Faramir continues wowing the hobbits with his knowledge of Gondorian history, prompting Sam to one-up him with a recitation of his new spoken word piece “Fifty Things I Love About Galadriel”. But the talk of Lórien opens the door to a conversation about the lesser qualities of Faramir’s brother, and Sam (disarmed by the freely flowing wine) lets slip what really happened between Boromir and Frodo at Parth Galen. All this, plus Faramir reveals he’s already got a thing for the Rohirrim… and we speculate on whether Gollum robbed graves as well as cradles.
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Recommended Reading:
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, paperback) “The Window on the West”, pp. 663-67
Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The Silmarillion (Mariner Books, paperback)
Tolkien, J. R. R. Tales From The Perilous Realm (William Morrow, hardcover)
Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Mariner Books, paperback)
38:30 “seldom to return”. I think this is from ‘True Thomas’, the Scots ballad quoted by JRRT in OFS:
True Thomas lay on Huntlie Bank,
A ferlie [wonder] he spied wi’ his eye
And there he saw a lady bright,
Come riding down by Eildon Tree.
…
I am but the queen of fair Elfland,
That am hither come to visit thee.
…
And see not ye that bonny road,
That winds about the fernie brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland,
Where thou and I this night maun gae.
[They ride off on her milk-white steed]…
And till seven years were gane and past
True Thomas on earth was never seen.
When Sam tells Faramir of Boromir taking his peril into Lothlorien and first seeing clearly what he wanted, I am reminded of Aragorn’s admonition to Boromir at the time, when Boromir objected to entering Lothlorien: ‘Then lead on…but it is perilous.’ ‘Perilous indeed,’said Aragorn, ‘fair and perilous; but only evil need fear it, or those who bring some evil with them.’
Faramir’s words to Frodo, ‘Your land must be realm of peace and content, and there must gardeners be in high honor,’ reminds me of a passage in Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy, which I recently reread for the first time in many years. Merlin in speaking of a smith who reshod his horse says, “I have never seen why any man skilled in his trade, and surrounded by the articles of his craft, should be in awe of princes. Their task differs, that is all.”
You guys have a lot of fun!