1) I've thought long and hard about how Royalty shakes out in LOTR. It seems to
me that bloodlines are often an imperfect means of determining royalty.
Faramir, for instance, seems a "throw back" to some earlier royal blood and
most certainly outstrips his brother and father in his royal demeanor. I
finally decided that Aragorn's kingship has more to do with what the divinities
(whoever those are) decided he could be. So yes, it is because he is Aragorn,
but the blessing or the blame does not fall upon the person (or King, in this
case). He may rise to his Kingship, but the capacity to kingship he embodies
does not come from him.
2)Faith, in all he knows of who he should be. Desperation may drive him to look
to faith, but I see his journey through the Paths as parallel to Frodo's
acceptance of Gollum as his guide. Both bow their rational beings to the wisdom
of those who are agents of wisdom. Any confidence each has is that they are
fulfilling what they understand as their destiny. But the will to believe in
that destiny comes from
faith.
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...each of us is an allegory, embodying in a particular tale and clothed in the garments of time and place, universal truth and everlasting life. (Letters, 163)
