooking and gardening while my mom fixed the plumbing and did the woodwork. So there's that. I love re4ading essays by the way. As someone who loves LOTR and The Sillmarillion and The Hobbit but isn't in the same page ideologically as JRRR it's kind of difficult to speak to fellow Tolkine fans. I find that most of the people who like Tolkien tend to either idolize him or be very passionate about uhm, I gues deflecting any possible criticism of him. Like they can't HEAR any type of critique. When people tell me they love Tolkien I kind of pretend that I don't hear it or ignore them. I've gotten in worse fights with Tolkien lovers than with Tolkien haters. Author Reply: Hello, thanks for your comments. I get where you are coming from with this issue of Eowyn settling down, though I didn't read it quite that way. To me, it was always about moving into peacetimes, and it is both of them who are going to settle and grow a garden together. What Eowyn leaves behind is not so much adventure and glory, but the horrors of war. I think her notion of battle was naive and romanticised before she actually encountered it. Rebuilding a war-torn country and being a leader of the people are challenging and honourable tasks, and I do not for a second imagine that Eowyn would henceforth only do embroidery and weeding. I think she would have made a skillful politician. Ultimately, it is only speculation anyway, because Tolkien tells us virtually nothing about their later lives. It's quite understandable that in that moment where they declare their love for each other, they are envisaging themselves as gardeners rather than orc-slayers. Also, yes, I know what you mean about the idolisation of Tolkien. When you hear some folks calling him the greatest writer ever, you do have to wonder what else they read. ;-)

Damien	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 3/6/2016
I don't think the Witch-King thought he was generally invulnerable. When Glorfindel rides up, the Witch-king ran away. Skedaddled. "Turned in flight." Then Glorfindel made his prophecy, to hold Earnur back. And prophecy is a thing in Middle-Earth, done by Ainur, Quendi, and occasionally even humans. I think Glorfindel was basically saying "I can kind of see when and how he'll fall, and it won't be by you, so don't try." Sauron had gathered the Rings of Power back to himself; the Witch-king's Ring was off in Barar-dur. I'm not sure where this is spelled out, but it's the common wisdom. At any rate it would have lost its power when the One was destroyed, just as the Three did.

Lissa	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 5/22/2014
Hello, not a review, but just a comment ... I was watching The Return of the King movie adaptation by Mr. Peter Jackson et al and I was bothered by the flirtation between Aragorn and Eowyn, which I am certain hardly ever happened in the book. I read the books long before the first P. Jackson & co. adaptations were heard of and I recall that the first scenes mentioning Eowyn were among those that made me pick up interest again in my reading endeavors with the trilogy --- because as an adolescent living in the tropics it was a bit of a challenge for me to stick to a wordy narrative set in the frigid zone with only my imagination and a few lines in the encyclopedias to aid me with the visuals/illustrations --- so here's the comment ... I appreciate the way Eowyn and Aragorn are described like this in your Review here, ma'am. I was scouting for opinions regarding Eowyn and Aragorn because though the movie gave me a nice feeling about their bond it also made me feel as if I was being deceived by the intention in their scenes, I mean, as if it was intended to show that Eowyn was just a passing distraction for Aragorn and that Arwen is THE big thing, when in fact right now I seem to see that Arwen, at least in the movie, is some sort of a symbolism of an ideal that is deemed foolish by many: that of being in love with love. Aragorn and Eowyn looked good together in the movie but all the while I already know that I have always been happy that Eowyn and Faramir found each other. Faramir has even then fascinated me because though not having non-human traits he was, along with the hobbits, among those who can resist the seduction of the ring, which made me worried that it was not as clearly depicted in the movie, making him yet bring Frodo & Sam to Gondor before releasing them, a part as distasteful to me as having Aragorn flirt with Eowyn. In the book, too, I was appalled that Eowyn was forced by circumstances to stay with the household chores when it was clear she could do other things aside from that. I had already mourned for her constriction then and I was excited when she got to ride behind her uncle, though in disguise, on the way to Minas Tirith. When she got to stay at the Houses of Healing I felt that she, with Faramir, were being taken away where the important scenes were played, at Minas Morgul, but right now as I read your review I realize that the energies I invested in liking the Eowyn-Faramir part all the same is in its right place because, that is, I now realize how much Tolkien himself loved my three most beloved characters: Sam, Eowyn, and Faramir. Thank you for your review. Now I can see that you are right about Aragorn. As I am now again interested in picking up my long laid-down interest in his story, reviews such as yours are worth taking note of and sharing. Can I ask for your permission to re-post this in a blog, http://sacadalang.wordpress.com/ ? If I could put your article there, with your webpage at the head, and this comment at the end, too, then that would be great. Thank you very much and I wish you a very nice week. Author Reply: Hi, thanks for your comments. Yes, you can repost this, if you like.

