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Aragorn
~ Viggo Mortensen.
So great a power and royalty was revealed in Aragorn...that many of the wild men paused...and some looked up doubtfully at the sky.
Aragorn, son of Arathorn is a
descendant of the great men of Numenor and is heir to the throne of Gondor.
But instead of claiming the throne,
he has chosen
a life as a Ranger, known by some as Strider. To the Elves, he is also
known as Elessar. He is of the same blood line as Isildur, the King
who originally cut the Ring from Sauron's hand.
Aragorn is a noble man who has fought with his own concern as to whether he will be able to prevail over the Ring's influence or fall to it like his ancestor. Aragorn was raised in Rivendell by Lord Elrond and met Arwen when he was older as she had been previously living in Lothlorien with her grandmother, Galadriel. He fell in love with Arwen the day they met. The two wish to be together, but it is against Elrond's wishes as he feels that Arwen should leave Middle-earth to live immortal with her own kind in the Undying Lands across the seas. Their love mimics an older tale of the human Beren and the Elf Luthien.
Originally,
Stuart Townsend was cast to play Aragorn, but appeared too young for the
role once shooting commenced. He was replaced by Viggo into the fourth
day of shooting. At first, Viggo felt taking the role of Aragorn was
unwise. He had not read the book or script to prepare and didn't want
to be away from his family for such a long period of time. Fortunately,
his son Henry was able to change his mind. "My son said I was crazy
and that I'd got to do it, even if I was going to be gone a long time."
Henry also assisted the crew by doing research.
Viggo's first day of filming was the fight against the Nazgul at Weathertop. "I'm still shocked that that was the first thing he did," says Elijah Wood, "but when he started working, there was no question. This was Aragorn, this was the man who was meant to play this role. We had an immense amount of respect for him for being able to jump in so quickly."
All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes of a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king. ~The Riddle of Strider.
"I have crossed many mountains and many rivers, and trodden many plains, even into the far countries of Rhun and Harad where the stars are strange." ~Aragorn.
Within days, Viggo had read the book and script. "I continued to feel unprepared but at least I didn't have time to get nervous, which was probably good!" He quickly won respect and praise from the crew and became the best swordsman that trainer, Bob Anderson had ever worked with. "I found too that he (Aragorn) had misgivings and was hiding something. You use what you can as an actor. And the fact that he was someone seemingly as brave and honorable and self-sacrificing as he was, but, at times, also so plagued by doubt and insecurity about what others - and he himself - might expect of him, I thought, 'well yeah, I can relate to that.'"
"I was afraid as an actor, you
try to find some connection to the story that you are helping to tell, to
find what you have within you for the job at hand - often, as was the case
in this film, with virtually no time to prepare. Practically speaking,
within days of joining this project, I was still furiously reading the book
and starting to recognize things that I knew and
felt were true to my
own situation. As I read, I saw that, brave as Aragorn seems to be,
he is much conflicted and dealing with a lot of self-doubt... That was a
point of contact with the character: here I was, thrown into a situation
where I didn't yet know the story; didn't know the country I was going
to be working in or any of the other people on the project. Like Aragorn,
I realized that I faced a long and uncertain journey."
"I see Aragorn as a bridge between the past and the present. Having travelled extensively in Middle-earth, he's familiar with the land-scape, with its sounds and smells; he knows its people and speaks their languages. That understanding, combined with Aragorn's knowledge of how weak even the strongest of his forefathers were - how even the bravest and most honourable among them were unable to master their potential for greed - makes Aragorn a link, between what's good and what's scary about the past, and what is good and potentially scary about the present, and the future."
"Whereas Frodo, for example, is in a continual process of learning about the world, Aragorn knows it well; whereas Frodo is coming to terms with what he is learning, Aragorn is coming to terms with what his learning dictates that he must do."
"If you bring a Ranger with you, it is well to pay attention to him." ~Gandalf.
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