Nonetheless the Stewards never sat on the ancient throne and they wore no crown, and held no sceptre. But against such thoughts the Ruling Stewards hardened their hearts. Yet many in Gondor still believed that a king would indeed return in some time to come and some remembered the ancient line of the North, which it was rumoured still lived on in the shadows. Each new Steward indeed took office with the oath 'to hold rod and rule in the name of the king, until he shall return.' But these soon became words of ritual little heeded, for the Stewards exercised all the power of the kings.Aragorn indeed lived to be two hundred and ten years old, longer than any of his line since King Arvegil but in Aragorn Elessar the dignity of the kings of old was renewed.He wrought the Three Jewels, the Silmarilli, and filled them with the radiance of the Two Trees, Telperion and Laurelin, that gave light to the land of the Valar. Fëanor was the greatest of the Eldar in arts and lore, but also the proudest and most selfwilled.This page is for quotations from the Appendices of Lord of the Rings by J. Yet things might have gone far otherwise and far worse.
