Before we return to The Lord of the Rings with Book III, we welcome guest listeners to the common-room for our first Q&A episode of the season! As always, we don’t know the questions ahead of time, but we get a timely look ahead with questions about Ents and the Hobbits who love them. Also: Galadriel unfriended Fëanor, but was Gandalf a new friend or some guy she remembered from high school? We get metaphysical about Sauron, Ringwraiths, and Gollum… and wonder if Aragorn ever considered settling for a nice mortal girl instead.
Recommended Reading:
Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The Silmarillion (Mariner Books, paperback)
About Aragorn having to beat Sauron to marry Arwen – given that they knew a confrontation with Sauron was coming as you noted, the likelihood is that if Sauron was not defeated there would be no independent Gondor for a future chieftain of the Dúnedain to become king of, and Aragorn himself could expect to die in the conflict.
That’s a good point. There wouldn’t be anything for him to be king of.
Hello, Shawn, Alan and the whole team!
Been listening for a long time, but this is my first interaction. Firstly, congratulations for the AMAZING work being done.
Regarding the question about Merry and the Black Breath, I kept thinking that besides the hobbit resilience, which of course plays a great part on his recovery, I believe that after the Battle he recovers faster than Éowyn and Faramir because he has a greater will to live at that moment.
Éowyn has lost her cousin, her uncle/father figure and couldn’t follow Aragorn, whom she admired as a leader (a feeling she confused with love, in my opinion). So, after all that suffering and the battle, when the Black Breath comes over her, she falls into such a dark place that drains her will to live. After all, seeing such terrible things crushes the spirit (something Tolkien knows having witnessed the Great War).
As for Faramir, the same reasoning can be applied: lost the brother he loved, had to deal with his father contempt and constant comparison to his brother, to the point of wishing him death on his behalf. All those actions made him act only to prove himself to his father, not as the wise, brave and loved leader he indeed was. So, being stricken by the Black Breath also must have pushed him down a dark place in his mind.
Last, although Merry witnessed the same horrors as them, having a mind far less prepared for it by being raised in the peaceful Shire, he was tendered by Pippin the whole time, so that must have elevated his spirit. Add this to the resilience of Hobbits and it would be a reason for his faster healing.
As for Faramir and Éowyn, their true healing begin when they meet and share the level of sorrow that both know so well, that feeling of loss and being left behind. On a long stretch, could we compare this sorrow and abandon of the will to live to Míriel’s story? Again, a long stretch, but a parallel to the immense damage that sorrow can cause to the spirit, something that the terror of the Nazgûl can pray upon.
Anyway, apologies for the long text. But it is all thanks to the great inspiration of hearing you guys week after week and delving ever deeper into the Professor’s work.
Thanks for everything!
João Paulo – thanks for your comment! We appreciate you listening. I think you may be onto something with this; after all, despair is a key aspect of the Black Breath, and having something to live for would be a shield against despair, so to speak. We’ll remember this when we get there in the book. Thanks!
Hello,
Catching up a bit. even though I’ve only recently found you. Doubtless through the fine work of your new team, and your new presence on my social media platforms.
A comment about the ability of Sauron to control the nine. Since The Ring was created by him and “he poured much of his own power into it”. he and The Ring would have the same “power signature” if you will… that having once dominated/controlled them with all his power (himself +The Ring) wouldn’t that still leave him the ability to continue control even without The Ring.
Thanks, Robert! That’s a solid point. I suppose the question then would be whether Sauron has the _quantity_ of power needed, but certainly if he has enough of it, the power involved would be the same kind of power as he had with the Ring.