Faramir

Background Faramir is the son of Denethor, who becomes steward of Gondor a year after Faramir's birth. His mother is Finduilas, daughter of Prince Adrahil of Dol Amroth; she dies when Faramir is five, and is to him "but a memory of loveliness in far days and of his first grief". After her death Denethor becomes sombre, cold, and detached, but the relationship between Faramir and his elder brother Boromir, who is five years older, only grows closer, even though Denethor openly favours Boromir. Faramir is used to giving way and not airing his own opinions. Faramir displeases his father by welcoming the wizard Gandalf to Minas Tirith, Gondor's capital. Faramir, eager for knowledge, learns much from Gandalf about Gondor's history. Faramir looks much like Boromir, He does not enjoy fighting for its own sake. Shortly before the battle, Faramir has a prophetic dream, in which a voice speaks of the "Sword that was Broken" that is to be found at Imladris far to the north, about the awakening of "Isildur's Bane", the approach of "Doom", and the appearance of "the Halfling". Faramir decides to journey to Imladris and seek the advice of Elrond the Half-elven, but Denethor sends Boromir instead. The Witch-king of Angmar, leader of the Nazgûl, leads a large army from Minas Morgul, and seizes Osgiliath. Faramir stays with the rearguard, and is gravely wounded. The city's cavalry bring him back to Minas Tirith, and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields begins. Denethor believes the unconscious Faramir to be fatally injured. He has a funeral pyre built for himself and Faramir. The Hobbit Pippin Took, sworn into Denethor's service, alerts Gandalf, and Faramir is rescued from the flames. Mad with grief, Denethor lies down on the pyre, burning himself alive. After the battle, Aragorn heals Faramir with athelas in the Houses of Healing. Recuperating, Faramir meets the Lady Éowyn of Rohan, and falls in love with her. At first, Éowyn refuses his advances, only desiring to find honour in death, but soon she loves him in return. Faramir becomes Steward, and prepares the city for the arrival of Aragorn, now King of Gondor. On the day of the coronation, Faramir surrenders his Stewardship. Aragorn, however, renews the office, announcing that as long as his line lasts, Faramir's descendants would be Stewards of Gondor. He makes Faramir Prince of Ithilien. In addition, as Steward Faramir serves as the King's chief counsellor and rules Gondor when the King is absent. With Éowyn, he settles in Ithilien, among the hills of the Emyn Arnen; they have a son named Elboron. After Faramir's death at the age of 120, his son succeeds him. Barahir, Faramir's grandson, writes The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, said in the frame story to have been inserted in the ''Thain's Book'' by the writer Findegil. == Analysis ==

