As we continue to follow Frodo and Sam through Ithilien, as Frodo is interrogated by Faramir, and they see Henneth Annun at sunset, as the Ring is revealed to Faramir and he is tempted, as Gollum is caught and questioned by Faramir, as Faramir releases them at last to go on their way, the central figure here is Faramir. And in some ways, Faramir is understandable by the end; as in a sense the beau ideal of Gondor, having its best traits from its deep history, being by this time in his life surprisingly “high” and having also a high degree of empathy.
So rather than tread that now-hopefully-familiar path, I’d like to ask a different question: what can someone say is “off”, is wrong about Faramir?
One of the many business fads I have seen in a lifetime was the idea that someone considering taking a job at a company should get feedback from a former employee who would be critical of the company. The idea was that if we knew the worst about a company, and it turned out to be a usual type of criticism, then it would be safe to take a job there. By the same token, in assessing someone within Gondor, we might ask the person most likely to be critical of him. And who would that be, for Faramir? I am guessing Denethor, his father.
So let us look at Faramir more or less from Denethor’s viewpoint. The first thing we find out about Faramir, during his trial of Frodo, is that he bends the rules. Denethor has commanded a death sentence on anyone found in Ithilien without his leave: a stern but necessary wartime expedient in territory where anyone not authorized by Denethor should be taken as an enemy: shoot first, ask questions later. And Faramir’s immediate comment is that he won’t do that: he will avoid killing if at all possible. And I bet Denethor knows about that.
The next thing we find out is that while Faramir is obviously affectionate remembering his brother, he is also critical of him: Faramir projects that Boromir would eventually have turned against the idea of Aragorn becoming King (and, implicitly, that Faramir would not). And, since we later find out that Denethor agrees with Boromir (Denethor calls Aragorn “bereft of dignity”), it’s a reasonable guess that Denethor senses that “disloyalty” in Faramir.
After that, we find out that Faramir is unusually studious, unusually interested in “lore”, and also that he has met and admires Gandalf. And certainly, as Denethor shows later on, he knows about that characteristic of Faramir.
And I will add one more thing that we find out, from Faramir’s men: he is always in the forefront of the battle. That’s understandable in an Achillean type of hero like Boromir, who can often by his prowess make the difference in a battle; but when you’re not at Boromir’s level, you only survive by “leading a charmed life”. And that’s not a good idea, when you are the only heir to an aged ruler in the middle of a desperate struggle for existence.
So the criticisms of Faramir, in general, are that as your subordinate, he thinks independently and possibly undercuts your strategy that way, that he bends the rules, that he comes across as critical of some of his superiors, that he is “bookish” at a time when Gondor needs its rulers to be straining every nerve militarily, that he listens to suspect people who don’t tell you what their real interests are, like Gandalf, and that he’s too often in the forefront of the battle, and that is reckless under these circumstances. Quite a few reasons to make you to feel this one is a bit of an odd duck, to feel uneasy, as his employer.
And yet, I feel that Aragorn, hearing this list of complaints, would say, “That is exactly the kind of subordinate I need and want.”
One of the more interesting themes of books about the Civil War, WW I, and WW II, such as the Geoffrey Wawro book “Sons of Freedom”, is that in some ways the American army is superior to those it faces because every American soldier is independent – he does not await commands, he decides what to do on his own. He sometimes elects his own leaders. He is a farmer or blue-collar worker first, and a soldier second. And so, in the heat of a battle, with a machine gun nest to be taken care of, he is a solo hunter with a few companions, not a mass outflanking movement that must be organized from above. And the result in WW I was that areas carefully prepared by the Germans as killing fields indeed turned out to be slaughterhouses – of both sides.
And that kind of thinking goes sometimes all the way to the top. Generals in the Civil War had to learn how to read between the lines in dealing with civil authority; but, because many of them were out of the Regular Army in the real world pre-war, a surprising number learned how to consider the way to win the war as opposed to the next battle, and how to balance politics and war-making.
Now, I don’t think that Tolkien was enamored of the American army, any more than he was enamored of other things American; but he did, when he was young, love Native Americans – in cowboys vs. Indians, he took the side of the Indians, for reasons you can imagine. But in any case, it seems to me clear that Aragorn was a man of peace as well as war, long-term strategy and mercy as well as short-term heroics. And what would he look for as a subordinate? Someone “high” and independent-thinking, someone not a “yes man” or all wrapped up in their own interests, but devoted to the interests of the state rather than its leader – someone to whom he could delegate with complete confidence. Boromir, Faramir correctly perceived, would have itched under Aragorn’s command. Eomer, like the flamboyant cavalry commander he is, will follow orders with reckless enthusiasm. Faramir will take care of his part of the infantry with only occasional need for consultation, and will handle administration of conquered or reclaimed territory quite well. And, sent back from the front, Faramir will cultivate his garden of a peaceful realm in the beautiful gardens of Ithilien.
