In The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Éowyn asks Aragorn his age and is shocked to learn that he is actually 87 despite looking no older than 40. But it is revealed that Aragorn is one of the Dúnedain—a descendant of Númenor—blessed with long life.
History. Aragorn is a direct descendent of the Faithful Numenoreans from the line of Elendil. Because he is a Numenorean, he is related distantly to Elrond through Elros. Aragorn was born in the year TA 2931 to the Ranger Arathorn and his wife Gilraen.
The Dunedain are descendants of Numenoreans. In the North, the leader of the dunedain Rangers in Arnor is Aragorn, son of Arathorn, who is descended in direct line from Elendil, son of Amandil, who emigrated from Numenor to Middle-Earth at the end of the Second Age.
Elros, the twin brother of Elrond, became the first king of Númenor, marking the beginning of Aragorn's kingly lineage. Elros was approximately the 63rd great-grandfather to Aragorn. This also means that Elrond was his equally distant great-uncle, making Arwen (his wife) his first cousin, 64 times removed.
"He was Aragorn son of Arathorn, the nine and thirtieth heir in the right line from Isildur, and yet more like Elendil than any before him." Aragorn was a descendant of Elros Tar-Minyatur.
After the war ended Elendil was dead. Therefore Isildur, his eldest son, was then the (last) rightful king of both Gondor and Arnor, and therefore his descendant Aragorn was also the rightful king of both kingdoms.
"Heir of Isildur" was a title of forty known Lords of the Dúnedain, descended in right line from Isildur son of Elendil, from Isildur's son Valandil to Aragorn II Elessar, who reunited the Kingdoms of the Dúnedain in Middle-earth.
The story was abandoned, but Tolkien reused the characters and events. Isildur features briefly in voiced-over flashback sequences of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The video game Middle-earth: Shadow of War departs from Tolkien's narrative by having Sauron make Isildur into a Nazgûl or ringwraith.
↑ Aragorn II is of the 39th generation descended from Isildur, through 23 generations of the Kings of Arnor and Arthedain (beginning with Valandil and ending with Arvedui) and 15 generations of the Chieftains of the Dúnedain (beginning with Aranarth and ending with Arathorn II).
Arvedui, Isildur's Heir through twenty-three generations, was the last King to rule in the north; he attempted to reclaim the High Kingship, but failed, and the last remnant of royal Arnor was overrun by its enemies. Now the line of Isildur in the north became forgotten by nearly all.
The Lord of the Nazgûl appears as the Witch-king of Angmar during the Third Age and is instrumental in the destruction of the Northern kingdom of Arnor. in his notes for translators, Tolkien suggested that the Witch-king of Angmar, ruler of a Northern kingdom with its capital at Carn Dûm, was of Númenórean origin.
The Dúnedain of Gondor, also known as the Dúnedain of the South, constituted the ruling class and nobility of Gondor being descendants of the Exiles of Númenor who established the South-Kingdom. The history of the Gondorians is extensively dominated by the actions of the Dúnedain of the South.
Gondor was founded by the brothers Isildur and Anárion, exiles from the downfallen island kingdom of Númenor. Along with Arnor in the north, Gondor, the South-kingdom, served as a last stronghold of the Men of the West.
Isildur was born in Númenor in the year SA 3209 of the Second Age. His younger brother Anárion was born in SA 3219. They lived at the haven of Rómenna on the east coast of the island of Númenor. Their father was Elendil and their grandfather was Amandil, the Lord of Andúnië.
The Numenorean bit is somewhat of a red herring - Numenoreans (other than Elros only) were not Half-Elven. The issue comes from the fact that the whole Half-Elven thing was… complicated.
He died at the age of 210, after 122 years as king. The graves of the hobbits Merry and Pippin (who had died in Gondor 58 years earlier) were set beside his. He was succeeded on the throne by his son, Eldarion. Arwen, heartbroken by the loss of her husband, died shortly afterwards in Lothlórien.
How long did Isildur have the Ring before he died?
Isildur claimed the Ring from Sauron in II 3441 (the final year of the Second Age), at the end of the Seige of Barad-dur. He lost it at the Disaster of Gladden Fields in III 2. Thus he was Ring-bearer for somewhere between two and three years.
What happened to Sauron when Isildur cut off the Ring?
As a result, while cutting off the Ring did destroy Sauron's body, it didn't destroy his spirit, and thus paved the way for Sauron's eventual return, even without a proper physical presence. This is why his will is carried out by those who serve him in The Lord of the Rings, like the Ring-Wraiths and Saruman.
Eärien was a Númenórean lady of the Second Age, the daughter of Lord Elendil of Andúnië and sister of Isildur and Anárion in Amazon Studios' The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power television series. She is portrayed by American actress Ema Horvath.
Besides not having the will to destroy the Ring, pushing Isildur into Mount Doom would have had some practical consequences. In another passage from The Silmarillion, Elrond and Círdan counseled Isildur to destroy the Ring, but he refused, saying, "This I will have as weregild for my father's death, and my brother's.
As his "lifeforce" is imbude in the ring which prevents him from going into the Elven afterlife, and as such keeps him in the mortal plane. But he is a wraith in the first game, before his new ring is ever created. The ritual done to Tallion at the beginning of Shadow of Mordor summoned Celebrimbor into Tallion's body.
Isildur took the hilt shard of his father's sword and cut the One Ring from Sauron's finger. Ignoring the advice of Elrond and Círdan, lieutenant of Gil-galad, Isildur did not destroy the Ring; instead he claimed it as a weregild for the deaths of his father and brother, and an heirloom for his House.
The sons of Eärendur quarreled, and while Amlaith was the Heir of Isildur and his father, the other sons broke the kingdom into three separate realms. Of these, Amlaith ruled Arthedain, the only that was ruled by the Heir of Isildur. The other kingdoms were slowly overcome by dark forces of the evil land of Angmar.
Aragorn was a descendant of Elros Tar-Minyatur through the line of the Lords of Andúnië to Elendil, High King of Arnor and Gondor. Like all of the kings before him, he was related to Elrond through the House of Elros.
How many generations are there between Isildur and Aragorn?
Because of Isildur's actions almost 3,000 years ago, many distrusted his resistance to the One Ring and believed Arargorn unworthy as a king. But with 36 generations between the two, Aragorn knew he wasn't bound to the same fate and re-established his royal bloodline.
