# Aragorn’s Sense of Humor



## Alcuin (Jun 13, 2020)

We have a thread on Tolkien’s (quirky) sense of humor. But he enlivens the story with Aragorn’s (rather dark!) sense of humor. 

In “Strider” (_FotR_), Aragorn loses his temper with Butterbur when the latter tells Frodo he wouldn’t “take up with a Ranger,” retorting,
​Then who would you take up with? A fat innkeeper who only remembers his own name because people shout it at him all day?​​My favorite got cut after the first edition of _RotK_. In the original version, Aragorn joins Legolas and Gimli for lunch in Helm’s Deep after Théoden and Éomer lead their troops back towards Edoras. (I think Halbarad, Elladan, and Elrohir are dining with them.) When Aragorn says he’s looked into the Stone of Orthanc, Gimli impetuously exclaims, “Did you say aught to – him [Sauron]? Even Gandalf feared that encounter.” Aragorn’s original reply was,
​What do you fear that I should say: that I had a rascal of a rebel dwarf here that I would gladly exchange for a serviceable orc?​​I imagine Halbarad choking on his ale, Legolas concealing his delight and amusement from Gimli while patting him on the shoulder, and Elladan and Elrohir smirking but looking over their mugs of ale at Aragorn, while Gimli nearly poops his pants. After assuring Gimli he isn’t really angry and explaining the situation, their friendship is revealed in Gimli’s good-natured repartee with Aragorn:
​“I hope that the forgotten people will not have forgotten how to fight,” said Gimli; “for otherwise I see not why we should trouble them.”​​“That we shall know if ever we come to Erech,” said Aragorn.​​And I imagine Aragorn says that with a grim smile. The repartee at the end makes perfect sense when the original text is restored to his retort to Gimli’s earlier impertinence.


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## Deleted member 12094 (Jun 14, 2020)

Here is a similar one:

_‘if you think that I have passed through the mountains and the realm of Gondor with fire and sword to bring herbs to a careless soldier who throws away his gear, you are mistaken. If your pack has not been found, then you must send for the herb-master of this House. And he will tell you that he did not know that the herb you desire had any virtues, but that it is called westmansweed by the vulgar, and galenas by the noble, and other names in other tongues more learned, and after adding a few half-forgotten rhymes that he does not understand, he will regretfully inform you that there is none in the House, and he will leave you to reflect on the history of tongues.’_​
Whereafter Pippin remarks:

_My dear ass, your pack is lying by your bed, and you had it on your back when I met you. He saw it all the time, of course._​
BTW I know that some typo was being corrected over the years but I did not know that a previous version of RotK exists, on which some (more or less) substantial text editing was done…?


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## Olorgando (Jun 14, 2020)

Merroe said:


> ...
> BTW I know that some typo was being corrected over the years but I did not know that a previous version of RotK exists, on which some (more or less) substantial text editing was done…?


Yes, that second edition 1966 had some revisions to the 1954/55 first edition. It all came about because Ace Books in the US in 1965 published an unauthorized paperback edition, claiming that JRRT's US hardcover publisher, Houghton Mifflin, had somehow not properly registered LoTR under US copyright law. Ace Books came under massive fire from JRRT fans and agreed to a settlement.

Wiki: "Authorized editions followed from Ballantine Books and Houghton Mifflin to tremendous commercial success. Tolkien undertook various textual revisions to produce a version of the book that would be published with his consent and establish an unquestioned US copyright. This text became the Second Edition of The Lord of the Rings, published in 1965."
One good thing that came out of all of this was that JRRT's publishers finally consented to a paperback edition, Ballantine Books being the first one. George Allen & Unwin and Houghton Mifflin had up to then been loth to publish a paperback edition, fearing it would "cannibalize" their hardcover sales. Perfect timing, in one sense, as the paperback editions came out just in time to become a campus cult in the US starting in the late 1960s. That sent sales, which certainly had been more than satisfactory even up to then, rocketing through the stratosphere, blazing past the one, two, and three million copies thresholds in short order. 50 million had ben reached around 2000, and sales are now in the Kuiper Belt territory of well over 100 million.

JRRT himself mentions, in letter 340 to Christopher of 11 July 1972, with some bemusement a visit to new offices of Allen & Unwin:
"To this I paid a kind of official visitation, like a minor royalty, and was somewhat startled to discover the _main_ business of all this organization of many departments (from Accountancy to Despatch) was dealing with my works. …. Also a large single order for copies of _The L.R._ had just come in. When I did not show quite the gratified surprise expected I was gently told that a single order of 100 copies used to be pleasing (and still is for other books), but this one for _The L.R._ was for 6,000."


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## Alcuin (Jun 14, 2020)

Merroe said:


> BTW I know that some typo was being corrected over the years but I did not know that a previous version of RotK exists, on which some (more or less) substantial text editing was done…?


I learned about it in _Reader’s Companion_. Eileen Elgar, a fan and friend who frequented the same hotel as Ronald and Edith Tolkien, complained that Aragorn’s response was too harsh. While Tolkien defended Aragorn’s words, he did replace them when the book was reprinted. The exchange of letters is otherwise unpublished. 

