I'm not as surprised that the common troops are willing to follow the Captains
into battle into Mordor. Soldiers usually have their most intense loyalty to
their immediate superiors. Aragorn and Imrahil and Éomer have the support and
loyalty of their sub-captains, they have the loyalty of the men beneath them
and so on down to the lowest echelon. It would take a dissatisfied soldier at
some point to break that chain and put the army in danger of mutiny.
As a political leader, Aragorn would have problems in the Primary World, but
much less so as a military leader in the (relatively) structured military of
Gondor.
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"I like the kind of literary criticism that tries very hard to understand what the author is saying. I despise the kind that cares only about how the reader responds to it. The first requires a great deal of hard scholarship, ultimately as much as had the writer. The second can be practiced by anyone with a navel into which to gaze."
Reverend
.
