anghraine

My icon has grey eyes and black hair just for Tolkien :P

So. I generally dislike Tolkien fandom's "canonicity discourse" (yes, I'm doing it anyway) and the idea of imposing a specific ranking of texts. That said, it's occurred to me that one of the reasons I feel deeply out of step with Tolkien fandom is that The Silmarillion (as in, the published book, not the in-story accounts) is on a drastically different level of canonicity for me than basically everything else with JRR Tolkien's name on it.

I don't dislike The Silmarillion or anything. I quite enjoy it! But for me, it shows its age—not in ~a man of his time~ sense, but in an editorial sense. Christopher Tolkien did an enormous amount of spectacular editorial work over the course of his life and we are deeply indebted to him. But I think he did pretty clearly get better at it over time, and particularly at presenting his father's mass of notes and documents and so on in a way that makes the texts as accessible as possible. At the same time, in later texts, he clearly differentiates between actual words JRRT wrote (whether in the main body or in notes) and his (CT's) own understanding and explanations as JRRT's confidant and literary heir. I do give a lot of credence to Christopher Tolkien's understanding of his father's work, actually, and I deeply respect (and am grateful for) CT's efforts to carefully and clearly explain things like dates of composition (and how this can be determined), direct context, how a given point relates to his father's broader work, etc, throughout these texts.

(Tangent: Facebook keeps recommending defensive Jackson stans griping about how Christopher Tolkien just didn't get his father's work like Jackson did and was so horribly ungrateful to the filmmakers and such an inferior scholar blahblah for the crime of disliking the films. FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE!! I am not uncritical of Christopher Tolkien, and neither was Christopher Tolkien, but I think we owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to him. Also, even to me, his response to the films seemed harsh at the time, but at this point, I think he was pretty much right, anyway, and correctly judged the films' impact and reflection of pop culture understanding of JRRT's work.)

So what is my issue with the published Silmarillion?

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I managed to integrate a lot of tangents into last night's infodump on Númenórean pregnancy because it turned up so many interesting sort-of related things, but there were STILL MORE details that I couldn't work in but was delighted in various ways by. A list:

1. Tolkien struggled to make the Maeglin story work with the developmental scheme he was trying to mathematically pin down for Elves, given that Maeglin's history requires him to be born much later than most of the other Elves of his generation. Tolkien concluded that Maeglin had to be an adult, but that he would have been very young in Elvish terms, and this is part of the reason Idril was so unsettled by his interest in her. He wasn't a literal child but he was kind of a kid from Idril's POV.

2. SPEAKING of Maeglin's history, another idea Tolkien came up with to deal with the Maeglin problem was the idea that Maeglin actually isn't that much younger, but instead, Aredhel was either persuaded or trapped by Eöl before ever reaching Aman! In this case, the "Dark Elf" descriptor for Eöl would have no racial subtext whatsoever—Eöl would not be Avari or Sindarin at all, but another Noldo who refused to finish the journey to Valinor and thus never saw the light of the Two Trees. The implication of Noldorin Exiles calling him "Dark Elf" is less "Sinda" and more "loser."

3. Tolkien makes a couple of errors in trying to figure out the math. Some of those mistakes are the math, or at least numerical (Arwen's birth year gave him a lot of trouble, more on this further down), but he also does things like mixing up Elenwë and Anairë at one point. IDK, there's so much hagiography in Tolkien discourse that it's kind of endearing to see him making ordinary writerly mistakes.

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An anon on Tumblr said:

First of all congrats on nearing the end of your PhD program!!! Woohoo!!!

Second of all, I’m muy late to the party here (been off tumblr for a bit) but WRT these tags ( https://www.tumblr.com/anghraine/749212904253947904/khazzman-tolkien-elendil-was-called-the ) what do you mean the pregnancies were strange lol how strange can they be…?

