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Originally Posted by alatar
Think that it would depend on what he wore under the armour. We bought a stainless steel tea kettle, more for looks than utility (who drinks tea?), and I've burned my fingers more than once when grabbing the steel handle, as the metal conducts heat rather well. If Denethor wore dish towels or a garment made of oven mitts under his steel rings, then he may have survived the initial fire well enough to run with the illusionary one as far as he did.
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It is a little know fact of Middle-earth history that Denethor was a bit of a fashion icon & began the short lived trend of wearing asbestos underwear. This accounts for his lack of fear at being around smokers like Gandalf, whose pipe tended to spew out large sparks when he got angry, igniting unwary bystanders. Gandalf usually explained this as the result of the Secret Fire but nobody believed him. In actual fact the story of Denethor lighting his & Faramir's pyre in a final desperate act of self immolation was Gandalf's own invention (supported by Pippin): the truth was that Denethor had taken the feverish Faramir to the Hallows because it was the coolest place in the city & Gandalf pursued him there to steal his underwear for protection among the fires raging on the First Level (Gandalf's exact words being, as reported by a drunken Pippin many years later, 'I need his pants more than he does!!'). In the angry confrontation that ensued sparks from Gandalf's pipe ignited the sheets on Faramir's bier which Denethor in a last, desperate act of fatherly devotion attempted to extinguish. This lead to Denethor's cloak & tunis bursting into flame. The Steward was of course immune to harm due to his protective undergarments & on seeing that Pippin had put out the fire, made a run for it with Gandalf in hot pursuit crying out to the guards to stop the fleeing Steward in the now infamous words 'Stop that man & remove his pants & vest!! I have a battle to fight!!'
Denethor managed to avoid the stunned guards & run out to the court of the Fountain where he hoped to extinguish the flames & steal a horse & make for his summer residence in the vales of Lebennin, but Gandalf was too close behind & Denethor chose Death rather than dishonour & hurled himself from the pinacle with the cry 'You'll have to pry them from my cold, dead botty!'
Thus perished Denethor son of Ecthelion......