[Penny1]

This question Aragorn asks makes me think back to the time of Christ. When He first came He offered Himself as King. He too was rejected, as Aragorn was rejected by Boromir at first.

I wonder if that was in the back of Tolkien's mind while he was writing, being a Catholic and all.

I would think it was there, either consciously or subconsciously. Aragorn as king acting similar to the way Christ did when he came is pretty striking in ROTK in particular, IMO. For example, when he came to Minas Tirith the first time, he didn't want his identity revealed yet.

I think Tolkien mentions in his letters or somewhere that LOTR was at its heart a "catholic" work, at first unconsciously and later on consciously (I have mangled that terribly, my memory just isn't what it used to be). So I think it's fair to see some of these parallels. They are wonderfully subtle, which I think was important to Tolkien--he didn't want anyone to have the parallels forced on them as allegory does.

[Overtaxed]

Good Afternoon, Penny, or is it still morning over there? It's rainy and gloomy over here like (dare I say it?) the day the hobbits spent at Tom Bombadil's.

I think Tolkien mentions in his letters or somewhere that LOTR was at its heart a "catholic" work, at first unconsciously and later on consciously (I have mangled that terribly, my memory just isn't what it used to be). So I think it's fair to see some of these parallels. They are wonderfully subtle, which I think was important to Tolkien--he didn't want anyone to have the parallels forced on them as allegory does.

I found the quote in Letters, #142

The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like 'religion', to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. Fro the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.