LotR -- Book 5 - Chapter 07 - The Pyre of Denethor

[davem]

But Pippin rose to his feet, as if a great weight had been lifted from him; and he stood listening to the horns, and it seemed to him that they would break his heart with joy. And never in after years could he hear a horn blow in the distance without tears starting in his eyes.

This immediately struck me, because its about the ‘after-effect’ of the Eucatastropic experience. The memory of it remains with one. Its not simply an experience that happens & is then gone & forgotten, Once the individual has had the Eucatastrophic experience it can be ‘triggered’ again in other times & places. Its as if the experience involves stepping outside normal time into ‘eternity’. It is as much a ‘state’ as an experience. The horns of the Rohirrim opened a doorway for Pippin & ever afterwards the sound of a horn remained a ‘key’ to that door for him. Crying is the result of a sudden uprush of emotion, & Tolkien later speaks of tears as ‘the very wine of blessedness’. The eucatastrophic experience or ‘state’ is bound up very closely with a feeling of ‘blessedness’, of something ‘breaking through’ into one’s awareness.

Something terrible may happen up there. The Lord is out of his mind, I think. I am afraid he will kill himself, and kill Faramir too. Can't you do something?'
Gandalf looked through the gaping Gate, and already on the fields he heard the gathering sound of battle. He clenched his hand. 'I must go,' he said. 'The Black Rider is abroad, and he will yet bring ruin on us. I have no time.'...
'Can't you save Faramir?'
'Maybe I can,' said Gandalf; 'but if I do, then others will die, I fear.

I know this is something we’ve discussed before - did Gandalf feel that it was his task to confront the WK? Was it his task? From his words it seems that he was about to follow the WK & continue the confrontation, & felt that if he didn’t go the deaths of others would follow as a consequence. Maybe its not so simple though. What we see is almost a repetition of the situation on the Bridge of Khazad dum. There Gandalf had to face the Balrog in order to save his companions. He defeated his enemy but ‘died’ in the process. The Fellowship was saved. It was a sacrifice, but a ‘simple’ one - ie the Fellowship was not split into two groups with Gandalf forced to choose which to help & which to sacrifice. Here he must do just that. If he goes onto the field in pursuit of the WK he knows that Faramir will be burned alive. If he goes to the aid of Faramir (& by extension Denethor) then ‘others’ will die at the hands of the WK. What Gandalf does is choose to help Faramir because there is no-one else to do that. He does what is necessary & trusts that things will work out for the best. This is a theme that runs right through LotR.

I want to return to Gandalf’s confrontation with Denethor later but a few things struck me on reading the early drafts.

'Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your death,' answered Gandalf. 'And only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death.'

In this final version Gandalf uses the past tense to speak of ‘heathen kings’. In an earlier draft he uses the present tense & speaks not of the ‘Dark Power’ but of the ‘Dark Lord’. The passage as we have it could refer to either the ‘kings’ of the First Age under Morgoth or those of the Second Age under Sauron. The earlier version refers specifically to the Easterlings & Southrons who were attacking the city at that time. As to why the change was made, I wonder. The early passage makes a comparison between Denethor’s behaviour & that of his enemies, the earlier one between Denethor & rulers of the ancient past.

'He calls,' said Gandalf, 'but you cannot come to him yet. For he must seek healing on the threshold of death, and maybe find it not. Whereas your part is to go out to the battle of your City, where maybe death awaits you. This you know in your heart.'

In an earlier draft Gandalf adds:

For unless you go out into the battle of your city putting away despair & risking death in the field you will never speak again with him in the waking world.

This is an interesting turn of phrase - Denethor will ‘never speak again with Faramir in the waking world.’ Tolkien seems to be associating life with the ‘waking world’ & (supposedly) death with the ‘sleeping’, or dreaming, world.

Finally for now:

And he beheld with the sight that was given to him all that had befallen; and when Eomer rode out from the forefront of his battle and stood beside those who lay upon the field, he sighed, and he cast his cloak about him again, and went from the walls.

Gandalf ‘beheld with the sight that was given to him’. This seems to be equivalent to the ‘Second Sight’. Gandalf is seeing events whish have occurred on the field while he has been confronting Denethor & saving Faramir. The words ‘that was given to him’ are interesting. Do they mean that Gandalf had this ‘gift’ as a ‘permanent’ ability - can he see into the past at will - or is it a vision gifted to him now, as a one off thing? I’d go for the former - its an ability that Gandalf has always had. It seems to function along the lines of the Palantiri - he can see distant events & past events. I don’t know if this is a form of Sanwe or not, or if the ‘power’ Gandalf is making use of is similar to that sometimes used by the Elves. What makes me doubt this is the clear statement that the ‘sight’ was given to him. It seems to be an innate skill which the Palantiri were created to mimic.

