Quote:
Originally Posted by Inziladun
Aragorn would have been fair and just, but it's hard for me to see his making a special trip back North to handle what were really Hobbit affairs. For one thing, he had quite a bit to get into shape in Gondor, as the fact that he didn't accompany the Hobbits to Rivendell attests. And it was King Elessar himself that later made the law that Men were to stay out of the Shire, and held himself to it. I think he considered the Shire the same as Rohan: free people with the authority to govern themselves, under the friendship and protection of Gondor.
|
Oh, I doubt that Aragorn would have come himself. But if I recall correctly, it is stated that the Shire does fall under the governance of the Northern Scepter (which wasn't much governance after the North Kingdom failed). Aragorn certainly would not have wanted to take away the freedom and self-determination the Shire had enjoyed, but after a period of severe instability, it would not have been unacceptable, I think, for he and the Thain to act together (through correspondence, if nothing else) to help restore the Shire in a political sense. Helping to deal with those who had done so much harm to the Shire could be looked upon as a good thing, especially if handled in such a manner that makes it clear the Hobbits, and their ways, are not going to be treated as if they have suddenly become vassals to another foreign power. As Pippin is already acting as a representative of the King, and has the King's respect, for that relationship to be extended to the Thain in a cooperative effort to bring miscreants to justice (particularly given that dealing with this degree of unlawfulness is a pretty new thing for the Hobbits) would not, I think, seem untoward.