[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

We should remember Denethor's position. Gandalf himself says that he is "a man of far greater lineage and power [than Théoden], though he is not called a king" (1). Although he holds more power and is of an older family than most of the kings of Middle-earth, he is still no more than a steward. In The Window on the West, Faramir reports a conversation from his childhood between his father and his brother:

And this I remember of Boromir as a boy, when we together learned the tale of our sires and the history of our city, that always it displeased him that his father was not king. "How many hundreds of years needs it to make a steward a king, if the king returns not?" he asked. "Few years, maybe, in other places of less royalty," my father answered. "In Gondor ten thousand years would not suffice." (2)

One could take Denethor's words at face value as a simple explanation of why he cannot hold a king's title, but it is possible to read them as a complaint. Without a tone of voice the sentence becomes ambiguous, but at this point it is clear that he rejected at least the name of king, albeit possibly after the fashion of Caesar on the Lupercal.

Later in The Pyre of Denethor (Book V chapter 7), Denethor makes explicit his position. He may be content with the title of steward, but he has no intention of giving up his power.

'Do I not know thee, Mithrandir? Thy hope is to rule in my stead, to stand behind every throne, north, south or west. I have read thy mind and its policies. Do I not know that you commanded this halfling here to keep silence? That you brought him hither to be a spy within my very chamber? And yet in our speech together I have learned the names and purpose of all thy companions. So! With the left hand thou wouldst use me for a little while as a shield against Mordor, and with the right bring up this Ranger of the North to supplant me.
'But I say to thee, Gandalf Mithrandir, I will not be thy tool! I am Steward of the House of Anárion. I will not step down to be the dotard chamberlain of an upstart. Even were his claim proved to me, still he comes but of the line of Isildur. I will not bow to such a one, last of a ragged house long bereft of lordship and dignity.'

'What then would you have,' said Gandalf, 'if your will could have its way?'

'I would have things as they were in all the days of my life,' answered Denethor, 'and in the days of my longfathers before me: to be the Lord of this City in peace, and leave my chair to a son after me, who would be his own master and no wizard's pupil. But if doom denies this to me, then I will have naught: neither life diminished, nor love halved, nor honour abated.' (3)

This theme is repeated in Appendix A:

But there was little love between Denethor and Gandalf; and after the days of Ecthelion there was less welcome for the Grey Pilgrim in Minas Tirith. Therefore later, when all was made clear, many believed that Denethor, who was subtle in mind and looked further and deeper than other men of his day, had discovered who this stranger Thorongil in truth was, and suspected that he and Mithrandir designed to supplant him. (4)

Not only does this explain Denethor's dislike of Gandalf, but it also explains his deep resentment of the wizard's hold over Faramir. He can see in Gandalf and Thorongil the end of his family's rule over Gondor, and his son's collusion with them must seem to him disloyalty of the worst kind.

Tolkien has little to say of Denethor in his published letters, but he does clearly set out the old steward's thinking.

Denethor was tainted with mere politics: hence his failure, and his mistrust of Faramir. It had become for him a prime motive to preserve the polity of Gondor, as it was, against another potentate, who had made himself stronger and was to be feared and opposed for that reason rather than because he was ruthless and wicked. Denethor despised lesser men, and one may be sure did not distinguish between orcs and the allies of Mordor. If he had survived as victor, even without use of the Ring, he would have taken a long stride towards becoming himself a tyrant, and the terms and treatment he accorded to the deluded peoples of east and south would have been cruel and vengeful. He had become a 'political' leader: sc. Gondor against the rest. (5)

From the above examples it should be clear that Denethor sees Gandalf as a threat to his own position. Although he still does not take for himself the title and honours pertaining to a king, he will not give up the political power that is the very soul and substance of kingship, which Gandalf and Aragorn are certain to insist upon. It is easy to see in him a veiled comment on the elected politicians of Tolkien's era. The most powerful man in British politics still calls himself 'Prime Minister', although the monarch's approval of his actions has been a formality for many years and is now assumed. In Tolkien's youth, David Lloyd-George had forced a reform bill through the House of Lords by threatening to have men of his own choosing elevated to the peerage if it was rejected. Although George V officially approved his Prime Minister's list of peers, he did not do so willingly and in reality it was forced upon him. Given Tolkien's odd polarised political preference for either anarchy or absolute monarchy, incidents such as this can hardly have appeared as improvements. Certainly he would have disapproved of people who insist on behaving as kings while proudly refusing to call themselves such. Of this ilk was Denethor, who was proud of the title 'Steward of Gondor' as long as that title carried with it the rule of the country. Gandalf was neither of Gondor nor possessed of Saruman's superficial majesty, which inspired his contempt; and the wizard was in the process of bringing kings back to Gondor, which inspired his animosity.

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1: LotR Book V, chapter 1: Minas Tirith. RotK p.25 (page references are to the first edition).

2: LotR Book IV, chapter 5: The Window on the West. TTT p. 279.

3: LotR V, ch. 7: The Pyre of Denethor. RotK p.130.

4: LotR Appendix A: Annals of the Kings and Rulers. Section iv: Gondor and the Heirs of Anárion, The Stewards. RotK p.324.

5: Letter #183. Notes on W.H. Auden's review of 'The Return of the King'. Unsent, probably 1956. Letters, p.239 (1995 HarperCollins edition).