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

[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*