[The tags in question: #and that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how distinct and peculiar númenóreans are #fandom has slept on it for decades but they are reallyyyyyy unusual #they have weird pregnancies (and few of them) and horse telepathy and can rarely even get injured much less sick #there's this part where tolkien is trying to mathematically figure out elvish aging (hilarious tbh) and pencils in 'and númenóreans' #that's not even getting into the uncanny valley of númenórean kids...]

My reply:

As for the first point: Thank you! I'm really looking forwards to being done, lol.

As for the second point: anon, I delight in your innocence.

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An anon said:

I keep wondering about this: How/When do you think Darcy and Wickham's friendship ended? A slow disintegration? A sudden realisation. Did it happen at school? At University? How much time did they spend together? I suspect that how audiences interpret this has a big impact on how they see their characters...

I replied:

It’s possible!

Darcy says that he was exposed to Wickham’s real character as a young man, many, many years earlier, which is vague, but gives us a general idea.

It’s worth mentioning that Darcy is also introduced as a “young man” in the present, so his idea of “many, many years” might not be as vast as it sounds. At any rate, this certainly suggests (or states, rather) that he was an adult when he realized what Wickham was, while his father didn't reach the same realization. That gives us another point on the timeline: Mr Darcy was still alive at this point, so Darcy was 23 or younger at the time (making it 5+ years earlier).

To me, it sounds like Wickham went noticeably wrong in early adulthood, not childhood (so not at school), but very early adulthood. It also sounds like they were together pretty often up to that point. Darcy says:

“The vicious propensities—the want of principle, which he [Wickham] was careful to guard from the knowledge of his best friend [Mr Darcy], could not escape the observation of a young man [Darcy] of nearly the same age with himself [Wickham], and who had opportunities of seeing him in unguarded moments.”

So Darcy and Wickham were around each other enough that Darcy considers his observation of Wickham’s true character to have been inevitable, and their estrangement seems to have followed that. My impression is that they were good friends up to around 20, hung out a lot for a time, but that Wickham soon went down a path that Darcy couldn’t follow or accept. It doesn’t sound like it happened all at once to me, to give Darcy chances to see Wickham’s unguarded moments for some unknown length of time, but it also doesn’t sound all that gradual; Darcy seems to have had a clear (and disapproving) idea of what he was seeing.

At the same time, he kept the whole thing secret from his father—perhaps because Mr Darcy was likely in poor health by then, or because he privately hoped it was a phase (even after this point, he “wished” to believe Wickham was sincere about turning his life around), or some other reason. That’s speculation, but I think we do have a rough timeline for when the estrangement happened.

Tagged: #short version: they must have been young men at the time but also under 23 #so not kids but quite young #anghraine's headcanons #a little!

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There are various timeline glitches in Middle-earth, but I can never decide whether my favorite is:

a) Arvedui claimed the throne of Gondor as not only the son-in-law of the previous king of Gondor, but as heir of Isildur … while his own father was still alive

or

b) The Númenórean fleet that saved the Elves is supposed to be sent by Tar-Minastir, but was actually sent under Tar-Telperiën.

Tagged: #hatred or love? hmm can't choose

[ETA 4/23/2024: I don't hate either of these facts, to be clear; I hate Arvedui and love Telperiën.]

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An anon asked:

This is a weirdly specific P&P question, when Darcy and Wickham meet Austen says 'one looked white, the other red'. Which one does she mean?! I've seen fanfic do it both ways and I'm really not sure...

I replied:

I know I have a post about this somewhere, but couldn’t find it! In any case:

It’s one of my favorite little bits, because how you read it is so shaped by your ideas of the characters at the time. Before knowing the truth, it’s easy to assume that Darcy is blushing and Wickham is white with anger. Or you could assume that Darcy is pale with fear at the prospect of being exposed and Wickham is righteously angry.

Of course, in reality, their emotions are more or less the other way around. Wickham is so shameless that it’s hard for me to see him blushing about anything, but we know from him evading Darcy at the Netherfield ball that he’s afraid. And iirc Darcy colors on more than one occasion, and he certainly has every reason to be enraged on that one. So I think it’s most probable that Wickham is pale with fear and Darcy flushes in anger.

