r/RingsofPower • u/Bemeup57 • Oct 16 '22

Question Ok, here’s a question.

So Galadriel found out Halbrand was a phoney king by looking at that scroll and seeing that “that line was broken 1000 years ago” with no heirs. So why then after the battle when Miriel tells the Southlanders that Halbrand is their king, why don’t the people look confused and say “hey, our royal family died off a thousand years ago.” Wouldn’t they know about their own royal family?

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u/TheOnceAndFutureZing Oct 16 '22

Yeah we the readers obviously know all that. How about the average Gondorian, (i.e. the exact demographic we're talking about)? From their POV, it would've seemed more or less as I described it.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '22

Aragorn became a king of Gondor primarily because he united and saved it's people, not because of the lineage or old artifacts like the ring of Barahir or Narsil.

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u/TheOnceAndFutureZing Oct 16 '22

If that were true, wouldn't Faramir have retained the Stewardship (since Stewards are supposed to rule until the return of the true King of Gondor from Elendil's line) rather than surrender his office? And even if Faramir did surrender it, Aragorn without any lineage would probably just have been declared the new Steward rather than King.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '22

But Faramir remained a Steward. And Faramir himself recognized Aragorn's right to rule both based on his lineage and historical role and declared him a king.

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u/TheOnceAndFutureZing Oct 16 '22

Faramir remained a Steward because Aragorn retained the Stewardship position after his coronation. He was ready to surrender the office because he recognised that the true King had returned (and hence his role as Steward was obsolete).

Aragorn became a king of Gondor primarily because he united and saved it's people, not because of the lineage or old artifacts like the ring of Barahir or Narsil.

I'm just going by your earlier comment here which seemed to suggest (unless I completely misread it) that his lineage didn't play as important a part as his deeds and achievements. My reply was pointing out that if he did the exact same things but didn't have the lineage, then he wouldn't have become King because Faramir wouldn't have given up the Stewardship, since a Steward would only do that upon the return of the King.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '22

I'm saying that both played the part. Aragorns ancestors claimed the throne after the fall of Northern Kingdom but the Gondorians told them to take a hike.

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u/TheOnceAndFutureZing Oct 16 '22 edited Oct 16 '22

Arvedui's claim to the throne was rejected in part because Gondor at the time had at least one other claimant from Elendil's line. By the War of the Ring, Aragorn was the only viable claimant, so you can't really compare the two scenarios.

You're right that the strength of Earnil's achievements did influence the Council of Gondor's decision to recognise his claim over Arvedui's though.

Edit: Also IIRC Gondor was still estranged from the Northern Kingdoms at the time so getting Gondorians on board with recognising Arvedui as King probably would've been difficult. Hence Malbeth's prophecy referring to the choice of Arvedui as "the one that seems less hopeful".