I wonder if this is pointing up a difference between Gandalf & Denethor. Gandalf’s ‘sight’ is an ability that has been ‘given to him’ & so is ‘natural’, Denethor has used the Palantir, an unnatural, artificial, means of ‘seeing’. Gandalf sees clearly & truthfully, what Denethor sees is unclear, confused & misleading. Gandalf was given his ‘sight’, Denethor took his.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

An excellent lecture on "The Good, the Bad, and the Static: Wise Wanderers and Tired Travellers in Middle-earth" by Marjorie Willetts at 'Tolkien 2005' last week prompted me to think more deeply about Denethor's "I would have things as they were" speech in this chapter.

I know we've had past discussions about the theme of change in Tolkien's works. The events of the LotR ring in the Fourth Age, a major change in the history of Middle-earth. "Stopping change is stopping growth", Ms. Willett said, and I'm sure Tolkien would have agreed. In the context of this discussion, I will limit myself to the Steward and his failure - and/or unwillingness - to change.

Change has both a physical aspect (wandering, leaving the place where one is to go to another) and a psychological/spiritual aspect (being able to see from a different viewpoint, open to new experiences). Denethor identified himself so strongly with the one role he had to play as Steward that he was unwilling to change that role, fearing to jeopardize his identity in doing so. As so often happens, tragically, he accomplished precisely what he didn't want to - he jeopardized himself to the point of taking his own life rather than to change.

He stayed in one place, not even willing to leave his fortified city for the sake of battle. That gave him a very limited point of view - though the palantír gave him an additional one, unfortunately biased and twisted. He was not willing to see another point of view, in this case, that of Gandalf, which was the realistic one - he could have changed, could have gone out and fought. Gandalf says:

your part is to go out to the battle of your City
(my emphasis)

But he denied himself that option. Despair resulted from his decision to remain static, though there could have been hope. (In contrast, Théoden arose, went out, and looked from a different viewpoint - and gained hope and purpose!) Choosing to stay rather than to move resulted in 'nothingness', a personal Void; he says:

But if doom denies this to me, then I will have naught

Denethor prides himself on the knowledge he has, but knowledge is not enough. Without the experience and wisdom that comes from growth and change, he cannot profit from it.

Not only that, he takes it upon himself to make the same decision for his son Faramir! He will not allow him to make any changes. Gandalf's words are wonderful here:

at the least you shall not rob your son of his choice

Later on, we see that Faramir decided to allow for change in his life and his office as Steward, and in doing so, he retained his identity and his task, achieving growth and wisdom.

Denethor stands in sharp contrast to Gandalf, the ultimate wanderer of Middle-earth, who has gained wisdom and experience, has a balanced point of view, and is willing to change even to the point of leaving Middle-earth when his task there is fulfilled.


PS - davem's signature quote is quite appropriate to this discussion!

'The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water & breeds reptiles of the mind'...William Blake

[drigel]

Davem, I have always been intrigued by the "Gandalf ‘beheld with the sight that was given to him" paragraph as well. Maia vision or perhaps a touch of omnipresense? Of particular note for me was the sentence before that paragraph:

......and there like a figure carven in white he stood in the new sun and looked out.

The most famous alliterative symbolism rearing its ugly head again.

also

He <Gandalf> lifted up his hand, and in the very stroke, the sword of Denethor flew up and left his grasp and fell behind him in the shadows of the house;...

I wondered why that trick wasn't used on the WK.

[davem]

Denethor's tragedy seems to have its root in his desire for the impossible - whatever happens he will not get what he wants. He wants things to be as they were in the past. Whether Sauron achieves the victory or Aragorn returns in triumph, Denethor loses. As Esty says he has effectively 'painted himself into a corner'. He cannot move, because he has nowhere to go.

Its kind of an 'Elvish' desire - he wants to embalm the past & fix it immobile & unchanging. Only death provides a way out. Symbolically the Elves make the same choice. Once the Rings pass they can no longer hold things in stasis, so they too have no option but to leave the world. Denethor's words could have come from the mouth of any Elf:

'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:

The similarity of Denethor's death with that of Feanor is perhaps deliberate. Both are victims of pride, desirous of absolute control & contemptuous of any who are not with them.

. But if doom denies this to me, then I will have naught: neither life diminished, nor love halved, nor honour abated.'

I can't help thinking 'doom' here is meant to echo the Doom of the Noldor.