(It’s debatable, of course—that’s just what I think is likely.)

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chestnut_pod left an intriguing comment on my post here in terms of racial purity/elitism in regard to Gondor c. LOTR and the characterization of contemporary Gondor by other characters, most glaringly Elrond. I started to reply more concisely, but the rant grew, so I'm just posting it here:

I always struggle with the reality that much of what Elrond says about Gondor at the Council is objectively wrong as well as repugnant, but the narrative doesn't really frame any of it as incorrect or morally dubious or a reflection on his character at all (despite the semi-corrections made by Faramir later, which somewhat ameliorates this, but only somewhat). In fact, the person who is framed as suspect in the Council interactions is Boromir for being offended and "rudely" outspoken about it (both on behalf of Gondor and Rohan) in addition to being ambivalent (not even especially negative! just unsure!) about the practical significance of Aragorn's pure royal blood.

Elrond also glorifies Gondor's former imperial power through comparison with Númenor's. His regret over Gondor's decay is tied to ideas of racial impurity (which in Gondor is a direct consequence of Númenórean and Gondorian imperialism, and which in any case is a bizarre characterization choice for him specifically) and to Gondor's inability to sustain its empire. I feel like all these sentiments are treated in the text as pretty understandable and sympathetic and right-thinking, even if Elrond turns out to be mistaken about some specific things.

Basically, it feels like the general perspective is that the Stewards were wise to move towards a more diverse and integrated Gondorian society, to recruit outsiders, to do what was necessary to keep Gondor standing and opposing Sauron where multiple purer and more insular factions failed. They were wise to relinquish imperial holdings they didn't have the power or inclination to control. But this stuff also seems to be treated as a regrettable necessity. All this is tragic and everyone who cares is kind of sad about it. As a result, Elrond's melancholy over modern Gondor, while mistaken on specific points, seems somewhat validated by the narrative framework.

For instance, in the description of the (100% heroic) people of Lebennin, we can see that element of reservation about modern Gondor with regard to race and racial mixing:

the most part of the people of Gondor lived in the seven circles of the City, or in the high vales of the mountain-borders, in Lossarnach, or further south in fair Lebennin with its five swift streams. There dwelt a hardy folk between the mountains and the sea. They were reckoned men of Gondor, yet their blood was mingled, and there were short and swarthy folk among them whose sires came more from the forgotten men who housed in the shadow of the hills in the Dark Years ere the coming of the kings. But beyond, in the great fief of Belfalas, dwelt Prince Imrahil in his castle of Dol Amroth by the sea, and he was of high blood, and his folk also, tall men and proud with sea-grey eyes.

And I think Aragorn and his royal purebloodedness are deeply bound up in this. To an extent, this framework also validates the Northern Dúnedain's prioritization of Númenórean purity above all else. The negative extreme of their position is mediated through Gondor (in the Kinstrife) and then (~sadly but necessarily) becomes less of a priority over time. Thus Gondor survives through "hard" choices like "sustaining the population through interracial marriage" and "including local indigenous people as full citizens." So there's still a substantial polity left for the ultimate result of the Northern Dúnedain's blood purity—Aragorn—to rule over and "restore". But the Northern Dúnedain themselves don't have to compromise their valuation of purity for this to occur, and in fact, the purity they so carefully maintained in the royal line only makes it all the more natural for Aragorn to rule over the racially and culturally "impure" Gondorians and to forge their nation into a new, kinder and gentler(...) empire.

Further tangent: It's unsurprising that Tolkien struggled a bit with figuring out who would be suitable for Aragorn to marry and thus whose blood would mingle with his into the next generation. If I recall correctly, Arwen was created pretty specifically to be Aragorn's queen and to reinforce his bloodline (this was done in a fairly evocative way, but still). I do get why Tolkien felt Éowyn was too young etc for Aragorn, and I prefer Faramir/Éowyn by a mile, but I am not convinced that Éowyn's "lesser" racial status (in-world) was not also part of the calculus.