But this whole military metaphor suggests to me an unlikely analogue to Faramir in our world: President and General U.S. Grant. If I understand Ron Chernow’s masterful biography (as well as other biographers’ contributions), Grant grew up with his father yelling at him, do this this way! Do that that way! So he learned to tune out extraneous noise, an invaluable skill for avoiding PTSD on the battlefield. He was bookish and reluctant to be a soldier. He loved horses and was a superb tamer and rider. He was unremittingly inclined to be good to individual people, but possessed of a strong morality, inherited from his parents’ anti-slavery Christianity. And so, he not only performed well on the battlefield, but fought the good fight for most of Reconstruction, aided by former Confederate generals whom he had gone out of his way to help when after the war they were down on their luck. And as a result, at his funeral, all those who had appreciated his openness to their honest concerns, and his good deeds, Jews, Christians, African-Americans, former Confederates – the list goes on and on – gave him a funeral that may never have been equaled in the breadth of its love. And, oh, by the way, he was the best of subordinates to Abraham Lincoln – they understood each other, and Grant admired Lincoln.
What I am saying, I think, is that this explains the breadth of the love that Gondorians show Faramir. It’s not just the men under his command. It’s Beregond, who’s willing to break the rules and violate orders and kill and die for him. It’s Ioreth, who by no means as an elderly healer has a schoolgirl crush on him, but who probably reveres him as someone who respects wisdom, and the deep knowledge of Nature and healing of the herbwife, and who is courteous and thoughtful to all.
And yet, even if we have disposed of the criticisms of Denethor, we should not deify Faramir. At the end, it is Faramir who tempts Frodo with leaving Gollum behind, and Frodo who shows Faramir the error of his thoughts. Faramir is not quite “high” enough; he cannot help putting the needs of the individual, even if that individual is not him, above the needs of the Quest. And as much for himself, I think, as for Frodo, to ease the sting of not being able to save Frodo from the evil things of the Quest, he conjures up an impossible vision of sitting by a wall in the sun like old men, telling old stories and laughing at them, their agony now gone into simple memory.
And that, I also think, may have helped when Faramir faces Denethor. I suspect that internally, when Denethor rails at him for failing his duty and acting against Gondor’s best interests, Faramir is saying to himself: You never met this hobbit. I did. Never mind the Quest; he deserves all that I could do for him, and more. Denethor, you’re wrong; but more importantly, I couldn’t have done anything else. Not and still be me.
Alfred Bester once wrote a marvelous short story about an American general who waged a great war to preserve “truth, beauty, and the American Way.” And the war sucked up more and more Americans into it, until everyone was either a soldier, or a war-hardened weapon in the struggle – except for one old historian. And then soldiers brought home to hospitals from battle fatigue and PTSD started escaping, literally vanishing into the peaceful worlds of the past to escape the war. And it occurred to the general that this capability of time teleportation could be a weapon, one that would win the war. But none of his war-hardened subordinates could explain what was going on, and so in desperation he turned to the historian. That’s easy, the historian told him. What you need is someone expert in the worlds they are escaping to, worlds full of truth and beauty. Someone who understands truth, beauty, and the American Way. Should be no problem; after all, those are the people you’re fighting for, right?
And so the general sent out the order: Find me people who understand truth, beauty, and the American Way. And waited. And waited. And could not understand why the historian kept laughing at him. And laughing.
And so that is why Faramir is so precious, despite his flaws. He and those like him are why this war is being fought, for truth, beauty, and the true way of Gondor. And you do not destroy what you are fighting to preserve in the course of fighting the war, or else, no matter what the outcome, no matter when nominal victory happens, you have irrevocably lost.
A point with some possible applications to the present day.
Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Like You’ve Never Heard It:
- The First of a Series of Ramblings About JRR Tolkien
- Part II. Pre-Psychology Writing, Poetry, and a New Hero
- Part III. Torture, Enlightenment
- Part IV. Weather, Mushrooms, Leaders
- Part V. In the Moment, Sam the Obscure
- Part VI. Folk Songs, Master, First, Fair
- Part VII. Hiking, Curses, Noble Language
- Part VIII. The Hiker’s Extrasensory Writing
- Part IX. Torture, Elves, Endings
- Part X. Your Highness
- Part XI. Business Meetings, Dwarves
- Part XII. Horns of Wild Memory
- Part XIII. Ecstasies of the Dwarves
- Part XIV. Valaraukar, the Third Touch of God
- Part XV. Memory, Nature, Passion
- Part XVI. The Gift of Enchantment
- Part XVII. Frontier Maturity
- Part XVIII. Pity, Decisions, Endings
- Part XIX. Into the Shadow, Kings, Names, Winds
- Part XX. People of the Morning, Child Soldiers
- Part XXI. Herdsmen and High Trees
- Part XXII. The Faith of God
- Part XXIII. Theoden’s Law
- Part XXIV. Helm’s Deep, Zangra, and A Life Worthy of Song
- Part XXV. Book of Marvels, Book of Friendship
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