In part 1 I discussed the relationship between Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron, and the Balrog.

Part II: Of Aragorn, Númenor, and third age Elves...

Thank goodness Tolkien wrote his books back when he did and not today. Because in today's climate of political correctness the coolest parts of the Middle Earth mythology have to do with the fact that not everyone is equal.  You see, there are men and then there are MEN. Aragorn, the human hero of Lord of The Rings, is not just "some guy". He's Númenorean. A very special type of man. A super man.  One Númenor could take out many normal men. The movie can't really convey just how powerful Aragorn is.

Númenor was founded by a man named Elros. Elros was Elrond's brother. That's right, Elrond is not a full elf himself and neither is his daughter Arwen.  Elros and his people did great deeds in the battle against Morgoth and as a reward, the Valar raised a huge, beautiful island in the ocean west of Middle Earth for Elros and his followers to live on.  To his followers were given unusually long life. Hundreds of years of life.  And Elros, being half elvish, chose to be human.  And Elrond chose to be elvish. It was a choice they were given long ago and they made their choices.

For awhile, Númenor prospered. But eventually it became corrupt. They began to fear death more and more. When you live hundreds of years in relative bliss and perfect health, it must be tough to deal with getting old and dying.  To make a long story short, Sauron, who could appear at that time in the guise of a good and noble person, took advantage of this and convinced the Númenoreans that they could live forever if they simply sailed off into the furthermost west where the Valar lived and conquered that. Sauron lied and claimed that it was the lands of the Valar that made the Valar live forever instead of anything inherent.

And so Númenor prepared for war. But not all.  Some of them had enough wisdom to recognize Sauron for what he was.  And so a small group of Númenoreans secretly fled to Middle Earth. These were Aragorn's ancestors. The Valar made short work of the foolish Númenorean attackers.  Sauron, who remained on the island thought himself pretty clever until the Valar decided to destroy the actual island itself in punishment for the attack. This destroyed Sauron's first body.  In time he obviously returned but he no longer had the potency of spirit to construct a body that was fair and pleasing to the eye.

Meanwhile, the Númenoreans who fled set up two kingdoms. One was called Arnor. The other, in the south, was Gondor. Elendil and his son Isildur eventually found themselves battling Sauron once he took shape again. Elendil died (we see that in the opening part of Fellowship of the Ring). Isildur took the ring but was slain by orcs (also seen).  But Isildur had children at this point. And through a line of succession we get to Aragorn.

So while the typical man might live 70 years. Aragorn can expect to live a couple hundred years.  In fact, at the time of our story, he's already in his 80s. He's been, ahem, dating Arwen (who's 3000 years old herself) for 40 years. They are the ultimate case of  waiting until you get married as both of them are chasted.

Which brings us to Elrond.  Elves get progressively wimpier as each generation passes. In fact, one of the themes of Tolkien's mythology is that things lose their potency and strength over time.  The elves created directly by Eru (Illuvitar, i.e. "God") are by far the most powerful. Think of it as the potency of their spirits being disispated through their children.  If the first elves had a potency of 10 and two of them have 5 children, then those 5 children would share a power level of 20 (so 4 each).  And so as time has gone on, that potenecy has been divided over and over again.  Of course, there is the case of Feanor who was the ONLY child of two first generation elves and as a result was actually the most powerful elf of all.

No elves of that power exist in middle earth anymore.  One of those elves could taken on Sauron one on one.  The most powerful elf left in Middle Earth is 3rd generation and that is Galadriel (Elrond is 6th generation).  Which is why you see magical things in her realm but you don't see it (as much) in Rivendell where Elrond is (except for the enchanted river but know one knows if Elrond was the one who actually did that or whether Gil-Galad or some other high elf set it up for him). But even Galadriel is a shadow of what the most powerful elves once did.

And we don't even get into the wood elves who aren't much better then normal men other than living forever and thus having a lot longer time to get good at a bow or fighting or whatever.  The thing to remember is that Aragorn, being of the race of Númenor is inherently more hardy, stronger, faster, more skilled, wiser, more intelligent, etc. than the normal man or the normal elf. The elves you see generally in the movie are butt kickers but only because they've lived so long as to be well practiced. Aragorn is a butt kicker because it's part of what he is. He is inhernetly better at pretty much everything than anyone else. Only a handful of descendents of Númenor exist such as Faramir, Boromir, and Denethor but in their cases, they are not "pure" Númenorean. Their blood is mingled with "common men" and hence their wisdom, strength, and life are shortened. But they're still far above the typical man but not as powerful as Aragorn who is the only pure blooded Númenorean left that we know of.

So when you watch Return of the King or The Two Towers and you see Aragorn perform feats that make you go "Oh yea, how would he survive that?" the issue is that the movies can't translate the vast differences in skill between normal men and one of Númenorean heritage. Aragorn is the closest thing to a super hero you're going to see out of the men of Middle Earth.