MikoNoNyte	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 9/9/2012
Okay so I'm coming to this late and with a few giggles. I started out as a very young and active feminist and boy would I agree with you! However to be fair, and no I'm not going to even bring Tolkien into this, Aragorn was based on the male "role model" that was prevalent in Medieval times. Or so it seemed to me and yes, that could be very dodgy when having to deal with it. I would not want to HAVE to deal with it, even though in real life I have done so. Personally I take it a bit unfair (and not pointing fingers here!) when a writer or fan tries to push a character or even historical person, into the box that is their own time period. We view these characters from out own "enlightened" time (boy do I wish we WERE enlightened!) so of course we'd find them lacking what we would think of as egalitarian behaviour. Still, I won't disagree with your assessment. As he is written Aragorn is a jerk of the first order. I doubt he 'walked softly and carried a big sword'. He made his presence known and feared. Author Reply: Thanks for your comments. You're right of course that Aragorn follows a certain literary mould. However, medieval authors were not as unenlightened as one might think. If we look at Wolfram's "Parcival" or at Hartmann's "Iwein" and "Eric" then we see heroes who get their fingers rapped quite firmly for their machismo and/or condescending attitude towards women.

Rian Steelsheen	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/30/2010
I don’t read Glorfindel’s words the same way. It’s a prophecy, so Glorfindel is making a prediction. He cannot possibly change the WK’s physical constitution, or even perceive a weakness in it. My interpretation is that he had a flash of foresight and was suddenly gifted with the knowledge that no mortal man will be the one to destroy the WK. It’s not that a man cannot kill him, Earnur and Gandalf for example could, it’s just that it’s not what is going to happen. It sounds more logical to me this way. As to how Éowyn’s sword was able to pierce him, well I have always assumed that he had a body of some sort, or how would he be able too wear a cloak, boots, and a crown (Sauron kept the nine rings with him)? I thought the problem was that his body couldn’t hold itself together without the cloak to keep it still. The material forming his body isn’t able to keep a definitive human form without his clothes. Isn’t that what happened to him at the Bruinen? So, he can be pierced by anything, including a simple Rohirric sword, but Merry’s one is more effective as it is ensorcelled to be most painful for him. At the Pelennor he was so badly disembodied that it would have taken him a very long time to re-embody himself, but when the Ring was destroyed, he really died anyway. Well that is how I understood thing at first, but I have not really thought about it until now, so I may be wrong :) I liked your structural analysis! Author Reply: Thank you for your thoughts! There's probably a lot of room for specualtion on this issue, but yes, the structural question of what function thsi fulfils in the text was the bit I was mostly interested in.

Mîdhaer	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 8/9/2009
I agree with this essay, however I think it's worth noting that Aragorn also says to Eowyn "As for you, lady: did you not accept the charge to govern the people until their lord's return?" Although this does not help Aragorn's case, it does show that perhaps other people (most likely Theoden) realized she was a capable woman, and could, if necessary, fight. This also proves that other people also realized her intelligence. This shows that Aragorn is (probably) the only male in Lord of the Rings, of any race, who sees women as objects not people. Great essay. Sorry if I got redundant. I really enjoyed reading this. Namarie, Mîdhaer Author Reply: Thanks. I thought many of the reviews were more interesting than the actual essay, but that suited me just fine!

Mîdhaer	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/9/2009
I need to make an important point here. While Eowyn's sword was not magic, Merry's knife was. I think Merry's sword created a vulnerability, which Eowyn took to her advantage. Author Reply: True. If you scroll down the reviews page and look at Dreamflower's comment, you'll see that she's explained this point in much detail.

Nafad	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 7/26/2009
I have found the responses to your essay extremely interesting. One core Christian message in the Gospels is that our behaviour has consequences; and Frodo exemplified a character who believed that to the extent he was prepared to die in his quest. Thank you so much for your contribution which is so very illuminating. Author Reply: Thank you. It was great to have all these interesting comments. I would say, though, that "our behaviour has consequences" is a truism rather than a specifically Christian idea. That was part of my point I was trying to make, that if we want to call something Christian, it would really need to be something distinctly Chrsitian, rather than an idea that occurs in Christianity as well as in other traditions.

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