Anyway, I guess Aragorn's rule is the intended compromise between Faramir's explicit "a king would be nice but not dominating other people" and the various awful imperial legacies at play. But it feels to me like the suggestion here is that the problem is doing empire wrong rather than doing empire at all.

I do think that Tolkien had pretty messy feelings about this and you can see him trying to complicate various aspects in some of his post-LOTR writings. LOTR frames early Númenórean imperialism as uncomplicated benevolence towards, I think he said, "lesser" races of men; over a very long time, their dominance in Middle-earth becomes corrupted and nightmarish. But by "The Mariner's Wife," it's evident that their involvement was morally compromised and horrific from day 1, yet Tolkien also tries to complicate that with Aldarion's mixed motives (partly it's straightforward empire-building for its own sake, but partly he's trying to prepare for a very real threat and Ancalimë's refusal to continue his policies in Middle-earth is not exactly bad but certainly not good). Tolkien even argues in Peoples of Middle-earth that the High Men/Middle Men/Wild (or Dark!) Men distinction in LOTR is entirely about cultural affinity for "The West" rather than race as such (I doubt this was quite the intention in LOTR itself), and moreover adds that plenty of people had pretty good reasons for cultural opposition to "The West" because of devastation previously wreaked by Western powers like Númenor. (The subtext is not subtle.)

But I think there's always this partly-aesthetic, partly just racist appeal of the "good" empire ruled by a(n ideally pureblooded & superior) racial elite for him, alongside his ever-increasing skepticism about what this entails and what it can lead to and if it will inevitably be corrupted and how that interacts with (in his view) the intrinsically fallen nature of humanity. So it's a mess and there are these points of reservation and skepticism and outright criticism of things like racism and empire and the interrelationship between them embedded within his work that can give us some room to maneuver, I guess? But the overarching trends voiced by characters like Elrond and Aragorn are still really present and unavoidable.

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tree responded to this post:

i can’t remember the wording, but someone (mrs gardiner?) even comments on the significance of such a recommendation of his character by an intelligent servant.

I replied:

It’s in the narration, but yes!

The commendation bestowed on him by Mrs Reynolds was of no trifling nature. What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant? As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people’s happiness were in his guardianship!—how much of pleasure or pain was it in his power to bestow!—how much of good or evil must be done by him!f

The text is emphatic that the judgment of Mrs Reynolds and those in roughly similar positions to her is immensely important as an indicator of Darcy’s (or anyone’s) true character. I think people do tend to treat it as "trifling," unfortunately—nice, but not terribly weighty, despite Austen underscoring its importance here and Elizabeth suddenly grasping that Darcy’s character is best understood by those who are directly subject to his power.

I actually find that moment super interesting in general, because I think the implication is that Elizabeth had not before understood this. It’s not that she never thought about it before because she didn’t have access to the people under Darcy’s power, IMO, but because she wasn’t thinking of his power in those terms. So it’s doing interesting work with Elizabeth’s characterization, too, but still gets relegated to an afterthought. :\

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I’ve posted it before, but I just really love this “my family did the right thing where the kings failed” moment from Faramir in TTT:

“Kings made tombs more splendid than houses of the living, and counted old names in the rolls of their descent dearer than the names of sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry; in secret chambers withered men compounded strong elixirs, or in high cold towers asked questions of the stars. And the last king of the line of Anárion had no heir. But the stewards were wiser and more fortunate. Wiser, for they recruited the strength of our people from the sturdy folk of the sea-coast…”

RESPECT FOR COASTAL GONDOR

Tagged: #people complain about how this made gondor ~~~impure and he's like ... actually? it is where the strength of our people comes from #and it's how we survived where the lineage-obsessed kings faded away and was totally the right move. #yeppppppp. lebennin rocks and its people are better than you #(also belfalas and the mountaineers of ered nimrais. but especially lebennin) #(the rivers! the green haze! PELARGIR! the 'hardy' people there! YEAH) #(also i think it's very possible that the army aragorn brings to minas tirith is majority lebenninian. TRUE HEROES)

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I’m using Samuel Johnson for my exam, and he’s such an odd character.

