Random Tolkenian Ramblings

[omorka]

So, here I am, waiting patiently for Peter Jackson's Return of the King to come out, with the promise of the trailer (which I saw twice in the theaters) soon to come out on DVD, and reading a few musings about kingship and nobility on Green Books, and something which bothered me at the time has hit me again:



At the end of the theatrical RotK, King Theoden has died without naming an heir. Okay, it's possible that at some point he did in fact name his nephew Eomer as the heir to the throne of Rohan, but if so we never saw it. In fact, we saw something that implies otherwise: he names Eowyn as his steward, to occupy the throne until he returns - with the strong implication that she is to stay there, albeit without a crown, if he does not return at all.

Indeed, this king will will not return, and when we see Eomer later he is clearly the commander-in-chief of Rohan's army, but - and this is important - he is still wearing his own armor and carrying his own sword. He has not taken up kingly raiment. This strongly implies that he is not the next in line for the throne of Rohan.

This leaves us, at the end of the short version of the film, with two stewards standing next to each other - and given that they've cut the Eowyn/Faramir love story out of the film almost entirely, that is, in fact, what the camera frames. Not a pair of lovers (although those of us who've read the book know that this is, now, what they are), but the representatives of Gondor and Rohan standing as equals, both fallen nobly on the field of battle and both revived by the medicine of Gondor (and in the book, by the healer's hands of the King). And they stand at the coronation of the King, not just of Gondor, but - it seems - of all the world of Men. Eomer, Eowyn, and Faramir all bow to him. And since I don't have a copy of the theatrical version to look at, I can't check to see whether either Eomer or Eowyn is wearing a crown in that sequence.

"Last I knew, Theoden, not Aragorn, was King of Rohan." Does the movie Aragorn claim that throne, too? At the very least, it seems deliberately ambiguous.

Then again, they never make it clear in the movie that Pippin and Merry are the eldest sons of two of the three most important hobbits in the Shire, either.

(And we're leaving out the "meaningful manly glance" between the Elvish prince of Mirkwood and the Returned King, too, but we'll slash later, ne?)

Comments

[memeslayer.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Aragorn's whole purpose to become the king of all Men from the start? Gondor, Rohan, and the now-ruined Arnor were all ruled by Elendil's family, who were the last of the Numenoreans. There's no reason for them *not* to unite. And since Aragorn marries Arwen as well, he probably gets de facto leadership of the remaining Elves. I guess Cirdan could be in charge if he really wanted to, but in tens of thousands of years he hasn't gotten one second of screentime.

Cirdan's actually kind of funny that way. He's supposed to be one of the most important Elves in Middle Earth, but he never actually does anything other than guard ships. Then again, given what happened to all the *other* important Elves, I don't really blame him.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Rohan pledged fealty to Gondor, but (unless I'm seriously spacing on my human history) were still a separate kingdom, with their own king, even when the thrones of Arnor and Gondor were occupied. As evidence, let me present their language - they still spoke the old tongue of the Men of Middle-Earth, not the languages of the Elves, which the Numenorians adopted. (Which is, in fact, closer to the language of the hobbits, which is itself evidence that the hole-builders should be counted as a sub-race of Men and not their own race, despite Merry's role in bringing down the Witch-King.)

While Aragorn might gain the leadership over the elves of Rivendell, I think they mostly leave. There is still a Green King in Mirkwood, who is not under Elrond, at least as far as I can tell - and while in the movie Celeborn leaves Middle-Earth with Galadriel, in the books he stays in Lothlorien for quite some time thereafter. (In the movie, the fact that Haldir deigns to serve under Aragorn's command might lend some credence to your view as far as Lothlorien goes, but given that the Prince of Mirkwood is wearing his own crown at Aragorn's coronation, I suspect that they are allies rather than a subject people even there.)

Given that protecting the Only Way Back To Valinor may very well be the most important thing any elf in Middle-Earth can possibly do, I don't think Cirdan's sweating his lack of screen time. (Besides, maybe in the extended dance remix of RotK we'll get to see him and an aged Sam taking the last boat from the Grey Havens . . . nah, but a girl can dream, can't she?)

[memeslayer.livejournal.com]

The Encyclopedia of Arda says you're right, and that Eomer's son is recorded as a king. But I bet it's more of a George Bush/Tony Blair relationship. :-p

Elrond is not technically a king(the last king of the Noldor was Gil-Galad), but he is quite clearly In Charge. The various divisions of the Elves lack a common political structure, but king or no, I can't see the lord of Mirkwood refusing to march when asked. It is also notable that neither he nor Galadriel nor Cirdan showed up at the Council of Elrond. I'm not talking about day-to-day control over the kingdom, I'm talking about being put in charge of grand strategy. Aragorn, by virtue of leading Middle Earth to victory, ought to get at least that much.

Maybe the reason Cirdan never appears is because he's too busy pimping it up with all the frightened Elf girls fleeing Sauron's advances.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not arguing that Elessar isn't a High King to Eomer's Low King (to borrow terminology out of C. S. Lewis). It just looks, at the end of the movie, as if Rohan doesn't have a king of its own at all - and that Eowyn, not Eomer, is its steward under Aragorn's High Kingship. I don't really mind the change that much - it's a tiny thing, compared to omitting the Scouring of the Shire - but it did seem strange.

The King of Mirkwood sent his son to sit at the council in his stead. It's not clear if any of the other elves was from Lorien or not. Galadriel really couldn't have come - really, having all three Elven rings and the One Ring in the same place at once? That would have been one of the classic Bad Ideas, ne? Besides, I'm sure she and Elrond did the elf-ring-telepathy-phone-call thing the night before, anyway.

I don't think Aragorn really wants any more responsibility than he's already picked up. At any rate, I seriously doubt Celeborn or (I gotta look this guy's name up, now) Thranduil would blow him off, strategy-wise, but neither did Theoden - and that didn't negate his crown.

Given that Tolkien seems to imply in some of his more obscure writings that elves are strictly monogamous, and may in fact only have sex for a few years out of their long lifespans, I suspect that's not the case. On the other hand, Cirdan is also the only elf with a beard, so perhaps he's the exception in matters below the belt as well. ;)

Cirdan musings plus Eomer/Eowyn

[binaryathena.livejournal.com]

I think that giving an Elven ring, the ring of hope & perseverence, to Mithrandir while he was still just the Grey Pilgrim, and while Saruman was head of the Istari and later of the White Council is just as significant as guarding the ships and the way to Valinor.

I can't remember -- in the movie, did Theoden recognize Eowyn like he did in the book? And I was disappointed that there wasn't the emphasis on the hands of the king are the hands of the healer in the movie. And don't get me started on omitting the scouring of the Shire

but I studied the appendices for years before Silmarillion was published

Re: Cirdan musings plus Eomer/Eowyn

[omorka.livejournal.com]

I think - at least, there have been hints - that we will get at least some of the Houses of Healing in the extended dance remix RotK. (After all, they went to the trouble of setting it up in the first movie!)

The omission of the Scouring pisses me off no end, if only because I want to see how Boyd and Monaghan (and Dourif, for that matter) would have played it.

Re: Cirdan musings plus Eomer/Eowyn

[binaryathena.livejournal.com]

ah yes, it finishes their story arc after all, I'm sure that they would have shone!

and for me, it is the circle ending that I miss, that the last blow of the war of the rings was Sharkey's End -- once again we are there and back again, A Hobbit's holiday