Curious
Half-elven
Jun 15 2008, 8:08pm
Views: 4805
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What did Tolkien mean by this?
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Why is he like Faramir, and not like his other characters? Perhaps Tolkien identified with Faramir's attitude towards war: 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. There's also the fact that Tolkien bequeathed Faramir his own recurring dream of a Great Wave, as related in the same Letter 180 in which Tolkien identifies with Faramir: For when Faramir speaks of his private vision of the Great Wave, he speaks for me. That vision and dream has been ever with me — and has been inherited (as I only discovered recently) by one of my children, Michael. Perhaps also Tolkien did not think of himself as an adventurer. Faramir may have gone to war, but he did not venture far from home to do so. Aragorn and Gandalf wandered the world, and even the hobbits wandered far more than Faramir.
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