"The Steward and the King" - Ben's Thoughts

The denouement continues. This chapter can be easily split into three sections: first, the romance of Eowyn and Faramir; second, the coronation; and third, Aragorn's first days as king.

The romance is... bad. I agree with much of what Jacob says. I know that Tolkien had built Eowyn up as a major character, and he needed to resolve her story, but this is a disappointing end. I think as a kid I thought this section of the chapter a grand love story, but here it feels extremely trite. Faramir really does offer himself as "sloppy seconds," so to speak, and Eowyn just changes her mind all of a sudden, realizing that since she can't have Aragorn, now she'll give up her previous path in life and turn to nursing and gardening?

I think I know what Tolkien intended Eowyn's arc to consist of. She lived a hopeless life -- doomed to tending her dotard uncle (who truly was a dotard under the ministration of Wormtongue and the enchantment of Saruman), never to live or thrive or grow. She sees in Aragorn a chance to break the cycle, to forge a new path for herself, tethering herself to his rising star. When he rejects her, she sinks back into hopelessness -- not because he rejected her love, but because he denied her freedom. And finally, Faramir presents her with an opportunity to...

...to what? This is where the arc falls apart. Eowyn is revealed to be, under Tolkien's characterization, nothing more than an empty shell. She doesn't actually want anything at the end of the day; she trades the cold iron bars of Meduseld for the gilded cage of being Faramir's wife. As I said, it rings false. A disservice to what could have been an interesting character. Jackson's films tried to do something with her, but if I recall correctly, the character is completely dropped after the Pelennor Fields sequence, so it flops on its belly as well. Perhaps that's also an indicator that the source material left something to be desired as far as guidance was concerned.

The second section is mostly filler, a chance to depict the grand ceremony, see everybody get their just desserts (although that annoying singing eagle got away scot-free, I think; somebody should have held him accountable for that awful song), and see Aragorn crowned. I'm not sure what I think about the tonal dissonance of the narrative of the coronation being interrupted multiple times by the Middle-Earth equivalent of Pride and Prejudice's Mrs. Bennett; perhaps Tolkien as well was rolling his eyes at all the pomp and portent.

The final section, I feel, is the weightiest, with Frodo's yearning for home (although as we shall see, it is to be a never-ending quest for solace that can never truly be achieved -- the closest thing he has to home is when he is with Bilbo) and Aragorn's fear regarding the one thing he truly wants but has not yet arrived. The description of the mountain and the view of Aragorn's new realm is stunning, and Gandalf's words, as always, help things be put in perspective: "[I]t is your task to order its beginning and to preserve what may be preserved. For though much has been saved, much must now pass away." With every beginning comes endings.

I feel like Aragorn's joy in this final section puts his character in context, and provides a deep insight into all his actions that came before. We knew that he loved and wanted to marry Arwen, but here is the emotion behind his books-long quest: the kingship is his duty, and he acknowledges that; but what truly inspired him was the knowledge that he could never be with Arwen unless he defeated Sauron and attained his birthright. (The ugly implications about Arwen as chattel we'll gloss over for now; hopefully we'll get to the appendicies and can talk about this more troubling aspect of the story in a bit greater detail.)

The chapter's title, in the end, turns out to be clever: the steward is featured in the first section, the king in the third, and they come together for the coronation in the middle. While previous chapters didn't thematically flow, this one does, no matter how flat the first romance feels. The chapter improves as you read.