“The Lord of the Rings” might be named after Sauron, but there’s one other character who’s so important that they also get a mention in one of the trilogy’s titles: Aragorn. The Ranger known as Strider is also the returning king who ascends to the throne of Gondor at the end of the story. He’s a Middle-earth hero and experienced leader who becomes a wise ruler. But we’re not talking about an elected position here. We’re talking about a throne — the kind of thing you earn through inheritance and bloodlines, not elections or feats of arms. What is it that gives Aragorn the right to rule Gondor and its northern sister kingdom of Arnor?
We dove into the Tolkien archives to figure out what it is that gives our boy Aragorn the right to rule — and it turns out that there’s more than one answer. A ton of them, actually. Taken individually, they’re also wildly confusing. The guy is connected to kings, queens, noble houses, and rulers going back thousands of years. There’s even an angel tossed in for good measure. If you’ve ever wondered what it is that gives Aragorn the right to rule a kingdom in Middle-earth, here’s the ultimate breakdown of his family tree.
Aragorn has angelic and Elvish blood
Aragorn’s oldest ancestor is Melian, a female member of the otherworldly race of the Maiar, spiritual beings who entered into and inhabited the world when it was created. The book “Unfinished Tales” describes this spiritual group as “persons of the ‘angelic’ order,” and they play an important role in shaping both Middle-earth and its history.
Melian is involved, early on, in protecting the Elves as the leader of a group called the Five Guardians (this group includes the future Wizards Saruman, Gandalf, and Radagast. It might also include the mysterious Blue Wizards of Middle-earth who later go east into the lands of Rhûn, but that isn’t clear.
Eventually, Melian takes on a physical form and settles down with a powerful Elvish king named Thingol. She rules over a kingdom called Doriath during the First Age of Middle-earth history and creates the Girdle of Melian — a magical barrier that confuses outsiders and prevents them from reaching the hidden woodland dwelling. She is considered unbelievably wise, and she and Thingol eventually have a half-Elvish, half-Ainur child named Lúthien.
Aragorn connects back to Melian’s daughter Lúthien (and her husband Beren)
Lúthien Tinúviel is the daughter of Melian and Thingol. She is a royal princess and a superpowered being who plays a central role in “The Silmarillion.” The short and sweet version of her epic story is that she meets a mortal nobleman named Beren when he manages to get through the Girdle of Melian. It’s love at first sight, but Thingol isn’t keen on his daughter marrying a vagabond nobleman, so he gives Beren a seemingly impossible quest: To reclaim one of the hallowed jewels called the Silmarils from the crown of the Dark Lord Morgoth.
Beren and Lúthien set off together to try to accomplish this mission. They pass through horrifying danger, including literally dying and coming back to life together. They are a trademark couple in Tolkien’s fantasy literature — the author even had their names etched on the gravestone he would later share with his wife — and Aragorn is their very distant relative.
Aragorn is related to Tuor and Idril of Gondolin
Tolkien was very specific about intermarriage between the race of Men and the long-lived race of Elves. It happens rarely, including the union of Aragorn and Arwen. Beren and Lúthien are another of those connections — and so is the marriage of the Man Tuor and the Elf Idril.
Idril was another Elven princess, this time of the hidden First Age kingdom of Gondolin. When Tuor arrived in the kingdom, they fell in love and had a son named Eärendil. Shortly afterward, the kingdom was discovered by the powerful villain Morgoth’s armies and the entire stronghold was destroyed. Tuor and Idril played a key role in helping a group of Elves escape the carnage. Interestingly, this is also the story where the Elven hero Glorfindel defeats a balrog single-handedly.
In the end, Tuor and Idril help the refugees settle on the western coast of Middle-earth, where they look west, hoping for help from the ascendant and unstoppable Morgoth. Eventually, Tuor and Idril sail west, and legend claims Tuor, alone of all Men, was counted as an Elf and welcomed into the immortal West. But they left their now-adult son Eärendil behind.
Aragorn is a direct descendant of Eärendil, the ultimate Middle-earth hero
Eärendil is the most famous mariner in all of Tolkien’s legendarium. A descendant of Elves and Men, he marries Elwing, the granddaughter of Beren and Lúthien. Yes, it’s a lot of names, but basically, this union brings all of the part-Elven, part-Human, part-angelic bloodlines of Middle-earth into a single super-couple — one that directly connects to Aragorn millennia later.
