How did the ring of Barahir get to Aragorn?

[Ricardo]

It may be stated somewhere but I cannot remember reading it.

Beren had the ring, likely passed it to Dior and from Dior to Elwing.

Then it could have been passed to Elrond or Elros.

If Elros, it likely went to the Lords of the Andunie via Silmarien (eldest child of Tar Elendil) and then probably Elendil or Isildur brought it to Middle Earth. From there it would pass father to son.

If Elwing gave the ring to Elrond it would have been much simpler, Elrond would simply keep it in Rivendell and give it to Aragorn.

I seem to recall about the ring being in Rivendell but in both cases that's possible. It's possible that after the death of Isildur, or the destruction of Arthedain the ring will be keep safe in Rivendell.

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

First Arvedui fled north and left it with the Snowmen:

‘But Arvedui did not take his counsel. He thanked him, and at parting gave him his ring, saying: ‘‘This is a thing of worth beyond your reckoning. For its ancientry alone. It has no power, save the esteem in which those hold it who love my house. It will not help you, but if ever you are in need, my kin will ransom it with great store of all that you desire.’’1

‘Yet the counsel of the Lossoth was good, by chance or by foresight; for the ship had not reached the open sea when a great storm of wind arose, and came with blinding snow out of the North; and it drove the ship back upon the ice and piled ice up against it. Even the mariners of Cı́rdan were helpless, and in the night the ice crushed the hull, and the ship foundered. So perished Arvedui Last-king, and with him the palantı́ri were buried in the sea. It was long afterwards that news of the shipwreck of Forochel was learned from the Snowmen.’

1 In this way the ring of the House of Isildur was saved; for it was afterwards ransomed by the Dúnedain. It is said that it was none other than the ring which Felagund of Nargothrond gave to Barahir, and Beren recovered at great peril.

And then how Aragorn received it:

‘But when Estel was only twenty years of age, it chanced that he returned to Rivendell after great deeds in the company of the sons of Elrond; and Elrond looked at him and was pleased, for he saw that he was fair and noble and was early come to manhood, though he would yet become greater in body and in mind. That day therefore Elrond called him by his true name, and told him who he was and whose son; and he delivered to him the heirlooms of his house.

‘ ‘‘Here is the ring of Barahir,’’ he said, ‘‘the token of our kinship from afar; and here also are the shards of Narsil. With these you may yet do great deeds; for I foretell that the span of your life shall be greater than the measure of Men, unless evil befalls you or you fail at the test. But the test will be hard and long. The Sceptre of Annúminas I withhold, for you have yet to earn it.’’

I don't think there's anything written about the Dúnedain and how they got to the north to retrieve it from the snowmen.

 

[Halasían]

Good book quotes Erestor. I wrote an early fanfic about Arvedui and the Lossoth which I shared on the old TORc Reading Room. I’ll have to check with the Royal Librarian as to whether any of those scrolls have survived the various sackings and destruction of websites over the last 26 years.

The question of how the Ring of Barahar came into possession of the line of Elendil has no answer that I know of.

 

[Amalcarin]

The question of how the Ring of Barahar came into possession of the line of Elendil has no answer that I know of.

A Description of Númenor in UT, n. 2:

Only the Ring of Barahir father of Beren One-hand survived the Downfall; for it was given by Tar-Elendil to his daughter Silmarien and was preserved in the House of the Lords of Andúnië, of whom the last was Elendil the Faithful who fled from the wrack of Númenor to Middle-earth.

(Silmarien and Elatan of Andúnië were those from whom the line of the Lords of Andúnië began.)

 

[Ricardo]

A Description of Númenor in UT, n. 2:

(Silmarien and Elatan of Andúnië were those from whom the line of the Lords of Andúnië began.)

thank you, that was the answer I was looking for. So it looks like Elwing gave the ring to Elros and once you know Silmarien got it then the line is clear all the way to Aragorn, even if Elrond might have held it at times.

 

[Halasían]

@Amalcarin - thanks for that. I thought I had read that somewhere at one time but it eluded me recently. The vague gap is when/how the line got it back from the Lossoth.

 

[Vardarianna]

A Description of Númenorin UT, n. 2:

Only the Ring of Barahir father of Beren One-hand survived the Downfall; for it was given by Tar-Elendil to his daughter Silmarien and was preserved in the House of the Lords of Andúnië, of whom the last was Elendil the Faithful who fled from the wrack of Númenor to Middle-earth.

I was just going to mention this since I happened to recently read this in Unfinished Tales

I wrote an early fanfic about Arvedui and the Lossoth which I shared on the old TORc Reading Room. I’ll have to check with the Royal Librarian as to whether any of those scrolls have survived the various sackings and destruction of websites over the last 26 years.

I hope they did! I'd like to read it!

 

[Valandil]

@Amalcarin - thanks for that. I thought I had read that somewhere at one time but it eluded me recently. The vague gap is when/how the line got it back from the Lossoth.

I believe it’s addressed in The Letters of Firiel. Probably last letter or next to last.

It’s in the thread, “Letters from Middle Earth” Letter #11 of 12. That’s a very long letter, but you’ll find the account regarding the Ring of Barahir near the end.