Medieval knight sees Faramir as involved in multiple feudal-style allegiance-relationships. The Tolkien scholar Elizabeth Solopova states that Faramir's decision to reject the One Ring shows influences from a kind of courage and behaviour that was known to Tolkien from the medieval poem The Battle of Maldon. By not taking the Ring, Faramir rejects the desire for power and glory which a defeat of Sauron would bring him. The Tolkien scholar Jane Chance analyses Faramir's place in what she identifies as an elaborate web of relationships based on a medieval Germanic worldview. Firstly, she describes Faramir and Boromir as a pair of opposites, good and evil brothers, which she likens to Theoden and Denethor whom she considers a pair of good and evil "Kings". Secondly, she explores what she sees as a series of parallel instances of feudal allegiance (a man's oath of service to his lord, in return for protection) and betrayal (the breaking of that oath) involving Faramir and Frodo. Sam serves Frodo faithfully, but accidentally betrays him to Faramir with the smoke from his cooking fire and then by mentioning the Ring. Gollum's allegiance to Frodo is in the form of an oath sworn on the Ring, to obey Frodo and not to run off. Frodo "betrays" Gollum by luring him into the captivity of Faramir's men. Gollum then swears to Faramir that he will never return to the forbidden pool. The last of the parallel allegiance relationships is that Faramir grants Frodo protection, in the manner of a Germanic lord, and in return Frodo offers his service. Thirdly, after the War of the Ring, society is renewed as Aragorn marries Arwen, bringing the races of Man and Elf together, while in parallel to that Faramir marries Éowyn, bringing together the nations of Rohan and Gondor. {{#tag:imagemap| File:Allegiances and Betrayals of Frodo and Faramir.svgthumbupright={}center{} rect 100 25 250 150 Gollum rect 300 150 450 250 Frodo Baggins rect 600 150 800 250 Samwise Gamgee rect 10 10 805 446 :commons:Allegiances and Betrayals of Frodo and Faramir.svg }} Medieval outlaw , Robin Hood. Ben Reinhard, in Mythlore, writes that while there are medieval-style knights in The Lord of the Rings, and Faramir's conduct and speech are in many ways perfectly chivalric, he is definitely not a "knight in shining armour". Instead, he leads the attack on the men of Harad "in a thoroughly unchivalric guerilla ambuscade", while "clothing, weaponry, tactics, and [concealed] refuge" all indicate the opposite of the shining knight: the outlaw in the Greenwood. Tolkien's personal experiences s. Tolkien's biographer John Garth, in his book Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth, writes that the resemblance between Faramir and the author, which Tolkien admitted in a letter ("As far as any character is 'like me', it is Faramir"), Tolkien bestowed his dream of "darkness unescapable" on Faramir, who narrates the dream to Éowyn. The scholar of literature Melissa A. Smith suggests that Tolkien's First World War experience of war brides may be reflected in Faramir's brief courtship of Éowyn. She notes that Tolkien wrote in response to criticism that "In my experience feelings and decisions ripen very quickly (as measured by mere 'clock-time', which is actually not justly applicable) in periods of great stress, and especially under the expectation of imminent death". Tolkien himself noted that the introduction of Faramir had led to postponement of the book's dénouement and to further development of the background for Gondor and Rohan. In early drafts, Tolkien had used the familiar forms thou and thee to show a sudden shift in the relationship between Faramir and Éowyn, a "deliberate change to a form of affection or endearment". Christopher Tolkien comments that == Portrayal in adaptations ==

Art 's portrayal of Faramir interrogating Frodo Faramir appears in several illustrations created by John Howe, Ted Nasmith and Anke Eißmann for The Lord of the Rings and related products. One of the scenes from the book that received many depictions is Faramir and Éowyn's meeting at the top of Minas Tirith. Radio In the BBC's 1981 radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, Faramir is voiced by Andrew Seear. The radio drama adhered faithfully to the books, and Peter Jackson gave the adaptation credit in the production of his film trilogy. Film In Rankin/Bass' 1980 adaptation of The Return of the King, a dark-haired man taken to be Faramir is shown next to Éowyn greeting Aragorn as he arrives to Minas Tirith. as Faramir in Peter Jackson's The Return of the King In Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Faramir is played by David Wenham. The actor joked that he got the role because he and Sean Bean, who played Boromir, both had large noses. The plot of the second film, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, introduces a significant deviation from the book: Faramir does not at first let Frodo, Sam, and Gollum go, but decides to bring them and the Ring to Gondor. He takes them to Osgiliath and not until the Nazgûl attack the city and Frodo comes under the threat of capture does he release them. Jackson's explanation is that he needed another adventure to delay Frodo and Sam, because the episode at Cirith Ungol was moved to the third film, and so a new climax was needed. On the timeline given by Tolkien, Frodo and Sam had only reached the Black Gate at the time of the fall of Isengard. In the book, Faramir calls the creature Sméagol instead of Gollum, and tells his men to "treat him gently, but watch him". In the extended edition of The Two Towers, Jackson included an invented flashback scene in which Denethor neglects Faramir in favour of Boromir when sending him to Rivendell, so that Faramir wanted to please his father by bringing him the Ring. (The relationship is similarly strained in the book, but his father's favouritism does not seem to affect his decisions in Ithilien.) Reviewers have opined that the extended edition presents Faramir in a more favourable light. Video games Faramir is a bonus playable character in the video game The Return of the King. In a bonus video track within this game, Wenham says that "Faramir and Boromir were brothers, and it isn't beyond possibility that Faramir would have gone to Rivendell instead. And if that [had] happened, Faramir could have survived and returned to Gondor." == Notes ==