Eärendil and Elwing end up sailing to the Undying Lands (not the ones on Mars) to ask for help in the fight against Morgoth. Their request is granted, and Eärendil and his ship are set to sail the heavens as a star that symbolizes hope for the Free peoples of Middle-earth. Eärendil is, in many ways, the central character and climactic conclusion of “The Silmarillion” story and the First Age. Everything leads up to his birth and heroic acts, and he continues to be a reference point for the fight against evil for thousands of years to come. His marriage to Elwing is also important, and before they set sail to ask for help, it leads to the birth of twin boys, Elros and Elrond — yes, that Elrond.
Aragorn is related to Elrond and Elros
The twin sons of Eärendil and Elwing are Elrond and Elros. While we’ll circle back to Elrond later as far as Aragorn is concerned, suffice it to say that at this point, he and his brother have human, angelic, and Elvish blood. Due to their unique background, Elrond, Elros, and some of their descendants are given permission to choose their fate — a mortal or immortal life. Elrond chooses immortality and becomes a famously wise counselor, a leader in the fight against Sauron, and eventually the father of a wee Elven lass named Arwen.
Elros, though? He takes the other path — one that leads directly to Aragorn. Elros opts for mortality and, in so doing, becomes the founder of the island nation of Númenor. Elros helps discover the island, leads his people to it, and rules over it for over 400 years. He isn’t immortal, but he and his descendants sure are long-lived. It’s a trait that will carry on into the future, and directly explains why Aragorn is in his late 80s during the War of the Ring, despite looking like he’s in the prime of life. His bloodline and family tree have given him a long-lived element, even if he’s technically still a mortal.
Aragorn is related to Númenórean royalty
Once we get to Elros, Aragorn’s family tree shifts into the long line of the blue-blooded royal family of Númenor. This includes countless kings who rule for millennia. Don’t worry — we won’t list them all here. However, we will point out a few fun ones hidden in the smorgasbord of royal names that only Tolkien could invent. There is Tar-Palantir, Tar-Míriel, and r-Pharazôn. Why are these three special? Because all three show up in Amazon Prime’s “The Rings of Power” series.
Tar-Palantir (Ken Blackburn) is the aged king who dies in “The Rings of Power” Season 1. Tar-Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) is Palantir’s daughter and the one who is blinded by the eruption of Mount Doom in the show. Ar-Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) is Míriel’s scheming cousin who seizes the throne in Season 2. All three of these individuals are distantly related to Aragorn, and they play a key role in the history of Númenor, but it’s actually an offshoot of the royal line that is the most important part of the Ranger’s family tree.
Aragorn is also related to Elendil and Isildur
Elendil and his son Isildur belong to the royal offshoot known as the Lords of Andúnië. While powerful and important, they aren’t kings — that is, until late in Middle-earth’s Second Age when Ar-Pharazôn seizes the throne, leading to the destruction of Númenor and its island. The survivors are led by Elendil, and they wash up on the shores of Middle-earth, where they establish two sister kingdoms: Arnor in the north and — wait for it — Gondor in the south. Elendil is technically the king of both, but he generally stays north in Arnor, while Isildur rules with his brother, Anárion, in the south.
Elendil and Isildur are critical pieces in the Second Age war with Sauron, the one that we’re already seeing kick off in “The Rings of Power.” When Sauron becomes nearly unstoppable, Elendil leads his human kingdoms to join with the Elves (including Elrond) to attack Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance. This is the epic conflict shown in the opening moments of Peter Jackson’s “The Fellowship of the Ring.” In that fight, Elendil is killed and Isildur cuts the One Ring from Sauron’s hand, taking it for his own and setting in motion a series of events that end with the tale told in “The Lord of the Rings.”
Aragorn comes from a long line of kings and Dúnedain chieftains
After Sauron’s first defeat at the finger-chopping hand of Isildur, Gondor continues to thrive for centuries, and that kingdom endures (albeit in an ever-weaker state) right up until the War of the Ring three thousand years later. Eventually, the kings of that line (Aragorn’s direct relatives) die out, and their stewards take over, waiting for a king to return and claim the throne — a situation that is still the case during “The Lord of the Rings.
In the north, though, the sister kingdom of Arnor has a different fate. That kingdom slowly falls apart, splitting into fractional realms through civil war and coming under pressure from the Witch-king of Angmar. While the Witch-king is eventually defeated, Arnor also disappears about two-thirds into the age. After two thousand years and dozens of kings, its leaders go into exile, operating as the Dúnedain of the North. This displaced and wandering remnant of the Númenórean race dwindles, until it is made up of a small number of powerful and wise Rangers who lack political power but work on more of a vigilante basis to protect those who need their help.
