The blood of Faramir but not Boromir?

[Lily Bracegirdle]

I doubt Tolkien was talking about bloodlines, but rather of traits that the Men of Westernesse shared. I'm not sure what those were, but I would suspect insight would be one of them. In other words, he wasn't implying that Boromir was not Denethor's son, but that Boromir did not take after his father the way Faramir did. This is certainly possible given the way genes work.

For example, if the "traits of the Men of Westernesse" were inherited as a simple autosomal dominant (W), [which they probably weren't, but I'm simplifying] anyone with (WW) or (Ww) genes would be like Denethor, whereas those without a copy of the dominant gene (ww) wouldn't. If Finduilas, Denethor's wife, was (ww) and Denethor was (Ww), their offspring would all be either (Ww) or (ww). Faramir was the (Ww), insightful son, whereas Boromir was the (ww) son.

-Lily

[ April 23, 2003: Message edited by: Lily Bracegirdle ]