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The
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www.lotrandthescottishborder.net |
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Orcish Landscape (new) |
The Scottish Border and Trotter/Aragorn
Tolkien used the name ‘Trotter’ for the character of
Aragorn for the whole of the first draft of the book, so that even
at the end, when Aragorn becomes king he has
‘Trot’ was assumed to be the origin of the name yet it did not
fit either Aragorn’s character or to his
dark past
to which Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, referred
to just prior to his suicide,
“I will not bow to such a one, last of a ragged house long bereft of
lordship and dignity”.
What was not realised was that ‘Trotter’ is a Border Reiver name of a Scottish family living just north of the North-east border town of Berwick-upon- Tweed. In Tolkien’s mind, Aragorn’s literary ancestors would have had a disreputable ancestry, famously cursed by the Archbishop of Glasgow, were seen to have betrayed James 4th at the Battle of Flodden (15 miles from Berwick) and yet were loyal to James’ grandson James 6th who became James 1st of England.
The ‘Trotters’ were a relatively small family, who have had only a few references in history though their leader fought and died at the Battle of Flodden. They fought under the Catholic Lord Hume when religion was a major issue in both Scotland and England.
Living close to Berwick, there are the Berwick connections to Countess Isabelle who was publically encaged by Longshanks, to the Border Reivers / the oath-breakers, the effects of Longshanks’ Scottish Wars, and to the nearby ruined watchtowers that served as places to assemble and where messages could be left.
The relevance of the name ‘Trotter’ for the character that became Aragorn, was the association with where the name came from – the Scottish Border near Berwick - and not the origin of the name. http://www.nwlink.com/~scotlass/border.htm
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