Spring Chicken He Ain't

One of the deleted scenes from the Two Towers was charming scene where Eowyn offered Aragorn a bowl of some foul gruel that she had prepared just for him and he reveals to her that he is 87 years old; much to her dismay. One looks at Aragorn and thinks "This dude is like 40, how is that possible?" - well, it's very possible and in all actuality he's very young for someone of his line. 

Here is the scene from The Two Towers:

Now, what's interesting in this scene, two different kingdoms are mentioned, Númenor and The Northern Kingdom - one in the same, but different. We'll start from the beginning with the days that preceded Númenor. 

During the First Age, men first awoke in Middle-earth, long after the Elves had founded their own kingdoms, in the far east. These first men were ruled by evil tyrants and were pawns of Morgoth. Three groups of these men decided to go west, where ancient tales tell of a land that is blessed by the gods and there they would be free from the darkness. These tales were told to them by the Avari - the forgotten dark Elves, that rejected the Valar and whose encounters with them were only distant memories. 

There were three "houses" of men, the men of Beor, the second was a group of men that would be later to be known as the House of Hador, and the smallest group of men that would become to be known as the Haladin. They all traveled west and passed over the Misty Mountains and then over the Ered Luin and into the land of Beleriand (which no longer exists in the age in which The Lord of the Rings takes place). There they met the Elves, who had built powerful kingdoms and were at the height of their power. So great was the power of the Elves at the time, they had Morgoth's seat of power contained in a siege that lasted many years. Enamored by the Elves, men swore themselves to their service. 

The men flourished in Beleriand and decided to fight alongside the Elves against their sworn enemy, Morgoth. Many battles were fought and many died. Men had proven themselves to be hardy and lethal in war and fiercely loyal. In these battles they made unbreakable bonds of brotherhood with the Elves of Beleriand. The men who fought and died alongside the Elves were collectively called the Edain; the Elf Friends.

Aragorn's lineage begins with one man named Beren of the House of Beor. The story of Beren is sung among the Elves as a beautiful fairy tale of love and it's probably one of the Tolkien's most famous stories outside of Lord of the Rings; the Lay of Leithian. It is a story of Beren falling in love with an Elf named Luthien, from the kingdom of Doriath. People who have seen The Fellowship of the Ring may remember this scene from the Extended Edition:

Here Aragorn speaks about this same story. Luthien and Beren had a child named Dior, and Dior had a daughter named Elwing, who is a very important person, not only in Aragorn's heritage, but in the annals of the history of Arda.  

The other half of Aragorn's heritage begins with a man named Tour, a man of the House of Hador that fell in love with Idril, the daughter of the Noldor Elf named Turgon, the king of the city of Gondolin, a powerful Noldorian kingdom in Beleriand. Their son's name was Earendil, perhaps one of the most, if not the most, celebrated of the Edain in history. 

After the fall of Doriath to the sons of Feanor, Elwing fled to the coastal cities at the mouth of the Sirion river and when Gondolin fell to Morgoth, Earendil also fled to Sirion. There they met and fell in love and they had two children; Elros and Elrond (yes, THAT Elrond). 

There is a whole big story with Earendil and Elwing, that plays an important part of Tolkien's Legendarium that I won't cover here, but what we do need to know here is that Elrond and Elros were a perfect mixture of all three races of men, all three races of Elves, and even of the Ainur (the race of the Valar and Maiar). Here's the break down:

Noldor
Turgon (Earendil's grandfather) was a Noldor Elf

Vanyar
Elenwe - Turgon's wife and Earendil's grandmother

Teleri
Earwen - Turgon's aunt
Thingol - Luthien's father (Elwing's great-grandfather)

House of Beor
Beren - Elwing's grandfather

House of Hador
Tour - Earendil's father

House of Haleth (the Haladin)
Hareth - Tour's mother

Ainur
Melian the Maiar - Luthien's mother (Elwing's great-grandmother)

The results of the events that Earendil and Elwing were involved in, it resulted with the destruction of Beleriand, the end of Morgoth, and a mass exodus of Elves leaving their ruined kingdoms and returning to the Blessed Lands of Aman - leaving men behind in the waste land that was created during these events. Thus began the Second Age of the world. 

Earendil and Elwing were not permitted to leave the Blessed Lands of Aman, but the Valar did grant their children, Elrond and Elros, to choose how their fates were to be judged; either with the Elves and be able to come to Aman and be with their parents and be forever bound to the Earth, or chose to be judged as men, who would never be allowed to enter into Aman and live short lives by comparison to the Elves. Elrond chose to be judged as one of the Eldar and Elros chose to be judged as one of the Edain.  

The Elves lamented that they were leaving the friends they had found in men behind in the ruins of Middle-earth. So the Valar, hearing the cries of the Elves, decided to call for all of the Edain to sail west, to an island called Numenor. Men heeded the call and sailed west and they found a beautiful island, blessed with fertile soil, calm seas, and perfect weather. An island that was closer to Aman than it was to Middle-earth. The Valar gave it to the Edain as a gift. Other gifts is that they made the Edain, taller, fairer, more intelligent, and gave them extra long life (as the gift of immortality was only for the Elves and only something Eru could provide). The only rule that was imposed on the Numenorians was that they were never to sail west and seek out Aman - the boundry of their westerly travels were to remain in site of Numenor. Thus a new race of men was born, the Dunedain - the Numenorians. The Valar appointed Elros to be their king and the children of Elros' line would be blessed with extra long life, even longer than the rest of the new race of Numenorians. Elros ruled the Numenorians for 500 years before laying down his life.

There is a lot that happened between Elros' rule and the fall of Numenor, which I briefly covered in my post about the eagles of Manwe, but the Numenorians sailed east, north, and south, gained wealth and strength and became the most powerful kingdom the world had ever seen, but as they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Survivors of the down fall, that were still faithful to the Valar founded the kingdoms of Arnor (The Northern Kingdom that Aragon mentioned in the first clip above) and Gondor. The king of those two kingdoms was Elendil and his son was Isildur, a man we're aware of from the prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring film, the man who cut the Ring from Sauron's hand and ended the Second Age. Isildur was a direct decedent of Elros, thus Aragorn is a direct decedent of Elros. From Elros' rule to six thousand years later, when Aragorn was born, the Numenorian blood was exceedingly thin, so, Aragorn only lived to be 210 years old, ruling the Reunited Kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor for 122 years.