Frodo…I swore to protect you.
#lotr#sometimes I think about how real authority – real kingship especially – is at heart service and submission#and how Aragon spends his life (ranger or king or friend) serving others#kneeling before them#affirming the kingship of other kings EVEN THOUGH he sometimes outkings them!!#and the moment of his greatest authority is really a submission of his will to his vocation#when I say I sometimes think about this#I mean easily 2-3 times a week (via byjovimbeinghumble)
#aragorn didn’t go to the hollywood school of ‘need is love’ #he went to the terrence rattigan school of ‘duty is love’ #duty as a positive and willingly-perfomed service #not without sacrifice but without doubt