: : 1) The Seven Stars = The House of Elendil

: : 2) The White Tree = Gondor

: : 3) The Crown = the King (in this case, the High King, rather
: : than the King)

: : Aragorn was basically claiming the throne as Elendil's Heir,
: : not as either Isildur's (a claim which had been rejected) or
: : Anarion's (which claim, apparently, he could not assert
: : because Gondor recognized only candidates descended of a male
: : line).

:
: There seems to be a paradox here how can the "High crown" be
: described as being a symbol of Elendil when Arnor had a diadem?
: Surely, as the kings of Arnor were the senior branch of the
: heirs of Elendil they would have retained any artifacts
: connected with Elendil's high kingship.
: However, as the Gondorian crown was originally a relatively
: plain winged Numenorian battle helmet with later jewelled
: additions, perhaps the symbol of Elendil's high kingship was
: originally a helmet. The confusion between helmet and crown
: being such that by Aragorn's time the distinction was blurred.

Would the diadem of Arnor have been recognized in Gondor?

: Also reference to Aragorn's standard does not suggest a
: national symbol for Arnor - the white tree was stated by
: Tolkien to be specifically Gondor's symbol.

I did not say it referred to Arnor, but to the High Kingship, or the Kingship of Elendil, who was included in the list of kings of Gondor.

The Standard clearly denotes the Seven Stars of the House of Elendil. According to the index to LOTR (which I did not have with me at work when I posted the interpretation above) the Kings of Gondor used the stars, white tree, and crown. Probably this is just the standard of Gondor, and Aragorn is simply claiming to be an heir of the House of Elendil. Elsewhere in this discussion I said it was Aragorn's standard -- well, it would appear I was not correct there. :)

In "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields" Tolkien says the stars and the crown are "the signs of Elendil that no lord had borne for years beyond count."

: Both the diadem (a narrow brow-band) and the sceptre of
: Annuminas, due to their lack of a shape recognisable at a
: distance, would be unsuitable for display on a standard.
: Thus there seems to be no direct evidence for a national symbol
: for Arnor. One possible symbol is the L-ND-L cypher I discussed
: earlier; and here it's worth saying that Tolkien would have
: been familiar to the ancient Greek practice of using letters as
: shield devices - Athens had a capital alpha.
:
: Another suggestion could be drawn from the star-shaped
: brooches that are described in the possession of the Dunedain
: of Halbarad's troop when they meet Aragorn in Rohan.
: Thus a single star (of however many points) might be the
: national symbol of Arnor/Arthedain.

I agree. Possibly the Star of the North would be the national emblem of Arnor. The Elendilmir could have been the source for the device used by the Rangers, which might be a memory of Arnor's national emblem.

: A possible, and I would emphasise possible, reconstruction of
: the Arnorian royal standard would be a winged helmet
: surmounting a large star surrounded by the seven stars of the
: House of Elendil.

If it were similar to the Gondorian standard, and why not? But the winged helmet might not be necessary. A diadem could still be part of the standard, especially if a real gem were used for the jewel (as Arwen sewed jewels into the standard she made for Aragorn).

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