Aragorn and the story of The Hobbit

[Alcuin]

This isn’t properly a Hobbit issue, but…

Aragorn was born in SR 1331. When Thorin & Co passed through Rivendell going East (in SR 1341) to the Lonely Mountain, he would have been 10 years old. When Bilbo and Gandalf returned going West back to the Shire, he’d have been 11.

Now, Tolkien had no concept of Aragorn the Dúnadan when he wrote The Hobbit, but…

It would seem reasonable that:

• Estel, as young Aragorn was called, saw Thorin & Co (and Gandalf and Bilbo) passing through, though they most likely did not see him: I imagine Elrond and his household kept the boy quite secret from people outside Rivendell; and
• he should also have seen Gandalf and Bilbo returning.