Editing Men in Middle-earth (section)

=== From "clod" to hero ===
{{further|Heroism in The Lord of the Rings}}

[[File:Narsil andúril final (without text).jpg|thumb|upright=1.9|[[Naming of weapons in Middle-earth|A sword fit for a hero]]: [[Andúril]], "Flame of the West" is forged anew, "for [[Aragorn]] son of Arathorn was going to war upon the marches of Mordor".<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 2, ch. 3, "The Ring Goes South"</ref>]]

The Tolkien scholar Deborah C. Rogers compares the Men of ''The Lord of the Rings'' with the [[Hobbit]]s. She notes that the Hobbits are to an extent the low, simple, earthbound "clods" of the story who like beer and comfort and do not wish to go on adventures;{{efn|Rogers admits, though, that sometimes, as [[Gandalf]] said of [[Bilbo Baggins|Bilbo]] and [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]], there is "more to them than meets the eye".<ref name="Rogers 1975"/>}} they fit the [[antihero]] of modern literature and [[Northrop Frye]]'s lower [[Anatomy of Criticism#Literary modes|literary modes]] including various forms of humour.<ref name="Rogers 1975">{{cite book |last=Rogers |first=Deborah C. |chapter=Everyclod and Everyhero: The Image of Man in Tolkien |editor-last=Lobdell |editor-first=Jared  |editor-link=Jared Lobdell |title=[[A Tolkien Compass]] |date=1975 |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court]] |isbn=978-0875483030 |pages=69–76}}</ref> 

In contrast, Tolkien's Men are not all of a piece: Rogers mentions the "petty villain", [[Bill Ferny]]; the "loathsome" <!--spy and sycophant -->[[Grima Wormtongue]]; the "slow-thinking" publican [[Barliman Butterbur]] of [[Bree (Middle-earth)|Bree]]; "that portrait of damnation", [[Denethor]], [[Steward of Gondor]]; and at the upper end of the scale, the kingly [[Théoden]], brought back to life from Wormtongue's corruption; the "gentle warrior" Faramir and his brother the hero-villain Boromir; and finally the [[Rangers of the North|ranger]] Aragorn, who becomes king.<ref name="Rogers 1975"/>

Aragorn is the opposite of hobbitish: tall, not provincial, untroubled by the discomforts of the wild. At the start, in Bree, he appears as a Ranger of the North, a weatherbeaten man named Strider. Gradually the reader discovers he is heir to the throne of [[Gondor]], engaged to be married to [[Arwen]], an Elf-woman. Equipped with a [[Naming of weapons in Middle-earth|named magical sword]], he emerges as an unqualified [[hero]], in Frye's "High Mimetic" or "Romantic" literary mode, making the whole novel indeed a [[heroic romance]]: he regains his throne, marries Arwen, and has a long, peaceful, and happy reign.<ref name="Rogers 1975"/>{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=238–243}}