Today I'm going to discuss something different. I've been re-reading Lord of the Rings, and I discovered several new things on this reading, and today I wanted to think about one of the things that I noticed. SPOILER ALERT! (Oh, and this has become quite the long post)
So, one thing that I noticed was the parallels between the House of Eorl and the House of the Stewards. There are some things about this that seem obviously juxtaposed which prompt this thought. To name just a few:
-The lord of each house, Denethor and Theoden, loses his heir during the action of the story to Saruman's Uruk-Hai
-Gandalf arrives shortly after each discovers the loss of his son
-A hobbit swears fealty to each of them near the beginning of "The Return of the King"
Yet these events, and other similarities, allow us to see the contrast between these lords and houses.
Recall that Denethor had long stood in the defense of Gondor, and near the beginning of "The Return of the King," when we first meet him, and even before that, when Faramir is telling Frodo and Sam about Boromir, we learn something about Denethor's nobility, strength, and wisdom, with which he had long ruled and labored for his people, awaiting the return of the king, according to his charge as steward. When we first meet him, Denethor is still fighting; though we may detect some decay in his greatness (he inspires no great love in Pippin), still he is carrying on nobly.
In contrast, when we first meet Theoden, we have heard rumor of the goodness of the Rohirrim (primarily from Boromir, though somewhat also from Aragorn), yet he sits on his throne, old, inactive, deceived, convinced that he has no strength left; indeed, we might say that he is broken. He has imprisoned his new heir, Eomer, for defying his command to stay and guard Edoras, Eomer having pursued the Uruk-Hai that had ambushed the Fellowship (possibly to the salvation of all, because of what Merry and Pippin might have revealed, unwittingly or under torture, when it was discovered that they did not have the Ring).
Yet all of this changes. The events when Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli arrive at Meduseld would take scarcely an hour, yet in that time, Theoden arises from his throne, breathes the free air again, takes up his sword, remembering his own strength, finds out about the treachery of Wormtongue, reinstates Eomer, and resolves to lead his men in battle. In a mere hour, the dying embers in the old king's heart are reignited into a blaze and a strength which inspires his men to great deeds. Just a few days later, he leads the charge out of the Hornburg against an army of thousands with just a handful of the men of his house, to be saved by the help of the Huorns and the men of Westfold, led by Gandalf. And not two weeks after his healing by Gandalf, Theoden arrives at Minas Tirith at the head of the host of the Rohirrim, saving the city from destruction, slaying the Southron chieftain and scattering the enemy cavalry, and, as he lay dying during the Battle of the Pelennor, he declares, "I go to my fathers. And even in their mighty company I shall not now be ashamed. I felled the black serpent. A grim morn, and a glad day, and a golden sunset!"
In contrast, Denethor, who was clad in armor and carried a long sword so that his arm would not forget its strength, was broken shortly after the wounding of Faramir. He lost hope, and would not let healers tend to his son, nor continue the defense of the city, leaving Gandalf in command by the simple fact that none other would lead. Even while Theoden was leading his riders on the last leg of their march, preparing for a desperate battle to save the city of Minas Tirith, Denethor sat in that same city, giving up on it and saying, "My line too is ending, even the House of the Stewards has failed. Mean folk shall rule the last remnant of the Kings of Men, lurking in the hills until all are hounded out." He will not hope for his son, nor remember that he yet has kin even beside Faramir in which the blood of Numenor runs true (as is said of Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth). And then he is broken, and waits for a time for his son to merely speak before his death, and finally even gives up on that. Indeed, perhaps at the same moment that Theoden lay dying without shame, Denethor burned himself alive, and would have burned his son had Gandalf not prevented it.
