# Hands of a Healer (lets start again...)



## Eonwe (Jan 23, 2002)

Thus spake Ioreth, lady of Gondor of the houses of healing who blabbeth, 

"The hands of a king are the hands of a healer" and thus shall the rightful king be known.

Also, Aragorn uses Athelas on Frodo's shoulder as he slides away towards becoming a wraith before Rivendell. And Aragorn says that he wishes Elrond was around because he has more power and is the elder of his race...

Where does this healing come from? The oldest ancestor of Aragorn I can think of is Luthien curing Beren's wounds with her tears?? Is this from Melian the Mighty and her being a Maia of Lorien?


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## Harad (Jan 23, 2002)

Yavanna Giver of Fruit made all the fruits, vegetables, and medicinal herbs (pronounced with an "h").


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## BluestEye (Jan 23, 2002)

Mmmmm.... nice question, Eonwe  

S-P-O-I-L-E-R A-L-E-R-T!!!

Aragorn is the last king of a long line of ancestors who came from Numenor. The numenoreans were known for their long life (each Numenorean lived like 500 years) and great powers. They were like the "most preferable Men by the Gods". They lived very close to the land of the Valar. Since they were so close to them, they might have got some powers that other Men of Middle-Earth didn't have... like healing powers. When the Numenoreans escaped from Tol-Eresea and came to Middle-Earth their powers started to dwindle. They died sooner, they were less strong, but they still were Dunedain, stronger than other Men on Middle-Earth.
So I believe that Aragorn's healing powers came from his ancestors of Tol-Eresea, but his powers are lesser than the powers of his ancestors.

BluestEye


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## Bucky (Jan 23, 2002)

But that would not explain 'That the hands of the King are the hands of a healer'.
It would mean ANY Numenorean could have that gift.

I think the fact that the Kings are descende from Elros & his brother Elrond is a 'master of healing' shows more merit.

On Luthein, she also 'healed Thingol's winter' with a touch of her hand'.


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## lilhobo (Jan 23, 2002)

Luthien is an Eldar, an elf , NOT a maia if i am not mistaken

did Aragorn pick up the seedling and it bloom in his hands???


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## BluestEye (Jan 23, 2002)

'The hands of the King are the hands of a Healer' is not an "old" prophecy. It speaks of the Numenoreans (the Dunedain) that settled in Gondor after Tol-Eresea was ruined. The sentance suggests that the people will know for sure that the real king arrived, by his Healing-Hands, because this power of healing comes from the long line of the Numenorean Kings. So if Aragorn has these Healing Hands it means that he is a descendant of the Numenoreans and because of this: he is the King as the prophecy says.

BluestEye


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## Bucky (Jan 23, 2002)

>>>>Luthien is an Eldar, an elf , NOT a maia if i am not mistaken 

did Aragorn pick up the seedling and it bloom in his hands???


Luthien's lineage:
Half Maia through Melian
Half Elven, Telerian & High Elf through Thingol to be exact

Without going through the whole line of descent, both Elrond & all the Kings in Numeanor & Arnor & Gondor are descended in part from them.

As with any generational heredity, it becomes weaker as it's deluded.

I find the original statement to start this thread has merit.


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## Eonwe (Jan 23, 2002)

As with any generational heredity, it becomes weaker as it's **deluded**

Bucky I agree. Can I put that line in my sig  or am I diluted

sorry


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## Lantarion (Jan 23, 2002)

Bluest, Tol Eressëa is entirely different from Númenor; Tol Eressëa was the 'transport island' with which Ulmo took the Teleri towards Valinor. But Ossë begged for Ulmo not to take the Teleri away from her, close to the Sea, so Ulmo anchored the island in the Bay of Eldamar, which was right next to Valinor. Númenor was the star-shaped island in the middle of the ocean, given to the faithful Edain who aided the Elves and the Valar in the War of the Jewels; the Edain lived there for a very long time, but then, when King Ar-Pharazôn assailed the Valar and tried to battle them because they would not grant him immortality, Númenor was sunk by Ilúvatar.
Just a bit of nitpickin'.


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## Snaga (Jan 23, 2002)

Nice nit-pick Pontifex. But it kinda gives away that, great loremaster that you are, you can't answer Eonwe's question! 

I think Eonwe answer is brilliant deduction. I can't come up with a better explanation. Of course, Aragorn in part owes his skill to a bit of herb-lore picked up out in the wilds as a ranger. But it does have to go deeper than that.


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## Eonwe (Jan 23, 2002)

geez thanks  But I asked you guys because Bucky, VofK, Ponti, Grond, Greenwood, etc (except Harad and his little mouse squeeky) are smarter than me!


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## Harad (Jan 23, 2002)

Dont make me report you. Without Yavanna, nobody cures nothing.


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## Eonwe (Jan 23, 2002)

um correct me if I'm wrong, but who cured the two trees after Melkor, enough to get a flower and fruit out of them? Yavanna **and**...

Your answer is too simple anyway. It is difficult for you to trace Aragorn back to Yavanna. Try it


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## Grond (Jan 23, 2002)

Aragorn tells the party that he wishes Elrond was there because he had the greatest skill in the art of heling of their race (meaning Aragorn's). That would tend to suggest that the healing ability is traced all the way back to Elros and Elrond and hence passed through the Kings of Numenor to Aragorn who is of that lineage.

I really think that answers it, but.... Comments?


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## Legolam (Jan 23, 2002)

I always thought the line Ioreth "babbles" is some sort of ancient prophecy, not really based on truth, but some way that the people of Minas Tirith would know that the true king had come home.

Does that make sense?


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## Grond (Jan 23, 2002)

Legolam, I agree that it is a prophecy, albeit a true one. The texts make it _fairly_ clear that the hands of the True King of Numenorean descent are the hands of the healer and thus the King would be known. (Not the exact quote but what I read into it). Others may disagree. I still hold to the assertion that the healing craft comes down through the lineage of Elrond and Elros because of Aragorn's statement to the party when Frodo is first wounded by the Morgal blade and Aragorn first uses athelas to treat Frodo. I will research HoMe, UT and the Sil to see if any further discussion of this exists.


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## Bucky (Jan 23, 2002)

>>>I always thought the line Ioreth "babbles" is some sort of ancient prophecy, not
really based on truth, 

I think it was some sort of ancient prophecy (or historic fact) BASED on truth.

As Celeborn tells Boromir, who calls stories about Fangorn 'old wive's tales', "But do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years, for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know."


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## Grond (Jan 23, 2002)

Go Bucky! Go Bucky! Exactly the quote I was hoping to find. Good job to hunt it down.


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## Lantarion (Jun 11, 2003)

Why are the "hands of the King the hands of a healer"? Whence did this prophetical assumption arise?


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