Ethel Duath
Gondolin
Mar 8, 11:30pm
Views: 5150
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So glad you're back! Some thoughts on "left behind" and on Denethor versus Theoden.
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" . . . characters thinking about other characters."
Is that part of his “left behind” feelings that we get a slice of what he is thinking and missing of the other characters?
Yes, I think that's exactly it. That's what we do when we're cut off from those we are close to. It's a loss, so of course we think about what we lost. And they are relationships, and we don't want them to end so we keep them going by thinking about those people. And if they are in danger, then we worry about them helplessly, wishing we could do something. Poor Merry is stuck with all of those.
We read that Pippin also swore allegiance to Denethor- why do you think Tolkien would see the importance that the hobbits align their interest in this way? How do Pippin and Merry know the importance of aligning their interests with these two great countries?
These are a great couple of questions, involving both the strategic and the personal, and the strategic involves both author's strategy and what might be called in-book strategy.
Pippin and Denethor and then Merry and Theoden are kind of on opposite sides of a mirror, or maybe even between two mirrors reflecting each other.
The biggest contrast of course is between Denethor and Theoden, and I always thought it was interesting that the more ingenuous, less leader-ish Hobbit--or perhaps at least the less "tough" hobbit--is paired with a hard and unsympathetic ruler who was very difficult to please and quite touchy. And Merry, who could likely handle Denethor much better is paired with a kindly and sympathetic king that would seem more suitable to be matched up with Pippin.
But Pippin's innocence and "softer" personality may have been exactly what was needed to touch Denethor's heart; and it seems to have done just that: "A pale smile, like a gleam of cold sun on a winter’s evening, passed over the old man’s face." That's a phrase I'll never forget.
It seems to me that Merry's pairing with Theoden, unlike Pippin's situation, isn't about the king, but about Eowyn and the Lord of the Nazgul. We don't see a lot of interaction between Theoden and Merry, but there is quite a bit more with Eowyn, and a short but a very definitive one with Mr. N.
When Tolkien chose Merry for the encounter at Pelennor Field, it was necessary for him to be with Rohan in the battle, so that explains, I think, one reason why Tolkien arranged the hobbits in this way. And I do think there are independently good and maybe compelling reasons for the Pippin and Denethor combination, not only from the authors point of view, but from Gandolf's point of view, and not just because of the Palantir danger to Pippin and therefore to the cause itself.
But as far as the hobbits knowing any strategic importance about aligning their interests with these two countries, I don't think they had any idea really. I think it was very personal on both counts.
(This post was edited by Ethel Duath on Mar 8, 11:31pm)
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