Lord of the Queers

Sam having a huge!! crush on Frodo for like. forever. And Frodo has a crush on Sam too. And when Frodo tells Sam he doesn’t want them to sneak into each other’s bedrooms for brief dalliances like some other lovers in The Shire, and that he probably never will, Sam is cool with it. And he always checks (and double checks) to make sure he never does anything Frodo isn’t comfortable with.

They do tons of cuddling though. Cuddling everywhere. You’ll find them curled up together in the weirdest places.

Frodo reading in Sindarin to Sam, and petting Sam’s hair as Sam drifts to sleep. (Sindarin always puts Sam to sleep because it’s so soothing to hear.) 

Sam and Frodo gardening together! Frodo honestly isn’t as good at is as Sam is, but he loves it anyway and is always willing to help Sam in the garden.

Merry flirting with Estella Bolger very often- but every now and again throwing a wink or two at her older brother, Fatty Bolger. Fatty winks back, but he’s not too sure how serious Merry actually is. It’s hard to tell with him, sometimes.

Pippin seemingly developing a new crush every other week, and at parties it’s not uncommon for him to dance with any lad, lass, or anyone in between who’s willing to give him the time of day

Frodo, when he’s quite young, asking Bilbo why it was he never married. He doesn’t receive a definitive answer, but the way Bilbo stares off into the east with a sad look in his eye when he’s asked is answer enough.

Faramir already having a strained relationship with his father, but when he tells his father he’s trans, the strain worsens. He has the complete support and respect of his brother and his men, but Denethor never fully accepts him after that. 

When Faramir meets Eowyn and the hobbits, he finds out that not everyone is quite so rigid about gender, and feels more sure of himself than he ever did when he was constantly trying to win Denethor’s affection. 

Eowyn is bigender, and “Dernhelm” wasn’t entirely an act. The Rohirrim were not nearly so strict about genders and gender roles, so she grew up around people like her, and it was never treated as something strange or taboo. (Which causes her to be even more shocked to hear of how Denethor treated Faramir in relation to his gender.)

Boromir constantly being pressured by Denethor to find a lovely maiden and finally get married and produce some heirs. He doesn’t know how to tell his father that he has no interest in romance, or any activities that aid in the production of heirs. And he never gets the chance to figure out how to tell him, anyway.

And the trade negotiations just stop. They just stop cold. The tall people insist on speaking to the man, they insist on talking to the lady dwarf about all sorts of irrelevant bullshit, like recipes and childrearing and perfume

so the dwarf goes back home, enraged

and is like “BTW guess what happened, we’re all just going to be men forever now as far as the tall ones are concerned”

and everyone is justly horrified at this barbarism but they all agree to do whatever  it takes to squeeze those tall bastards for all the resources they are worth

and the dwarves get surlier, and the trade agreements less generous

and the tall people are all “what a miserable and greedy race”

but really they’re just still nursing a grudge about how goddamn backwards and sexist the tall people are

But what if this too is a mistranslation? What if the dwarves were talking to the Men and when asked “where are all your women?” they hit a wall. They whisper amongst themselves, and eventually come back with a question, “What’s a woman?” The Men are incredulous.

"Why, the members of your race that bear children, of course!" 

More dwarven whispering.

And how this is one of the major quotes we have for him personality-wise:

"Rather he was a man after the sort of King Earnur of old, taking no wife and delighting chiefly in arms; fearless and strong, but caring little for lore, save the tales of old battles." — Appendix A, "The Stewards" in the Appendices of the Lord of the Rings.

I focused specifically on this part:

"Rather he was a man after the sort of King Earnur of old, taking no wife and delighting chiefly in arms; fearless and strong, but caring little for lore, save the tales of old battles.”

And it got me thinking: what if Boromir was asexual, but homoromantic?

But I find myself wondering now about the sort of difficulties he would face. In a discussion with futuremaker I was reminded that some dwarves were known for refusing marriage, desiring their work instead — which I interpret to mean asexual dwarves existed. But while that might be known among dwarves, would it be known among the Edain in Middle Earth — that there are people who don’t have sexual desire?

Also, there’s the issue of Boromir’s position: he’s the heir to the mantle of the Stewards — and as the heir he would be expected to have children to continue his line. I suppose he could’ve named one of Faramir’s sons his heir, but I would think the difficulty there would be Denethor’s favoritism: I can’t imagine he’d be too keen to have one of Faramir’s children succeed Boromir. And given the constant warfare going on by this point, there was the chance, however slim in Denethor’s mind it might have been, that Boromir would be killed, which would make the need for his favorite son to produce an heir all the more desperate. It would seem likely then, that Denethor might pressure Boromir into marrying and having a child to secure the line of succession. For a man who, I believe, is both asexual and homoromantic, this would likely be an incredibly difficult and sensitive issue. And if Boromir doesn’t have the terminology or concept for what he is, how would he confront issues like these? How would he define his own identity?

If we go off the medieval and ancient models in Europe, marriage is (at least in part — depending on particular situations and time periods) a social and familial obligation to beget children. Given that Tolkien was himself a medievalist and based his writings in part on the history and culture of that time, it would have a bearing on the world he created in one fashion or another — from which it could then be conceivable that Boromir might be perceived and even perceive himself as failing in his duty to his family, and potentially to his people, which would be another huge issue for him to deal with.

In trying to sort out how he would define himself and understand his lack of sexual desire, it might then be conceivable that he believes himself uninterested in sex because he’s pushed towards women, and is expected to marry and have sex with a woman, which would be undesirable because he is attracted to men (in my opinion). Which would then lead perhaps to a lack of understanding as to why, even when he’s with men he’s romantically attracted to, he’s still not feeling that sexual desire.

I guess the bottom line of all of this is: how would someone who lacks the terminology/concept for what they are come to terms with it, particularly in a sort of medieval context? How would they overcome any fears or trials they face because of it? Having a name for how you identify is very important — it makes it easier to talk about and communicate. Today, we have internet forums and support groups and the like for people who are coming to grips with their orientations and may not hear the term for what they are in an everyday context (I saw a comic a while ago about an asexual person who learned about asexuality from another friend, which finally gave them a term for what they were — as I recall). But for someone who lacks that, how would they deal with it? I have no doubt that they would come to grips with it in time of course, but it would be a very difficult road, I would think (note: I am not attempting to belittle the struggles of any person who is dealing with questions of sexuality for themselves, I am merely noting the lack of resources available to a character who lives in a fantastical medieval setting — and I do understand that even today, not everyone will have access to those very resources I just mentioned).