ᴡɪᴢᴀʀᴅ's ᴘᴜᴘɪʟ

So, I have talked about this (at least) once before--over on adunada.

No doubt was Boromir, at the age of ten, very aware and understood much of what happened around his mother’s death. Not last that, besides having lost Finduilas, Denethor also became (even more) distant. Surely governesses and the like had taken care of his and his brother’s daily needs before, but of the emotional support that only their father might give they were deprived. I guess, though, that this “only” hurt Boromir at first--that he did not feel a need to be compensating for his father’s absence here.

That came later--about when Boromir reached adolescence, I’d guess. Given their age gap, Faramir was still much of a child when Boromir happened to come well on his way towards manhood and finally this lack of Denethor’s presence as their father (or at least Boromir’s preception of it) that had accumulated over the past years, together with their mother having passed away so early in both of their lives, then, grew into something he thought himself with the skill and obligation to fill in.

But sooner or later (I’m thinking sooner) he went overboard with it, so much so that it caused a (momentary) rift between him and Faramir. Because Faramir, for his part, did not find himself lacking a strong hand from Denethor--and maybe even already realised that he did not feel the lack of Finduilas as strongly or in the same way as Boromir did, because he had been only five--and while it wasn’t only that which Boromir at that point saw himself responsible for and acted out, the whole constellation that had been constructed caused trouble. Boromir, of course, meant well as the older brother, but Faramir did not have an older brother being an older brother but a brother trying to be their father (and, for a part--because Boromir did feel the lack of Finduilas more dearly still--their mother).

Though eventually things calmed down on their own, it wasn’t only time which brought some new clarity but also Boromir’s service as a soldier. He grasped (and maybe, yet, indeed because of the trouble he and Faramir had had because of it rather recently) that so much widely open affection was unsuitable for the position he was being groomed for more and more certainly.

Not that he gave his gentle side up for sword and shield--we know that this isn’t at all true--but I think he had another change of mind and understood thereafter why Denethor was rather distant and cool, holding command over so many men--though Boromir grudged, then, no less that this had come to extend towards his sons.

He’s, then, subtler in his affections though he loves all the people he commands and protects. His concern and care for Faramir by no means fades, but it is finally more brotherly again after their disagreements over it are cleared. No, Boromir is no less staunch in his care over others, but he weighs more carefully when and how to show it, because an army will not suffer a Captain whom they think too soft--it turns out he loves the fighting too much to jeopardize it in this manner, and indeed the battles themselves change him too; he can not himself tend to every little sore.

Boromir, to Frodo in Book II, The Breaking of the Fellowship

#boromirweek | Day 3: favourite quote

Yes, my favourite quote (or conversation) is this one, though it has very little of the good and much of the bad and the ugly and it does pain me to see him like this.

But I like it best—for the first part—because, beside what he has already said at the council of Elrond, it shows how dear he holds his countrymen and how valiantly he thinks of them. Secondly, though, he also says what I think is the view that most of the people of Gondor hold at the time—regarding Elves and Half-elves etc.—because what’s presented as Faramir’s view (which is somewhat more well-informed and (therefore) less sinister*, if not much less suspicious, or careful at least) certainly isn’t the popular one, neither does the very positive perception of the Elves by the people of Dol Amroth strike me as such. Overall (and with what we learn a little later on) this makes me see Boromir as a true voice of his people.

I do like it also, however, because we finally see the Ring’s power—if really just a fraction of it—other than that which draws the Nazgûl close or Galadriel’s performance which ends pretty mildly. We’re finally shown that the Ring corrupts. The mere thought of it, of having it, of wanting it does. It does this to a good man. Frodo asks Boromir, if he did not listen at the council: that they can not use it because whatever is done with it turns to evil. I don’t think Boromir didn’t listen, or plain didn’t want to hear it (again) in that moment but couldn’t. That the Ring had him well wrapped up in it’s power, that it would try anything to get into someone’s hands who would just use it, before Boromir literally leapt at Frodo for it.

And I think this part is still too often misunderstood. People might think it’s about Boromir not being a good man, or at least not good enough—but I would argue that it’s about no one being good enough, that this is about the Ring being too powerful, instead. Sometimes the question comes up: would Faramir have succumbed to the Ring? And I can not make myself say no. He may have held out longer that Boromir, perhaps, at least by what he says to the Hobbits about it when they meet in Ithilien, but it would still be a mere matter of time (for anyone in its proximity such as was with the Fellowship).

"And why is it that my fate is to see everything and take it all so much to heart?"

"Don't you see, we are not in the same position."

"Don't you think you'd have to be a hopeless nonentity to play only one role all your life?"

"Each according to his fate."

"Every herd is a refuge for giftlessness."

"Everyone is worried only about proving himself in practical matters."

"Facts are meaningless, unless meanings are put into them."

"How many things in the world deserve our loyalty?"

"I don't like people who are indifferent to the truth."

"I don't think I could love you so much if you had nothing to complain of and nothing to regret."

"I'll stay with you a little, for as long as my arms and my hands and my lips remember you."

"Man is born to live, not to prepare for life."

"No one makes history, no one sees it happen, no one sees the grass grow."

"To hope and to act, these are our duties in misfortune."

"What is it about you that you have always known as yourself?"

"What wouldn't I give for it not to be there?"