[davem]

'Indeed we have heard of Fangorn in Minas Tirith,' said Boromir. 'But what I have heard seems to me for the most part old wives' tales, such as we tell to our children. All that lies north of Rohan is now to us so far away that fancy can wander freely there. Of old Fangorn lay upon the borders of our realm; but it is now many lives of men since any of us visited it, to prove or disprove the legends that have come down from distant years.'...Then I need say no more,' said Celeborn. 'But do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years; for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know

This comment of Celeborn’s has been mentioned by Esty & its an interesting point. ‘Old wives’ tales’ seem to be respected as a source of wisdom even by the Elves. To them seems to be attributed the retention of old wisdom, lost to the ‘wise’. In this chapter it is Ioreth who comes out with the old tradition of the ‘Hands of the king’ being the hands of a healer, which even the learned loremasters & healers of Gondor have forgotten. One can only assume that it was not included in their lorebooks, & so they had never heard of it. There is a distinction made between ‘old lore’ in which Ioreth is learned, & ‘book learning’ in which the Master of the Houses of Healing has been ‘educated’.

And she said: 'Alas! if he should die. Would that there were kings in Gondor, as there were once upon a time, they say! For it is said in old lore: The hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king could ever be known.'

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It is the ‘addendum’ here - ‘And so the rightful king could ever be known’ which is of particular interest - its not only the fact that the rightful king could heal, but the fact that his healing skills were one (perhaps the) way that the rightful king could be known. This ‘old lore’ does away with all the ‘politics’ & determines the ‘rightful king’ by what he can do. It seems that the ordinary people are less interested in heredity & inheritance, & mostly concerned with practicalities - can the king do his job? Can he care for his people? This sets up the standards & requirements of the ‘ordinary’ folk against those of their ‘lords & masters. Denethor is only interested in Aragorn’s legal claim to the throne. Because he finds that claim ‘unsubstantiated’ (he comes ‘merely’ of the House of Isildur) he will not surrender to him. Ioreth bases her judgement of Aragorn on whether he can do the job. Aragorn fulfils the people criteria - he heals the sick - so he is the ‘rightful king’.

Gandalf appeals to this:

'Men may long remember your words, Ioreth! For there is hope in them. Maybe a king has indeed returned to Gondor;

He does say ‘Men may long remember your words’ because even he cannot guarantee that these ‘old wives tales’ will survive, but Aragorn’s appearance, ‘predicted’ by Ioreth’s words may help to awaken the people - even the learned lore masters - to the folk wisdom that still survives. Certainly Ioreth proves more useful than the Master of the Houses in this instance. He’s certainly a highly educated man. He can tell you all the names of Athelas in all the languages of Middle earth - he just can’t tell you what its for. Actually he tells you its pretty useless. At least Ioreth sees some virtue in the plant - though she seems less than impressed with it:

"kingsfoil", I said, "'tis a strange name, and I wonder why 'tis called so; for if I were a king, I would have plants more bright in my garden". Still it smells sweet when bruised, does it not? If sweet is the right word: wholesome, maybe, is nearer.'

In comes the Master:

'Your pardon lord!' said the man. 'I see you are a loremaster, not merely a captain of war. But alas! sir, we do not keep this thing in the Houses of Healing, where only the gravely hurt or sick are tended. For it has no virtue that we know of, save perhaps to sweeten a fouled air, or to drive away some passing heaviness. Unless, of course, you give heed to rhymes of old days which women such as our good Ioreth still repeat without understanding.
When the black breath blows
and death's shadow grows
and all lights pass,
come athelas! come athelas!
Life to the dying
In the king's hand lying!
It is but a doggerel, I fear, garbled in the memory of old wives. Its meaning I leave to your judgement, if indeed it has any. But old folk still use an infusion of the herb for headaches.'
'Then in the name of the king, go and find some old man of less lore and more wisdom who keeps some in his house!' cried Gandalf.

His dismissal of the ‘doggeral’ rhyme is also interesting. We know that ‘old wives’ & helalers of the past did not simply make use of herbs in healing by applying them in some way but that there was often a rhyme or chant involved (see Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica, or The Nine Herbs Charm). Interestingly, in the Radio series Aragorn recites this rhyme as he crushes & scatters the leaves on the water. The fact is, the rhyme has not been ‘garbled’ at all & its survival is a tribute to folk memory. The ordinary folk tended to be unlettered & so had better memories as all information had to be memorised if it wasn’t to be lost. Because of this only really important & useful information was retained. ‘Old wives tales’, rather than being useless nonsense was actually of the greatest value - much more valuable in practical terms than what could be found in books, because once written down it could be forgotten. Again, we see that the ordinary folk, rather than being ‘ignorant’ folk with heads full of ‘superstitious nonsense’ are actually the practical ones. I think this was Celeborn’s point - ‘’for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know.’ In this case an ‘old wife’ knows that it is the hands of the king that are needed to effect a cure of the sick. The Master (& Boromir we may assume) would have dismissed Ioreth’s words as ‘unscientific’ in modern terms, nonesense, doggerel, etc.

I’m reminded of the line from John Crowley’s Aegypt: ‘There is more than one history of the world’. There is a ‘history’, a wisdom, Traditions, which are dismissed as ignorant & worthless, needing to be ‘stamped out’. Gandalf, Aragorn & Celeborn (& Tolkien himself, one assumes) knew different.