Saturday, August 5, 2017

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

For some reason Tolkien's prose stood out to me in this chapter. Tolkien used archaic words. And the language had the rhythm of an older text:

  • "That I know," Faramir said. "You desired to have the love of the Lord Aragorn. Because he was high and puissant, and you wished to have renown and glory and to be lifted far above the mean things that crawl on the earth."

The characters also play out their roles archaically. Faramir acknowledges that Eowyn loves Aragorn, professes his love, and then suddenly after Faramir makes his grand speech, "[t]hen the heart of Eowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her." Then Eowyn says, "No longer do I desire to be a queen."

Ah, voila, if only real life was this simple (pardon my French). By any normal standard, this is pretty shoddy plotting.

  • Eowyn loves Aragorn --> Faramir makes a cheesy speech --> Eowyn no longer loves Aragorn and instead loves Faramir

If you're doubtful that the above plot outline works, you have good reason. But actually, Tolkien's high-chant prose seems to make it work. The language almost seems to take on a charaterization of its own which makes the characters in the story more than just people. They are beings from an epic poem that existed in a different age. Of course Eowyn should change her heart so suddenly. That's what happens in epic poems, after all!

Of course, Tolkien's high chant comes with a price. It is difficult to empathize with Faramir or Eowyn. So while I may believe Eowyn the demi-goddess was quick to change her feelings in epic-poem fashion, Tolkien's approach makes the text read like a summary of a Greek myth, not like something real people are doing. Perhaps the beauty of language in a book is inversely proportional to how realistic the book is?

1 comment:

  1. Not to mention that the whole rest of the text preceding has decidedly *not* been written in epic poem fashion, rendering the scene all the more incongruous.

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