Why wasn't Aragorn already king?

why wasn't Aragon already King if he had such a clear claim to the throne of Gondor why wasn't he already their ruler why hadn't he already claimed his kingdom or why hadn't his father or his father hi everyone this is Robert welcome to in deep geek on this channel we cover the best in fantasy and science fiction books and TV shows the Lord of the Rings A Song of Ice and Fire The Witcher and more welcome watching the movies of The Lord of the Rings or sometimes even reading the books it seems a bit odd

that so many people seem to recognize Aragon as a rightful King but he isn't King the movies sort of suggest that this is down to Aragon not wanting it or perhaps Gondor not wanting him which kind of works but it doesn't explain how Aragon's predecessors the line of Kings he comes from also weren't King they'd been Rangers in the north for over a millennium but seemingly never bothered to claim the southern Kingdom which had been ruled by the stewards for nearly as long as you'd expect the answer lies deep back in middlee history and as

we'll see Aragon's claim is actually not quite as straightforward as it might at first seem way back at the end of the second age of Middle Earth after the fall of numor elendil founded the kingdom of aror in the north and his sons isildur and anarion founded Gondor in the South and ruled it jointly elendil as their father was however named The High King over the two kingdoms then came the war with Sauron and the last Alliance of elves and men and both elendil and anarion his second son were killed iseler assumed the title of

High King and King of aror and left his nephew that's an arion's son menil as king of Gondor but then isilda himself was killed before he even made it to aror in the gladdened fields losing the one ring in the river in the process ilda's son valandil then took over the title of king of aror crucially vandel appears not to have claimed the title of High King over Gondor as well leaving Gondor effectively as an independent Kingdom so the aror in the north was ruled by the descendants of isildur and Gondor in the South was

ruled by the descendants of anarion both could therefore claim to come from the line of elendil but the rulers of the northern kingdom as isildur's heirs could technically claim to be the high Kings of both aror and Gondor as elendel and iseler had but they didn't they just stuck to being Kings of aror in the north and that's broadly how things stayed for the next couple of thousand years there were some complications of course in the South there was a little bit of toing and frowing in the succession coup attempts generational jumps in kingship and

things like that and in the north the kingdom split into three smaller kingdoms but in the North and the South the genealogical lines back to isildur and anarion were still clear the two lines however were joined once more when arav who later became the last king in the north married Fel the daughter and last remaining direct heir of the recently killed King of Gondor aravi claimed the ancient title of High King and therefore king of Gondor he had a reasonable claim and their children would obviously be able to trace their lineage on both sides but

Gondor decided to reject the claim and instead made one of their own who had a rather more distant claim King instead as the Council of Gondor said at the time the crown and royalty of Gondor belong solely to The Heirs of melil son of anarion to whom isildur relinquished this realm denior repeated this argument in The Lord of the Rings to Gandalf much later when discussing Aragon's claim even were his claim proved to me still he comes but of the line of iseler a couple of generations later the line of gondorian Kings dried up completely

and the stewards took over in the north the last remaining Kingdom of aror fell and isildur's heirs were reduced to the Rangers we know of as tolken made clear in the appendices to the Lord of the Rings over the centuries that followed the ancient history that there had once been another line of Kings who claimed the Throne of Gondor was largely forgotten or complet completely unknown to most people just some remembered the ancient line of the north which it was rumored still lived on in the shadows so to summarize Aragon's legal position his claim to

be isildur's Heir and heir to the long AB bandant Kingdom of aror is Undisputed but being isildur's Heir did not in and of itself make him the Undisputed heir to Gondor Gondor had existed without a king or with the stewards as kings in Albert name for a thousand years and when they were ruled by a king the claim of Aragon's direct ancestor was explicitly rejected by Gondor so Aragon couldn't exactly just walk into minth and claim the crown denior would refuse him and most of the people probably wouldn't recognize his claim either at this point

we should probably acknowledge that Peter Jackson perhaps wisely decided to cut out most of this history and imply that the stewards of Gondor had just been effectively keeping the throne warm for The Heirs of isor all that time it certainly makes for an easier Dynamic for the Casual viewer to understand but Legolas shouting at Boromir that Aragorn is his rightful King did not and would not have happened in the books so what changed how did Aragon come to be recognized as the rightful King how did Gondor finally come to accept him I think we can

get a lot of the answer from faramir's Little speech when proposing him as king after Sarah had been defeated he said men of Gondor hear now the steward of this realm behold one has come to claim the kingship again at last here is Aragon son of arthor Chieftain of the dunad of aror captain of the host of the West bearer of the star of the north wielder of the sword reforged victorious in battle whose hands bring healing the elfstone elisar of the line of valan isildur's son elendil's son of numor shall he be king and

enter into the City and dwell there and all the host and all the people cried yay with one voice so firstly faramir asserted his own authority as Steward of Gondor the stewards may have been ruling Gondor for a millennium but they were technically just holding on to it until the rightful King claimed the throne the fact that steward faram was proposing Aragon as king after all that time was important without faramir's backing it might have been different then faramir lists Aragon's credentials and it's quite a list he is the heir to aror so he's of

kingly stock he was the captain of the host of the West in other words he just LED them all into battle against Sauron triumphing in the battle of the pelenor fields the star of the north was a jewel a royal symbol of the northern kingdom the sword reforged was anduril formerly naril elendil sword that isildur had used to cut the ring from Sauron his hands bringing healing is a reference to an old gondorian legend that the hands of the king are the hands of a Healer and so shall the rightful King be known Aragon snuck

into minth and healed some people earlier in the story The Elf stone is a legendary healing stone of the elves given to Aragon by Galadriel effectively as a wedding gift for telling his marriage to Arwin and finally faramir calls Aragon's Heritage of numor heralding back to the founding of Gondor in the first place by the new manorian there is more in that speech and there are more evidences of Aragon's kingship dotted throughout the Lord of the Rings just think of the dead men of danaro for one random example who followed Aragon and fulfilled their oath

to the rightful king of Gondor but the point here is that faramir proposes Aragon as king not because he is technically the legal Heir because a thousand years ago his forefather married the daughter of gondor's king or because 2,000 years before that isildur's son technically never relinquished the title of High King of aror and Gondor it's because he has led them to Victory and fulfilled prophecy Before Their Eyes is of numor that heightened Pinnacle of humanity and because he is a good man and crucially importantly Aragon became king because all the people wanted him to

all the people cried out their agreement with one voice we're told this wasn't just a long-forgotten Heir claiming the throne on a genealogical technicality this was the hero of the hour being made King by popular acclamation Aragon May well have been the rightful High King of Gondor but that is not why he was made King if you'd like to see more Lord of the Rings videos please click on the link on the left of your screen or if you'd like to support this channel thank you there's a link to my patreon page on the right

of your screen that's all for this time thanks for watching I'll see you again soon