The Fellowship of the Ring: Character Sketch

Aragorn son of Arathorn, who would be expected to be a great lord, lives, at least for the most part as a weather beaten ranger stealthily crossing wild country to ensure the safety of the Ring, and therefore all of Middle Earth. Even though he is a good friend of Gandalf’s, he did not introduce himself to the Hobbits as so. Rather as Strider, a strange ranger who wanted to help them and had ample knowledge to do it. His reason for this false identity was to test how much they needed to trust rather than the Hobbits trusting him because of Gandalf and possibly making a mistake later.
Aragorn leads them as safely as possible, for the Black Riders were on their trail, to Rivendell, where his identity is revealed to them. After their eventual departure from Rivendell with the new Fellowship and the loss of Gandalf (after which he takes up leadership of the group), he starts to show another side, if only for a few moments, “for the grim years were removed from the face of Aragorn and he seemed clothed in white, a young lord tall and fair”(395). Aragorn’s past, probably less distant than has appeared, and his future are beginning to meet, “Frodo turned and saw Strider, and yet not Strider; for the weatherworn ranger was no longer there. In the stern sat Aragorn son of Arathorn… and his dark hair was blowing in the wind, a light was in his eyes: a king returning from exile to his own land” (442). He will shed the skin of a ranger, lead his people out of this time of dark magic and return to his rightful position.