While they are vulnerable, this exiled cohort of Aragorn’s family tree maintains an unbroken line of kingship. “The Return of the King” appendices even say, “It was the pride and wonder of the Northern Line that, though their power departed and their people dwindled, through all the many generations the succession was unbroken from father to son.” There are 16 consecutive Dúnedain chieftains (including Aragorn) as one generation after another passes the torch to the next heir to the throne, collectively and patiently waiting in exile.
Aragorn is actually Aragorn II
There are two Dúnedain chieftains worth pointing out in the gaggle of displaced royal refugees, including the first is Aragorn. It turns out that the Aragorn we all know and love is actually Aragorn II. Aragorn I was a chieftain who lived for precisely a century and “was slain by wolves, which ever after remained a peril in Eriador, and are not yet ended,” according to Appendix A at the end of “The Return of the King.” The second-to-last chieftain is Arathorn II, Aragorn’s dad. Arathorn is older when he gets married and, for lack of a better term, he’s a cradle robber. He marries Aragorn’s mom, Gilraen, even though “Gilraen was young and had not reached the age at which the women of the Dúnedain were accustomed to marry,” the same appendix notes. Nevertheless, they form a union after Gilraen’s mother prophesies that if they don’t marry, hope may not come for more than an age.
Arathorn and Gilraen get hitched, and, a couple of years later, Aragorn (the Aragorn) is born. Two years after that, Arathorn rides off with Elrond’s sons (yes, he has twin sons — more on them in a minute) to fight Orcs and is hit by an arrow in the eye and killed. This makes his toddler son the Chieftain of the Dúnedain and heir to the thrones of Gondor and Arnor. Gilraen continues to play a key role in her son’s life for a time. She and baby Aragorn are brought to Rivendell, where Elrond shelters them. Eventually, Aragorn grows up and falls in love with Arwen, but his mother thinks the whole mortal/immortal thing is a bad idea. Aragorn goes off adventuring, and his mom returns to her people, where she dies a while later at the age of 100.
Aragorn has lots of in-laws through his wife, Arwen
Now we’re up to the part of the story where “The Lord of the Rings” begins — but even at this point, Aragorn’s family tree is pretty complicated. Why? Because of his in-laws. The obvious first connection we have is that he’s Arwen’s husband. Along with being married, Aragorn and Arwen are technically cousins, but the connection is so distant (tracing back through dozens of generations of Aragorn’s ancestors) that it is a moot point.
His marriage to Arwen means Aragorn becomes legally related to Elrond as his son-in-law rather than just a foster son. Arwen also gives Aragorn siblings in the form of her twin older brothers, Elladan and Elrohir. Aragorn even gets a mother-in-law: Arwen’s mother and Elrond’s wife, Celebrían. The only reason she doesn’t feature in “The Lord of the Rings” is because she was wounded and tortured by Orcs some five hundred years earlier. While her sons save her and Elrond heals her body, her mind and spirit are severely wounded, so she sails West ahead of her family to seek healing in the Grey Havens.
Along with Arwen’s immediate family, there’s her grandmother, Galadriel. That’s right, Celebrían is the daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn, making the Lothlórien power couple Aragorn’s grandparents-in-law.
Aragorn has kids of his own
At this point, we’ve covered the bulk of Aragorn’s family tree, from the creation of Middle-earth right up to the War of the Ring and the end of the Third Age. We’re not quite done, though: His family tree continues past his own lifetime. Once Aragorn and Arwen settle down to rule their new kingdom, they start having kids. We don’t know how many children they bring into the world, but what we do know is that, after Aragorn dies, Arwen decides to leave her kingdom to wander in grief. “Then she said farewell to Eldarion, and to her daughters, and to all whom she had loved,” it’s stated in the appendices of “The Return of the King.”
So, there are an unspecified number of daughters in the mix, as well as one son named Eldarion. That young boy grows up to become the next king after his father willingly lays down his life at 210 years old. That’s all we really get to hear about Aragorn’s kids. However, Tolkien’s abandoned sequel to “The Lord of the Rings,” called “The New Shadow,” takes place a century into Eldarion’s reign. It’s probably safe to assume that we would have learned more if the Oxford Don had gotten around to finishing the follow up to his Middle-earth masterpiece. As it currently stands, Aragorn’s family tree ends with an unspecified number of children.