He was pretty conservative in some ways, but also a hardline opponent of chattel slavery; his argument against the American Revolution was that the drivers of slaves had no moral ground for talking about liberty, and he argued in “A Brief to Free a Slave” (1777) that “No man is by nature the property of another.”

I took a class in which he was only mentioned as influencing a female novelist towards making her heroine more docile at the end, which, yeah, but also, a lot of British people more radical than he was could only seem to grasp slavery as a metaphor for their own lives or extension of their own experiences. Johnson was like, nope, even accepting that a person can give up their own liberty, they can’t make the choice for their children and descendants. And he argued that most people who end up in slavery didn’t give up their liberty but were abducted and traded by merchants whose right to do this had never been examined anyway, and the whole system was morally abhorrent in law and in practice.

He also had a pretty sympathetic take on mental illness in 1759, saying “To mock the heaviest of human afflictions is neither charitable nor wise. Few can attain this man’s knowledge, and few practice his virtues; but all may suffer his calamity.”

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Feeling this again—

Denethor to Pippin:

'And why should such songs be unfit for my halls, or for such hours as these? We who have long lived under the Shadow may surely listen to echoes from a land untroubled by it? Then we may feel that our vigil was not fruitless, though it may have been thankless.'

And, at last, the Eagles sing to the people of Minas Tirith:

Sing now, ye people of the Tower of Anor,
for the Realm of Sauron is ended for ever,
and the Dark Tower is thrown down.
Sing and rejoice, ye people of the Tower of Guard,
for your watch hath not been in vain

Tagged: #:') :') :') #he didn't live to hear it and would have had problems with royalist eagles if he had but also... RESPECT FOR MY PEOPLE

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sunshine-states responded to this post:

Would that make Imperial Rome Numenor?

Possibly, though it could also be early (or earlier) Gondor. Tolkien says of it:

In the south Gondor rises to a peak of power, almost reflecting Númenor, and then fades slowly to decayed Middle Age, a kind of proud, venerable, but increasingly impotent Byzantium.

He also says that in ROTK:

we come to the half-ruinous Byzantine City of Minas Tirith.

Tagged: #to be fair he also described contemporary gondor as italian and egyptian so it's not just one thing #but byzantine gondor is definitely within the range of his descriptions!

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I reblogged my Fitzwilliam headcanon dramatis personae post, and added:

Note: when I was re-conceptualizing my Fitzwilliam headcanons, I had the idea of using an actual title invented by Austen, and then actually having the earl be that person and going from there. So:

The dowager Lady Ravenshaw here = the grandmother whose death puts an end to the theatricals in MP
Lord Ravenshaw here = P&P’s Lord ___ + MP’s Lord Ravenshaw, “one of the most correct men in England”
Lady Catherine = P&P’s Lady Catherine (of course)
Lady Ravenshaw = MP’s Lady Ravenshaw, who was playing Agatha very well
Lord Rochford = Colonel Fitzwilliam’s implied older brother in P&P
Lady Anne Brydges = mine, all mine!
Lady Mary Carlisle = the mother of the children whose existence necessitates the governess (playing the cottager’s wife) in MP
Colonel Fitzwilliam = P&P’s Colonel Fitzwilliam
Anne de Bourgh, Fitzwilliam Darcy, Georgiana Darcy = P&P
Sophia and Margaret Carlisle = children overseen by MP’s governess

Tagged: #me overthinking things? it can't be

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I’ve talked about this a million times before, but every time I see arguments about which broody adapted Darcys are better, I just think of:

“I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love,” said Darcy.
“Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”
Darcy only smiled.

“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil—a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.”
“And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody.”
“And yours,” he replied, with a smile, “is wilfully to misunderstand them.”

“It is your turn to say something now, Mr Darcy—I talked about the dance, and you ought to make some kind of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples.”
He smiled, and assured her that whatever she wished him to say should be said.

