Whew. Goodness, a lot of interesting comments made on this chapter.
I will try to very briefly sum up what was said regarding each of the
posts – apologies if I over-simplify!
The question of whether the opening scene was a trial or not brought a lot of
different opinions: some thought it an interrogation, a “show cause” hearing,
or even just a conversation. Most people seem to have never seriously
doubted Faramir’s quality, even the first time they read it.
Two primary suggestions were made for how Faramir and Denethor could have heard
Boromir’s horn all the way from Rauros to Minas Tirith – one, that there was
some sort of psychic connection between the the men, and two, that there was
some magical quality associated with the horn itself that could cause it to be
heard over far greater distances than an ordinary instrument.
Regarding Faramir’s recognition of Frodo’s brooch as the same craftsmanship as
Boromir’s belt, a number of people pointed out that the belt was the only
unfamiliar item, so naturally Faramir would have taken note of it. The
emphasis on memory in a semi-literate society was also mentioned.
Personally, I remain unconvinced, but perhaps my memory for visual details is
simply not as good as most.
In general no one seems to have thought that Tolkien made Denethor a steward
rather than a king for simple plot purposes. Consensus here was
apparently that the idea of stewardship played into the mythical aspects of the
story, with a king able to claim a vacant throne and thereby heal the
land. It also gives the stewards the opportunity to prove their trust –
when a previous king of the north tried to claim the throne, that claim was
rejected. Only when the destined true king, Aragorn, arrives, will he be
able to take the throne.
Most people thought that Faramir had previously recognized Gandalf as a wizard
(though he didn’t use the term “wizard” in conversation with Frodo), but
equated that with lore-master, not realizing all the abilities Gandalf
had. The fireworks that so impressed the Hobbits of the Shire were
generally agreed to not be the “wonderful things” Gandalf did in Gondor; a
knowledge of ancient lore and perhaps a bit of prediction were thought to have
been the more likely things that impressed locally.
I was glad to find that my understanding that Tolkien spoke in Faramir’s voice
in rejecting war for its own sake was backed up by everyone else. There
were some interesting side-comments on the poetic language that Faramir uses to
describe Minas Tirith, as well.
The civility at Henneth Annûn brought in a lot of commentary about both the
past history of Númenor and Gondor which are reflected in this part of the
chapter. We were reminded that Ithilien is not exactly wild, that it was
only recently abandoned completely, and that the cave was deliberately designed
as a refuge. The Standing Silence in particular was remarked on as one of
the very few instances of anything like a religious ritual in Middle-earth.
The desire for deathlessness, and the negative consequences resulting from
that, were pretty well agreed on as significant themes in Tolkien’s writing,
although some thought them more obvious than others. Aragorn’s
willingness to lay down his life was indeed an indicator that he was the true
king.
I hoped to bring out some slightly different takes on necessity, but the
discussion focused primarily on the necessity of war (perhaps inevitable given
the way I phrased the question). Comments here included the point that
Tolkien urged that war should not be glorified for its own sake, and that he
respected the alternative of pacifism as exemplified by Bombadil (and Frodo, at
the very end) as well as war well-fought for a righteous end. I wonder,
still, whether we can say if the ends ever justified the means, for Tolkien or
in Middle-earth?
Regarding the Elves, there was general agreement that the estrangement between
Elves and Men was necessary to Tolkien’s conception of each race, with death as
the critical dividing line between them. Despite the several Elf-Man
marriages, it seems that the two cannot ultimately be reconciled and achieve a
complete understanding of each other. The tangential remarks here on free
will and on whether the Elves were “fallen” in a spiritual sense brought out
some very different points of view on those matters!
The fact that Faramir never actually sees the Ring, and that he had grown up
never expecting to wield significant power, were cited as some of the reasons
why he might not have been tempted to take the Ring from Frodo. But it
was pretty well agreed that there was a test going on; NZStrider repeated a
point-by-point comparison of this scene with Faramir with the scene back in
Bree, when the Hobbits first met Strider, that seemed to me to clinch the case.
Thanks, everyone, for participating in the discussion! I didn’t respond
to a lot of posts – I was giving and grading final exams and papers all week,
unfortunately – but I read them with great interest and enjoyed all the
different ideas that were put forth.
Cheers!
