pedo mellon a minno

Gondor Week day 6: Minor characters

When things are all said and done, I like to imagine Aragorn paying a visit to the nameless townsperson who supplied the six dried leaves of athelas that revived Faramir, Eowyn, and Merry.

Nienna was one of the Aratar, the most powerful of the Valar. Sister of Mandos and Irmo, she had no husband. She was the Valar associated with grief, sadness, and mourning, but also of understanding, pity, and hope. She always wore a gray cloak. Her song in the Music of the Ainur was what brought sadness into the world. She lived isolated in the west of Arda, and often went to the Hall of Mandos to console the souls of the dead. Her tears watered the Two Trees, and when they were destroyed her tears helped clean the evil of Ungoliant. She vouched for Melkor to be freed from the chains of the Valar following the destruction of the Trees, as she is the goddess of pity. During her time in Arda she was the patron vala of Gandalf, and he learned much about pity from her; which may explain his wearing of gray.

“Wisest of the Maiar was Olórin. He too dwelt in Lórien, but his ways took him often to the house of Nienna, and of her he learned pity and patience.” - Gandalf during his time in Valinor. Silmarillion, Valaquenta.

Boromir, pointing at Legolas and Gimli: I definitely don’t know how either of your ages work

Boromir, pointing at Aragorn: I thought I knew how your age worked but apparently I was wrong

Boromir, pointing at Gandalf: I especially don’t know how your age works

The hobbits are the only ones given official ages in the text, and are between fifty or fifty-one and twenty-nine. Elves and dwarves notoriously age slowly, and Gimli is the offspring of one of Bilbo’s pals, so okay, we’ve established that he’s old enough to call the hobbits young, and Bilbo confirms for them that Aragorn is Pretty Old For A Bigjobs. Gandalf is, of course, eternal.

But we are never given any context for Boromir and Faramir’s ages, except that a) they are humans and, though Sons of Gondor, not much longer lived than most Bigjobs, and b) Faramir is A QuiteYoung Man. I was absolutely convinced, when I read the books as a youngun, that Boromir, being in ‘the flower of manhood’ iirc, was probably between 25 and 30.

And it would be Freaking Hilarious, okay, for Boromir to finally get around to actually asking how old this baby-faced hobbit carrying The Ring is, and get told ‘oh, he’s only fifty, but he’s very steady for his age.’

Boromir: ?!?!?!

And then Pippin and Merry start asking everyone how old they are because this is fascinating are we all official adults here except for Pippin or what.

Boromir: …. Pippin isn’t an adult HOW OLD IS PIPPIN.

Pippin is just 29, which is why everyone calls him Pippin, it’s gonna be at least another 20 years before he can make Peregrine work. Why, how old is Boromir?

Boromir, who would rather DIE than admit to being 28 right at this moment: …. 43. 

All the others, weighing up his apparent age compared to theirs: Sure, sounds legit. 

Like, in the Hobbit, Tolkien didn’t write Gandalf as a Serious Gritty Epic Fantasy wizard. Tolkien wrote Gandalf as an EXTREMELY PETTY sarcastic drama queen who just roasts everyone 24/7 and is almost like, a parody of a wizard– a funny character who isn’t supposed to be “realistic,” but a character that little kids would find funny and want to hear stories about.

but then years passed

and Tolkien decided to write Lord of the Rings

and he gradually realized the story would not be a lighthearted children’s book like the Hobbit, but a  dramatic serious epic

but he was like

So does Bilbo (our unreliable narrator) describe Gandalf as a petty grumpy drama queen? yes

Mightier than Este is Nienna, sister of the Feanturi; she dwells alone. She is acquainted with grief, and mourns for every wound that Arda has suffered in the marring of Melkor. So great was her sorrow, as the Music unfolded, that her song turned to lamentation long before its end, and the sound of mourning was woven into the themes of the World before it began.

"And then her heart changed, or at least she understood it; and the winter passed, and the sun shone upon her."

A painting of Eowyn! I, may, have been a little in love with her as a kid. A lady with a sword? Sign me the hell up.

Please please please zoom in to see all the details I spent the past week doing. The chainmail took 3 days of that

treebeard and the hobbits