“What think you of books?” said he, smiling.
“Books—Oh! no. I am sure we never read the same, or not with the same feelings.”
“I am sorry you think so; but if that be the case, there can at least be no want of subject. We may compare our different opinions.”

“It is a proof of your own attachment to Hertfordshire. Anything beyond the very neighbourhood of Longbourn, I suppose, would appear far.”
As he spoke there was a sort of smile which Elizabeth fancied she understood.

“Indeed, Mr Darcy, it is very ungenerous in you to mention all that you knew to my disadvantage in Hertfordshire—and, give me leave to say, very impolitic too—for it is provoking me to retaliate, and such things may come out as will shock your relations to hear.”
“I am not afraid of you,” said he smilingly.

“I have always supposed it to be my own fault–because I would not take the trouble of practising. It is not that I do not believe my fingers as capable as any other woman’s of superior execution.”
Darcy smiled and said, “You are perfectly right. You have employed your time much better. No one admitted to the privilege of hearing you can think anything wanting.”

Elizabeth walked on in quest of the only face whose features would be known to her. At last it arrested her—and she beheld a striking resemblance of Mr Darcy, with such a smile over the face as she remembered to have sometimes seen when he looked at her.

she sat in misery till Mr Darcy appeared again, when, looking at him, she was a little relieved by his smile.

LET 👏 DARCY 👏 SMILE 👏

Tagged: #not tight brief smiles either #darcy smiles enough for it to show up in a /painting/ #or at least he used to and still does around elizabeth #yes he's a fundamentally serious person but not anywhere near to the degree of the adaptations #thanks for coming to my talk and goodbye

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I reblogged a set of quotes I had posted the previous year, on Christmas of 2019:

Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?

I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.

I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh. Mr Darcy sends you all the love in the world that he can spare from me. You are all to come to Pemberley at Christmas.

<3

In 2020, I added:

It's that time of year!

Tagged: #i always love imagining that first christmas at pemberley #with georgiana and the gardiner kids and mr and mrs gardiner and darcy and elizabeth all together #i just #:')

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I reblogged a meme asking us (all of fandom-oriented Tumblr, I guess) to reblog with a quote from our favorite character in the tags, without saying the character's name. I added:

#i will only add god bless you

[ETA 3/9/2024: I am going to tag it correctly on DW for organizational purposes and because lbr you all know who my fave is.]

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An anon asked:

More HEARTCANON/SOULCANON/any canon about Gondor please! Or, related: do you think Faramir ever regretted recognizing Aragorn as king of Gondor? Did Aragorn ever have second thoughts about the guy he appointed steward?

I replied:

Oh, interesting!

My default inclination is to say no, because of the mystical element of those initial recognitions. It’s not a rational evaluation of each other’s abilities/qualities so much as a sense of basic identity.

Faramir doesn’t recognize Aragorn as king because he thinks through it and decides Aragorn has the qualities of a good king, but because after the healing, he feels in his soul that Aragorn is the king in some essential way. Aragorn’s entire conduct towards Faramir inclines me to think that he sees Faramir as the rightful Steward, has a sense of Faramir’s being that he (Aragorn) respects, and—as far as Faramir is concerned—never considers acting in any way other than he did. I don’t think either would have regrets in the sense of wishing he had made different choices; they couldn’t have made different choices, ethically.

That said, there’s a fairly major issue that seems (IMO) like it would have to come up: the disparity between their visions for Gondor.

Faramir famously says in TTT, well before meeting Aragorn:

I would see the White Tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace: Minas Anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen among other queens: not a mistress of many slaves, nay, not even a kind mistress of willing slaves. War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.

He would like to have a proper king again (“the Silver Crown return”). But the rest of the quote is about his vision for a then-theoretical renewed Gondor, and repeatedly returns to the point of avoiding domination and fear.

