Haig And Aragorn In JRR Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings
566 Words3 Pages
Although Aragorn is a fictional character, from JRR Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’, he is based upon the idealisation of a war leader and a hero, and as Tolkien fought in the Battle of the Somme (Haig’s most famous battle) and Aragorn is his vision of a good leader, Tolkien is already comparing Aragorn to real leaders, who he did not agree with.
There are more differences than similarities between Haig and Aragorn, so I will start with those. Firstly, and possibly most importantly, Haig just directed the battle, where as Aragorn fought alongside his men and rallied them, giving a moving, motivating speech before the Battle of the Black Gate. I am not saying that Haig was a coward; he had actually fought in wars and had, perhaps, some would…show more content… The Germans, however, were much more advanced. Haig had soldiers marching in rows across no-man’s land, into a line of steady machine gun fire, armed only with bayonets and possibly guns, but not machine guns. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed.
So, Haig did not use new techniques or weapons, whereas Aragorn did. For example, he went to seek the army of the dead when his army numbered less than 300, he risked his life to try something new which probably wouldn’t work, but they were desperate. This is the main reason he won the Battle of Pelennor Fields.
I think a good leader has to be smart, brave, good at planning and a good speaker; both Haig and Aragorn have these qualities. A leader also has to be open-minded and able to adapt if something isn’t working or goes wrong; Field Marshal Haig famously did not do this. Haig is remembered negatively for not doing this - although immediately after World War One ended he was respected and rewarded by the people and the government - it was only in the 1960s that people started criticising his techniques publicly. However, many of the soldiers who fought under Haig’s command, such as Tolkien, did not agree with his methods but could not speak