How hard and long was it, Aragorn?

[alatar]

Again, thanks for all of the enlightening posts, as this tin ear has learned a lot about how this notorious phrase can sound.

But what if, and yes, this is a big if ... but what if the phrase is just a typographical error? What if a word were misplaced, mistaken or left behind entirely?

- I have had a hard **** and a long life.

- I have had a hard life and a long one.

- etc

Just saying.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by alatar

But what if, and yes, this is a big if ... but what if the phrase is just a typographical error? What if a word were misplaced, mistaken or left behind entirely?

- I have had a hard **** and a long life.

- I have had a hard life and a long one.

- etc

That's food for thought, but the wording looks to be intentional.

In HOME 2 the so-called "Fourth version" of the events at the Council reads:

'Yes, it is true,' [Aragorn] said, turning to Boromir with a smile. 'I do not look the part, maybe: I have had a hard life and a long, and the leagues that lie between here and Ond would go for little in the count of my wanderings.'

Apparently the Professor just liked the way that looked and sounded, for whatever reason.

[lindil]

Guinevere posted [and the Squatter also referenced]
"It's the same with me. When first reading Tolkien, I just enjoyed his special language unconsciously, without thinking about how and why it had this effect. But then I bought Prof. Shippey's excellent book " Tolkien, author of the century" which was really an eye opener. Especially because English is not my mothertongue, I profited a lot from it."

Shippey's exegesis of the Council of Elrond is really breathtaking, after reading I doubt I will ever be able to think of any of JRRT's post Hobbit writings [posthumously released or not!] as anything like accidental.

Shippey counts I reacll, 19 different idioms of english being used in the Council. Nothing was accidental. He emphasizes how the Council chapter breaks all the usual rules of storytelling and yet is one of the most riveting chapters in the Fellowship.

If one ever is tempted to feel one has struck the bottom of the barrel with LotR read his 'Author..." and/or "Road to M-E". I give his LotR insights 5 stars, not so his Silmarillion commentary which I feel is far more pedestrian, but he spends much more time on LotR anyway...

[Formendacil]

In the course of doing my reading for class today, I stumbled across a couple lines in Milton's Paradise Lost that reminded me instantly of this passage. The wording is somewhat different, but the fact that I was struck by the similarity is, by itself, an indication of something--even if it is only that I am really and truly wrecked by Tolkien for reading anything else.

O Progeny of Heav'n, Empyreal Thrones,
With reason hath deep silence and demur
Seiz'd us, though undismay'd: long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light

Paradise Lost, Book II, 430-433 (emphasis mine)

Given the reversal of the terms "long" and "hard" in Aragorn's statement, and given the discussion already gone in this thread about how the statements sits well in archaic English, I hesitate to read too much into this chance finding. At most, it might be fair to say that I've stumbled across the still-clear shape of a leaf in the fertilizer.

On the other hand... it is tempting to see Aragorn's statement of his own journeys as his own voyage "out of Hell... up to light," and I feel like it wouldn't take much digging in the "Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" to make a prima facie case of being a deliberate reuse.

In any case, I put this stumbled-upon finding out there for your edification.

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

In the course of doing my reading for class today, I stumbled across a couple lines in Milton's Paradise Lost that reminded me instantly of this passage. The wording is somewhat different, but the fact that I was struck by the similarity is, by itself, an indication of something--even if it is only that I am really and truly wrecked by Tolkien for reading anything else.

O Progeny of Heav'n, Empyreal Thrones,
With reason hath deep silence and demur
Seiz'd us, though undismay'd: long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light

Paradise Lost, Book II, 430-433 (emphasis mine)

I actually can't believe this. I was just about to post that, because when I was reading it, one of my first thoughts was of this thread.

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Eönwë

I actually can't believe this. I was just about to post that, because when I was reading it, one of my first thoughts was of this thread.

I have to add to my previous contribution because... well, I am a dunce apparently--or at least an absent-minded professor. I completely glided over the fact that these lines have a footnote in my text:

432. The line harks back to the Sibyl's warning to Aeneas (Aen. VI, 126-9) that the descent to Avernus is easy, and perhaps also to Virgil's warning to Dante (Inf. XXXIV, 95) as they prepare to ascend from the center of the earth toward Purgatory, that the way is hard. Cf. III, 21

Since it told me to check "III, 21", I did just that. It's part of a block of lines:

Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to reascend,
Though hard and rare: thee I revisit safe
--Paradise Lost Book III, 19-21

Now... I'm still wary of reading too much into the possibility of a connection between Tolkien's use of "hard life and long" and Milton's "long is the way, and hard," but it *is* tempting... especially since Aragorn's entire life can easily be read as a hard journey, and long, through "hell" while he waits to win to paradise: wedding to Arwen and the attendant kingship of the Reunited Kingdoms.

In any case, it reads like very possible literary leafmould...