Meanwhile, what actually happens:

All men that had allied themselves with Sauron were slain or subjugated. (POME)

Gondor [was] soon to be of imperial power and prestige… I did not, naturally, go into details about the way in which Aragorn, as King of Gondor, would govern the realm. But it was made clear that there was much fighting and in the earlier years of A.’s reign expeditions against enemies in the East. (Letters)

And wherever King Elessar went with war King Éomer went with him; and beyond the Sea of Rhûn and on the far fields of the South the thunder of the cavalry of the Mark was heard, and the White Horse upon Green flew in many winds until Éomer grew old. (LOTR)

At some point Aragorn “granted mercy and peace” to Mordor’s traditional allies once he became their overlord, which is—well, Tolkien’s description of Aragorn’s Gondor as “imperial” seems very accurate.

I’ve wondered for a long time about the reason for the gap between Faramir’s ideal and Aragorn’s reality, and I have some scattered ideas that aren’t really relevant, but in-story: how would Faramir respond? As Steward, he is Aragorn’s chief advisor and regent. Even if what happens looks less stark and more complicated from the inside, even if I squint, it’s hard to see Faramir being 100% rah-rah-rah onboard with all this.

Would he make actual trouble over it? Canonically, it’s hard to see anything very disruptive happening, but at the same time, I don’t see their relationship as always one of perfect harmony. If there ever is major trouble between Faramir and Aragorn, this is certainly where I see it cropping up. But whether that would extend so far as wishing they’d chosen different people …? I’m not sure. Even with all my reservations, it’s hard to see it going that far.

[ETA: 3/8/2024: this was a #de las bóvedas post.]

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tyrellia responded to this post:

Wasn’t it implied to be a Numenorean blade, though? They had like. Hella elf magic compared to the Third Age - not quite Noldor, but still

I replied:

It was made in Arnor in the Third Age. That’s why it was specifically enchanted against the Witch-king.

[ETA 3/5/2024: I didn't say it at the time, but the fandom tendency to either deny Númenóreans' special abilities or treat them as Elves Lite/attribute their abilities to Elves is one of my peak pet peeves, so I was probably more brusque than I needed to be.]

tyrellia responded:

Huh. I could have sworn it was Westernesse-made - guess I need to re-read lol

I replied:

It is described as “work of Westernesse,” but in the broader sense of Númenórean:

“So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse. But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom.”

Current Location: Washington
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I reblogged this post and added:

35 pages in and, yup, he’s still one of my absolute faves:

“I want us to be doing things, prolonging life’s duties as much as we can; I want Death to find me planting my cabbages.”

(From “To philosophize is to learn how to die”)

Current Location: Washington
Current Music: I Don't Know Much (Linda Ronstadt & Aaron Neville)

hmm

“But in the wearing of the swift years of Middle-earth the line of Meneldil son of Anárion failed, and the Tree withered, and the blood of the Númenoreans became mingled with lesser men.”

—Elrond, Fellowship of the Ring

“Kings made tombs more splendid than houses of the living, and counted old names in the rolls of their descent dearer than the names of sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry; in secret chambers withered men compounded strong elixirs, or in high cold towers asked questions of the stars. And the last king of the line of Anárion had no heir. But the stewards were wiser and more fortunate. Wiser, for they recruited the strength of our people from the sturdy folk of the sea-coast, and from the hardy mountaineers of Ered Nimrais.”

—Faramir, The Two Towers

hmmmm

Tagged: #obviously they both have their biases in their interpretations #but also they're both pretty clearly characters who are meant to be speaking for tolkien #at least to some extent #(he said so outright of faramir iirc) #and so it's interesting to me that their takes on this are so different; faramir sees the /cultural/ shift as regrettable #but the actual integration of other peoples as wise #and i'm not sure that would be the impression generally given at all if not for his monologue #(which i think people still tend to overlook; there's a lot of UMMMM in fandom takes on gondorian dúnedain's ~impurity) #anyway this certainly is a ....... thing

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Entries tagged with genre: canon

LOTR, the Silmarillion, other stuff & canonicity

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