Anyone who has ever tried to write a book will know that it is not an easy thing to do. Far from it, in fact, it is a difficult and momentous task, and almost every manuscript has gone through several drafts before it reaches its finalized edition. Lord of the Rings is no exception, and Tolkien himself struggled with the writing of the trilogy, as well as many of the other stories that exist within Middle Earth. In total, he spent over 60 years creating his famous works. Especially as his fictions encompass a wealth of interesting creatures, several races of peoples, and an in-depth and complex history revolving around several different languages, all of which he invented himself.
But surprisingly, of all of the characters to undergo transformations during his re-writes, Aragorn was the one who underwent the starkest changes. Tolkien often said that he discovered his characters and his stories as he wrote them, rather than planning them in advance, and this was certainly the case with the Ranger. He knew that he wanted the character to be a Ranger, and to guide Frodo the ring bearer and Sam from The Shire to Rivendell. But the form that the famous member of the fellowship surprisingly first took was that of a hobbit. Indeed, during early drafts of the story, Tolkien thought that the creature might be a relation of Bilbo Baggins, or at one point an alter-ego of Mr. Baggins himself, though this idea was banished as absurd pretty quickly.
The name that first came to mind was Trotter, although this was always intended as a nickname. What his right name was hadn’t yet been revealed to the writer, but he knew that Trotter was how the character would be known throughout Bree, and in the Prancing Pony, where the four hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin would later meet him. He becomes their guide in the absence of Gandalf the Grey wizard, who cannot meet them as he is trapped on the tower of Orthanc after having caught a glimpse of Saruman’s evil union with the dark lord in the seeing stone, the Palantir at Isengard.
The name ‘Trotter’ was due to the fact that the many believed the character to always be wearing wooden shoes, and he subsequently sounded like a horse upon approach, but in actual fact, the hobbit had wooden feet, as Tolkien had devised a backstory in which the Halfling had lost them whilst being tortured at the hands of Sauron. Even at these early stages, he had a similar start to Aragorn, including his helping Gandalf to track Gollum as far as the borders of the shire, where the creature went seeking Bilbo after learning his name during their riddles in the dark.
But beyond this point, Tolkien took a year out of writing, feeling that something wasn’t right and that he needed to distance himself from the story in order to see it more clearly. One of the first changes that he made when he came back to it, was to turn Trotter into an elf. This seemed to make more sense in the grander portrayal of elves as knowledgeable and immortal, both of which were aspects that Tolkien wanted for his still-developing character.
However, this edition was short-lived, and Tolkien became more and more to see Trotter as a man, though still connected with Elrond’s race. At around the same time, he came to the idea of connecting Trotter to the Numenorians, and the decendents of Elendil, upon whom one of the Argonath are based. Thus, his true name seemed to fit Aragorn, (after a few renditions in which both Eladimir and Ingold were tried) and the shape of his future as a character was vastly changed from this point onwards.
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It was only once Tolkien had written the poem for Aragorn, (which again took many drafts) about ‘the blade that was broken’ and the ‘crownless again shall become king’ that he concreted the idea of Aragorn as the heir to Gondor. Thus the writer was able to develop the character’s heroism, and his love story with Arwen, the daughter of Elrond whom he met in Rivendell at the age of just 20. She had been away in Lothlorien, visiting her mother's people, but they quickly pledged themselves to one another, making her the later queen of Gondor by his side.
In Rivendell, he was known as Elessar, which means ‘Elf-stone’ due to the jewel he wears from Arwen. Where the name ‘Strider’ came from is never explained, but has a far more regal sound to it, and much more befitting of one of the bravest, noblest, and well-loved characters of the franchise.