Essay: The Steward's Family

[wiseheart]

I've posted my new essay to Otherworlds. It's not a well-rounded one, but something I've wanted to get off my chest for quite some time. It'll become the introduction to the prequel of my Ages-old Boromir series... eventually.

The last part of the holiday report will come, too, in time. Sorry for the delay.

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I'm not as canon-literate as I would to be either, but IIRC, Éowyn did do her task, at least partially. Quite frankly, I never made much thought about the whole thing, until a few years ago someone came up with the "deserter" thing.

It made me unbelievably angry, to be honest. Éowyn was my first - and to date still the only - fantasy heroine, and I took it a bit personally, I think. I still do. There are so very few female heroes who can kick ass and save the day (which she did on the Pelennor), and people still need to bash the ones we actually have.

Okay, deep breaths... The other one who acted against his King's orders was actually Éomer, pursuing the Orcs without Théoden's leave. Granted, Théoden was a bit of a dotard at that time, but when we really want to apply modern terms to legendary heroes, he must have been court-martialed for that. Yes, I know he got thrown into the brig or whatnot, for a short while (not exiled as PJ came up with the idiotic version). But everybody else and the reader was completely OK with his cowboy actions because the result, as you said, was positive.

BTW, Faramir acted against Denethor's orders, too, when letting Frodo and Sam go. And Denethor certainly wasn't pleased.

Ummm... I managed to lose coherence somewhere along the way. This is the result of the "protect Éowyn's good name" instinct, most likely. *g*

[brinian.livejournal.com]

Good examples. Soooo... Eomer got chucked in the dungeons (or whatever there were in Meduseld). Faramir got smacked upside the head, railed at in Council and sent back out to die defending Osgiliath when Denethor KNEW it was going to fall. Both could have been patted on the head and told that, since they were the last surviving heir, they were going to be pardonned but don't do it again... Nope, they both got spanked for disobeying orders. Normal order of medieval-ness upheld. I don't want Eowyn bashed, I just want consistency. Of course, I'm that way as a manager too...don't tell me it's OK for a man to get away with X if a woman would get censured for it OR the other way around! It's *NOT* OK! Of course, in Middle Earth or the Middle Ages, there was no equality. So whatever my opinion, it's revisionist at best and probably more like heretical.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do agree with you about the same treatment thing. And would LOTR take place in real medieval settings, I think Éowyn would be sent to a cloister, should she try to pull a stung like that.

However, and it's just my opinion, the whole thing has more common with folk tales than with real medieval history. Folk tales are full of princesses who dress up like men, go into battle and save the day by killing a foe that couldn't be killed by "mere" men. Personally, I don't think that looking at a folk tale motiv in the light of modern - or even medieval - military politics is the right thing to do. It's simply a different genre.

Which takes us back to a common fanon misunderstanding, I think. LOTR has semi-medieval settings. It's a fantasy tale, not a medieval mystery like the Cadfael Chronicles (excellent stuff, should you not know it, I'd warmly recommend reading them). Fantasy works with motivs from fairy and folk tales and old legends.

In a legend, a hero (Boromir) can go on a lonely quest. In a proper medieval setting, the son and heir of the ruler would be sent out with a strong escort to keep him safe, whatever the goal of his journey was. In a folk tale, a princess can disguise herself as a young knight and slay the monster that is unkillable to men, In a medieval setting, she'd be sent to a cloister or locked away in a remote caste.

Okay, I'm belabouring the point, as usual. It's just so that I really don't like when real life criteria are applied to fantasy or to a fairy tale. For me, the two aspects just don't mix. After all, we're not chasing dragons in our back yard, either (well, not the sane ones of us anyway). *g*