I love to use the slow days that cushion Christmas and the New Year to rewatch the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
I first read the books when I was 12 and was transformed by them. It was like a light went on in my psyche, and that I had found a treasure I didn’t know I was searching for. While blissfully lost within those pages, I found a world where the honour and goodness of men was not only expected, but abundant.
As I grew up, I found that the world we live in often lacks these virtues. Promises are often broken, people often disappoint us, and sometimes we notice that we ourselves have fallen short.
There are so many characters across Tolkien’s universe that display unyielding virtue, and of course there are also those who are motivated by great evil, but here I would like to focus on Aragorn as a symbol of ideal masculinity: ideal, but attainable.
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Hard times make strong men, strong men make good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times”. There’s a lot of truth there that doesn’t require much explanation.
Modern man, in the west at least, doesn’t face many of the challenges our ancestors did. We don’t have to hunt for food, we don’t have to build fire from kindling to keep warm, and we don’t regularly face the threat of physical combat.
Rather, modern man is faced with a more inward focused spiritual malaise which is often referred to as a ‘crisis of meaning’.
Many of us no longer see value in suffering, whether physical or emotional, and, in large part, we no longer look to the eternal as a means of persevering when life is hard.
We often seek out ways to inoculate ourselves against the human experience, believing that if we don’t feel ‘happy’ all the time there must be something fundamentally wrong with us when, no, that’s just life.
Many men, both young and not so young, are caught up in a daze of drugs, pornography, hookup culture, and any of the other, ultimately meaningless, pursuits of this generation.
While they are called by their very nature to build, to protect, and to provide, many of them live as little more than shadows of what they could be.
All the while, there is much chatter online about the importance of positive male role models amidst a storm of almost ghoulish criticism of anything thought of as traditionally masculine.
Many of the values and interests that have driven men over the centuries are seen as “toxic” or stemming from “misogyny”, while some of the more base impulses of women are largely spared notice.
Some say that men need to cry more or be more “emotionally available” – I’m not quite sure what the latter means, but it seems to be a sly way of suggesting that men should be more like women in order to be acceptable in our hyper feminised society. I disagree.
Our ancestors knew – as plain as black and white – that men and women are as different as we are alike. It was common sense and people oriented their behaviour around this in order to co-exist successfully in an often demanding environment.
As society continues to promote ideas and behaviours which do nothing to strengthen us against the storms of life, to whom can we look for inspiration while we are pushed towards what St. Thomas Aquinas called the four “false gods” namely wealth (money), power, pleasure, and honor (fame)?
While superhero figures abound in modern pop culture, there is one character who, though lacking any kind of super power, has a transcendent power that speaks to us of a stoic kind of masculinity that had at its heart self sacrifice, courage, and behaving honorably.
Aragorn’s power doesn’t come from being bitten by a spider, hit by gamma rays, or as the result of some cruel experiment: it comes from a dedication to do what he believes is right, even when the personal cost of this is uncertain.
When we meet Aragorn, his true identity is veiled in mystery. He is a “ranger” from the mysterious north known as “Strider” – a name that couldn’t be more unsuited to the true air of the once great Kingdom of Gondor. He is a descendant of the Númernorian kings, on whom doom fell due to their descent into idolatry and human sacrifice.
His is a destiny that could either light up the world or hasten its fall into shadow: as with every man, the choice is his.
While the world preaches that money, attention, and cheap sex are the keys to fulfilment, Aragorn tells us that true power lies in morality and integrity.
When we look to the wisdom of Aristotle, we see that happiness and morality are virtually identical
“Dignity does not consist in possessing honours, but in deserving them.” the great philosopher said.
In contrast to this the modern world often seems positively Machiavellian in how it tempts us to pursue temporal riches, at almost any cost, while giving little regard to whether we gain them by virtuous means or ill.
When we look at figures like Andrew Tate or Bonnie Blue, we see people who seem to have completely disposed of any sense of morality or virtue in order to attain fame and money.
While that unabashed pair are commonly seen as the poster children for moral decay, the truth is that many of us don’t even seem to believe that there is such a thing as good and evil, preferring to err on the side of moral relativism lest we offend anyone or – heaven forbid – have to say ‘no’ to ourselves from time to time.
Aragorn doesn’t seek to grab at his throne for its own sake, instead he hides from his destiny while internally battling on whether his ascension is the right thing for the world.
Although the heart of Aragorn desires above all things to rest in the embrace of his beloved Lady Arwen, he knows that he must first face the evils of the world. He understands that duty calls him to battle, and possible death, because peace is hard won and only endures at the cost of perpetual vigilance.
“The hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known.”
Those were the words of a wise woman of Gondor. While the overwhelming majority of men are not born to inherit a kingdom, the concept of being a king is often associated with the power and opulence of figures like the disastrous tyrant Henry VIII.
Aragorn embodies a benevolent kingship which recognises that a king is a father on whom the fortunes of his subjects rely. He is ultimately responsible for their good fortune or otherwise, and, in order to be a good king, must make decisions which are not based on mere vanity or self-aggrandisement.
He knows when mercy is called for and when to show none in the face of an unbending foe. He is dangerous when necessary but doesn’t use his strength to impose himself on others unfairly.
Put simply, Aragorn is a good man. He is strong both physically and mentally, he knows the difference between right and wrong, and he pursues virtue over pleasure or ease. He doesn’t seek to glorify his own ego, rather he strives towards the highest good that can be imagined: ultimately, God.
He believes in providence and that the sacrifices he makes will in the end count towards a greater good.
Ultimately it seems that within the heart of every man there dwells a king and a clown, and that boys cannot truly become men unless they face off against the challenges of life and choose goodness.
While all of us regardless of our sex often learn the most from our mistakes, if a man chooses to be weak, selfish, pleasure seeking, and uses others as a means to an end, you can guess which one he will become.