But this isn't all that lies between these two lords. We see a difference in faithfulness as well. When the Red Arrow comes, Theoden is waiting for the summons, having marshaled his forces already, and sets out the next morning to Gondor's aid with 6,000 spears, according to the oath which his fathers had made long before. In contrast, when he learns through the palantir of the impending return of Aragorn, Isildur's heir, Denethor the Steward calls him the "last of a ragged house long bereft of lordship," and refuses to turn over his charge, as is his duty (though he is never an obstacle to Aragorn's return because of his self-immolation). This statement is in defiance not only of an oath taken by his fathers, but of what he taught his own son and heir, Boromir, when asked, "How many hundreds of years needs it to make a steward a king, if the king returns not?" To which Denethor replied, "Few years, maybe, in other places of less royalty. In Gondor ten thousand years would not suffice."
One more contrast still is apparent between these two lords. To both of them a Halfling swears fealty, Pippin to Denethor and Merry to Theoden. Both are short in their service to these lords, but even so the difference in their service is obvious, perhaps even more obvious because they're so closely juxtaposed (Pippin and Merry offer their swords within a chapter of one another). We see a difference from the very start, in how each comes into the service of his lord. Each offers it, unprompted, yet when Peregrin does so, it is in speaking of the death of Boromir, who fell defending Merry and Pippin from many foes, and saying, "Little service, no doubt, will so great a lord of Men think to find in a hobbit, a halfling from the northern Shire; yet such as it is, I will offer it, in payment of my debt." In contrast, of Merry before Theoden it is said, "Filled suddenly with love for this old man, he knelt on one knee, and took his hand and kissed it. 'May I lay the sword of Meriadoc of the Shire on your lap, Theoden King?' he cried. 'Receive my service, if you will!'" And of course this is not the end to the differences in their service, for Theoden speaks of sitting with Merry in his hall at Meduseld and speaking of herb-lore, while Denethor does sit with Pippin in his hall in the Citadel, but interrogating him more than anything else. And then each hobbit acts against his lord's wishes before the end, yet Pippin does so in working to deliver Faramir from his own father's fey mood, while Merry does so to ride with Theoden and stand with him in battle. And each one saves a near and beloved kinsman of his lord by his disobedience, Pippin saving Faramir, and Merry helping Eowyn to defeat the Witch King, cutting the Nazgul as he stood over Theoden's niece and prepared to kill her, so that she had a chance to stand and slay the wraith. Indeed, when all was said and done, both halflings did a far greater service than could have been expected before the end, both in defiance of their lord's orders, yet Theoden loved and forgave Merry at the last, and was glad of his service (and would have been even more glad had he known the extent of it), while Denethor ignored Pippin and cursed the good which he did.
Several more things we can note which stand between the House of Eorl and the House of the Stewards, beside the contrast between these two lords. The first is a matter which long predates the events of "The Lord of the Rings." The Stewards are a house of greater nobility: they are descended from the Faithful of Numenor. The House of Eorl is a house of kings rather than stewards, it is true, but they are of the "middle men," as Faramir notes, rather than the "high" men. Aragorn speaks no unkind words of this: in describing the Rohirrim to Legolas and Gimli he says, "They are proud and wilful, but they are true-hearted, generous in thought and deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned, writing no books but singing many songs, after the manner of the children of Men before the Dark Years." Yet perhaps this can be seen as a backward extension of the change that happens in the lives of Denethor and Theoden. Whereas the Stewards had been true men of Numenor, they are in decay by this time, so that Faramir notes that they may hardly be called "high" anymore, and perhaps the nobility of the House of Eorl has been rising. Indeed, over the past 500 years it had risen from that of mere chieftains of the north to true kings of a great people. And this continues, at least on the part of the House of Eorl. For the highest king living, Aragorn son of Arathorn, true king of Gondor, speaks to Eomer, the new king of the Rohirrim, heir to Eorl, saying, "Between us there can be no word of giving or taking, nor of reward; for we are brethren."
And so both houses, the Stewards and that of Eorl, are established once more, to continue so long as their realms shall last. Yet one thing more remains between them: Faramir weds Eowyn, and so unites the two houses forever. And though she is not of Numenor, it may be questioned whether this at all reduces the standing of the House of the Stewards. More ancient perhaps it was, and a line of Numenor, with Elvish blood, yet it would seem to me that rather it was renewed in the great deeds and nobility of both Faramir and Eowyn.
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