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LOTR
and Longshanks Orcish Landscape (new) |
"Longshanks" and the abuse of Strider
Strider was abused as ‘Longshanks’, by Bill Ferney as he left Bree (or by Sam at the 'Green Dragon' in the film).
Longshanks (the nickname of Edward 1st) is an honourable name in England meaning someone who is efficient and quick in getting things. It could also be associated with Aragorn's later name of Telcontar which means Strider in Elvish.
But 'Longshanks' crushed Wales and was known as ‘The Hammer of the Scots’. For Ferny to abuse Strider as ‘Longshanks’, meant that Strider would have hated being associated with the word ‘Longshanks’. This raises the possibility that Strider – who became Aragorn the King – was not English.
Tolkien seems share with his readers his personal great pleasure in realising that the name ‘Attilla the Hun’ may not have been the figure of terror as previously thought as in Old Gothic, the word ‘Atilla’ meant ‘little father’. The interpretation is again open to question due to references to other old languages, but Tolkien showed how language can reveal history.
Associating the word 'Longshanks' with the name (and the name is spelt with a capital letter)rather than the literal meaning, Strider had to be either Welsh or Scottish. But with the other Scottish Border connections from the name ‘Trotter’' and the Border Reivers, the abuse adds to the sense that Strider was conceived as being Scottish.
From this Scottish identity of Aragorn, Tolkien was able to create a duality between on the one hand Aragorn with one of his nicknames Strider, to Edward 1st and his nickname of Longshanks, with both nicknames having a similar meaning.
Tolkien used many dualities in the book – the two ring-bearers of Frodo and Gollum, Faramir and Boromir, Shelob and the Balrog … - but the duality of Strider and Longshanks is a duality that interconnects the world of fantasy to the world of real history.
He has also shared with his readers the pleasure when the worlds of mythology and real history connect, and used the idea to help embed his epic fantasy into a convincing created mythology.
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