theadwyn-of-rohan

[theadwyn-of-rohan]

au: nienor fights morgoth at dagor dagorath

↳ ‘this was for everyone that had borne the weight of the shadow of war. this was for her parents. this was for her brother. this was for her.’

[theadwyn-of-rohan]

I always wondered what age all the rangers, especially the grey company ones would be, and also more in general how dúnedain aging even works, and how the maturity compares to "normal humans"/middle men

I mean we do know that all the grey company rangers are dúnedain, even if they aren't of royal blood/direct descent of isildur, and therefore still have a longer life expectancy than normal humans. I don't know/am not sure, if we actually have information on that, but I would say, that means that the usual one is about 140-150 years, maybe?

Now the question is, where do the gc rangers fit in, and how old are they compared to aragorn?

In my mind, idk if I read that somewhere, i believe that Dúnedain mature at 25, and that's probably when they get sworn to aragorn, so Helchon is somewhere around 25 or 26 years.

Thanks to an ao3 fic I read some time ago, I hc Candaith to be rather young for a ranger, somewhere in his early thirties, also because (courtesy of that fic aswell) the lone ranger thing wasn't actually planned, but the other rangers just- died (blame garth agarwen. that always works) another contributing factor to young(ish)!candaith might be bc of the oc that i ship him with- but that's beside the point

Calenglad, as we know, is older than Aragorn, by at least about 20 years, and with him, in my mind-, looking like he's in his forties somewhere (leaning towards late forties), something inbetween 107-120 seems fitting

Golodir, I'd believe, is somewhere similar to Calenglad, possibly a bit older, but due to all the Angmar shit- being mordirith's favourite punching bag for a few years straight does that to you- has aged faster, which puts him somewhere in the range of 120/120+ give or take

Corunir and Lorniel were besties and a similar age, change my mind. With that, and my headcanon for Angmar being give or take 10 years long, they were definitely older than 25 to actually go on that journey, and at the very least two-to-three years older, for the experience, which would put them somewhere in their early 40s/40s. That would mean that Golodir had Lorniel at about 80- which is fine, ig? Aragorn had Eldarion at 91, tho he also lived to 210, so I dunno if he is a valid comparison.

Anyway, this were the first rangers that came to mind- [actually, now that I think about it loth and rads too- and amdir, dagoras, daervunn, saeradan, halbarad- but i can't be bothered to write smth about them]

here you go *cutely hands you my first post*

[theadwyn-of-rohan]

Eucatastrophe isn't just a nice little plot device in The Lord of the Rings. It isn't just a nod to his worldview. It's absolutely vital to the specific story Tolkien's telling.

The Ring's main temptation is that it offers control. It offers you enough power to defeat all your enemies, to make sure the story ends the way you want. The heroes have to avoid that temptation at every turn, because taking up that power would make them no better than the villain. They have to move forward against impossible odds, knowing that they don't have the power to win, yet hoping that somehow, there's some greater power that will turn the story in their favor.

That's why the enemy's main weapon is despair. He tries to keep their eyes on the logical possibilities of this world, try to make them believe there's no hope of outside help, to think the only things they can rely on are their own power or his own dominance. If the heroes lose hope, they'll either submit to his power, or be tempted to take up power that will still make them slaves to the Dark Lord. Only with that hope can they withstand him.

It's not just hope that Tolkien's heroes need--it's hope unlooked-for. When, based on the knowledge they have and the resources they hold, they can't see any hope of success, they have to move forward in anticipation of a hope that they can't see. A hope that goes beyond the bounds of what they can logically expect. A hope in something greater than the petty powers of this world, in a power that can't be wielded but can only be trusted to turn all things toward a greater good.

And that hope is not in vain. The Dark Lord, for all his pride, all his grasping for power, is still bounded by the limitations of this world. He can't hope to overcome powers from outside the world. His plans can be foiled by a change in the wind, by the arrival of unexpected allies, by a withered, grasping creature taking one wrong step at the edge of a volcano, by air support that shows up at the last minute to save the heroes from death. These turns of fortune aren't just convenient escapes for the heroes--they directly tie to the theme at the heart of the work. In the context of the main conflict of the story, a eucatastrophe is the only way it could end.