I do think the original dialogue much better than the lame replacement, “Did I not openly proclaim my title before the doors of Edoras?” For one thing, it’s bitingly funny; for another, it shows a real person with a fierce temper under the highly controlled exterior Aragorn usually projects. 

These few examples so far show us a highly motivated man with a fierce temper under tight control, and a dark, ironic, sense of humor that can border on the sarcastic. We see few glimpses of Aragorn’s inner life: He weeps beside Boromir: why? for Boromir’s sake, or because he believes he has failed his mission to Gondor so that he has lost both crown and Arwen? He momentarily lashes out at Barliman Butterbur, who I think he actually likes. He momentarily loses his temper and flattens Gimli for impertinence, but as a “disagreement among friends” rather than a royal rebuke. His love for Halbarad and the other Rangers of Arnor is demonstrated by his reaction to their serendipitous appearance in Rohan at night. His gentle teasing of Merry recovering from Black Breath is heartwarming:
“I am frightfully sorry,” [Merry] said. “… [I]t is the way of my people to use light words at such times and say less than they mean. … It robs us of the right words when a jest is out of place.”

“I know that well, or I would not deal with you in the same way,” said Aragorn.​Aragorn is not a wooden figure: He’s a man driven by purpose, pushing himself and those around him to their limits, tightly wound (we would say), but with a strong sense of humor that gets loose from time to time, particularly when he’s under pressure with people he likes.


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## Aramarien (Jun 15, 2020)

Alcuin said:


> Then who would you take up with? A fat innkeeper who only remembers his own name because people shout it at him all day?


I always loved this quote!! One of my favorites!

Another quote "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony", when Frodo was singing and dancing on the table and the ring slipped on his finger, Strider/ Aragorn says to Frodo, " You have put your foot in it!! Or should your finger!"

The chapter, "Strider", after Frodo reads Gandalf's letter, Frodo says,
I think one his spies would - well, seem fairer ad feel fouler, if you understand."
"I see," laughed Strider. "I look foul and feel fair. Is that it? _All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost."_

In the chapter, "Flight to the Ford", Pippin comes running announcing "There are trolls!!" Strider picks up a stick and says, "We will come and look at them."
When they came upon the trolls, Strider walked up to the trolls and broke a stick on the stooping troll, "Get up, old stone!!" Strider points out later that one of trolls has a bird's nest behind his ear! 

If Strider was all business, he probably would have told Pippin right away and not bother joking with them.


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## CirdanLinweilin (Jun 16, 2020)

Aramarien said:


> I always loved this quote!! One of my favorites!
> 
> Another quote "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony", when Frodo was singing and dancing on the table and the ring slipped on his finger, Strider/ Aragorn says to Frodo, " You have put your foot in it!! Or should your finger!"
> 
> ...


Are these still in the book??

CL


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## Alcuin (Jun 16, 2020)

CirdanLinweilin said:


> Are these still in the book??


Si.


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## CirdanLinweilin (Jun 16, 2020)

Alcuin said:


> Si.


Goes to show how long it's been since a re-read!


CL


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Nov 11, 2020)

I was moved to revive this by being reminded by his post on the Joke thread that one of our resident serious scholars does indeed possess a sense of humor. 

A couple of instances of Aragorn's own dry sense of humor appear in "The Houses of Healing":

_'One thing also is short, time for speech. Have you athelas?'

'And now, dame, if you love the Lord Faramir, run as quick as your tongue and get me kingsfoil, if there is a leaf in the city.'_

These are his somewhat exasperated responses to the gossipy Ioreth, a stock character, to be sure, but there's nothing wrong with stock characters, in the right place. I'll mention that Gandalf underscores the the humor of the scene, just after this, with a little dig of his own.

Some of Tolkien's favorite types of humor were evidently of the Menippean kind, a form that often goes unrecognized -- and not just with him. One good example is the conversation in the Green Dragon, but the herb-master clearly has Menippean blood in him. The exchange is short, but demonstrates the technique of taking down the pedant by overwhelming him with a shower of his own jargon:

_'Your lordship asked for _kingsfoil, _as the rustics name it,' he said; 'or _athelas _in the noble tongue, or to those who know somewhat of the Valinorean. . .'

'I do so,' said Aragorn, and I care not whether you say _asea aranion _or _kingsfoil, _as long as you you have some.'_

Whereupon the herb-master begs his pardon -- though it doesn't prevent him from launching into another pedantic litany.


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## Alcuin (Jun 11, 2021)

Good stories age well. In Shakespeare’s _Julius Caesar_, Act I, Scene II, Brutus and Cassius pull Casca aside to ask him why the crowd was cheering Caesar, who had just passed by. Casca replies that Marc Antony had offered him a crown, which Caesar refused. Cassius asks,
CASSIUS: Did Cicero say any thing?

CASCA: Ay, he spoke Greek.

CASSIUS: To what effect?

CASCA: [T]hose that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but, … it was Greek to me. …​The play is over 400 years old, and “It was Greek to me,” still gets laughs on stage. The Greek playwright Aristophanes died nearly 24 centuries ago, but his plays _Frogs_, _Clouds_, and _Lysistrata_ still set audiences into fits of laughter (and are well worth reading). Aristophanes is considered one of the greatest humorists of recorded history. Hopefully, readers will still be laughing at Tolkien’s humor in several centuries as well.


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