Denethor
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This article is about the Steward of Gondor in the time of the War of the Ring. For the king of the Laiquendi, see Denethor (First Age). For the first Steward of Gondor of this name, see Denethor I.
Denethor II is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Return of the King. In the novel, he is the 26th and last ruling Steward of Gondor.
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[edit] Appearances
[edit] Literature
As stated in the early chapters and the Appendices of The Return of the King, Denethor, son of Ecthelion II, was widely considered a man of great will, foresight, and strength. However, he failed to reach out to his people, who flocked instead to Thorongil, an outsider who served Denethor's father with great renown. Thorongil vanished from Gondor four years before Denethor would succeed his father as Ruling Steward. Thorongil (who was secretly Aragorn, Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North and hence a claimant to Gondor's throne) had advised Ecthelion to put faith in the wizard Gandalf, whom Denethor distrusted.
He married Finduilas, daughter of Prince Adrahil of Dol Amroth. She gave birth to two sons: Boromir and Faramir, before dying young. Denethor never remarried after his wife's death, and became more grim and silent than before.
In the novel, he began secretly using a palantír to probe Sauron's strength. The effort aged him quickly, and the knowledge of Sauron's overwhelming force depressed him greatly. Unlike Saruman, Denethor was too strong to be corrupted by Sauron's lies, but neither was he able to control the palantír, though he believed he did. The palantír only revealed what Sauron wanted Denethor to see: the strength of Mordor. Boromir's death depressed Denethor further, and he became ever more grim. Nonetheless he continued to fight Sauron with every resource at his disposal until the forces of Mordor arrived at the gates of the White City, at which point he lost all hope.
Near the novel's climactic battle, Denethor ordered the warning beacons of Gondor to be lit, and forces were called in from all of Gondor's provinces. The civilian population of Minas Tirith was sent away to safety. As invasion seemed imminent, Denethor sent the Red Arrow to the Rohirrim. The Council decided that Gondor could make no stroke of its own but Denethor ordered Gondor's forces to the outer defences of Osgiliath and the great wall of the Rammas Echor. He wanted to make a stand, since the defences had been built at great expense and not yet been overrun. His son Faramir and the other commanders objected due to the Enemy's overwhelming numbers and preferred instead to defend the city itself, but Faramir nonetheless obeyed out of respect for his father and late brother. Faramir's body, apparently mortally wounded, was returned during the retreat, as the capital city was under siege by vastly superior forces.
This last loss finally broke Denethor's spirit. Denethor committed suicide, having ordered his men to burn him alive on a pyre prepared for him and Faramir. He took the white rod of his office and broke it over his knee, casting the pieces into the flames. He laid himself down on the pyre and so died, clasping the palantír in his hands. He also attempted to take the grievously injured and apparently dying Faramir with him, but was thwarted by the timely intervention of Peregrin Took, with help from Gandalf and the guard Beregond.
The Stewardship passed to Faramir, who remained in the Houses of Healing for a time and was later made Prince of Ithilien by Aragorn.
[edit] Adaptations
Denethor was voiced by William Conrad in Rankin/Bass's 1980 animated adaptation of The Return of the King, and by Peter Vaughan in BBC Radio's 1981 serialization.
In Peter Jackson's live-action movie trilogy, Denethor was played by John Noble. In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, his role is substantially different from the novel. He refuses to light the beacons of Gondor to call for the aid of Rohan (Gandalf has to send Pippin to light the city's beacon). He openly favours his dead son Boromir, and sends his remaining son Faramir and all of his cavalry on a suicidal mission to enemy-captured Osgiliath. He calls for the city's defenders to flee when he sees Sauron's army, but Gandalf incapacitates him and takes command of the defence.
Later, when attempting to burn himself and his son Faramir to death in what seems to have been a fit of insanity, Denethor is set ablaze when Gandalf and Pippin rescue Faramir, who is still alive. At this point Denethor realizes what he has done and said as he looks at Faramir. Consumed in flame and regret, Denethor runs from the pyre chamber and hurls himself from the top of Minas Tirith. In the extended edition of the film, after Denethor's death, Aragorn is seen using a palantír next to his throne, possibly implying that Denethor had lost hope and became depressed after viewing the strength and numbers of Sauron's forces in the palantír, as it is told in the book. However, this stone could just as easily be the Orthanc stone given back to Aragorn by Gandalf, which would reduce Denethor's actions to mere pride and insanity.
This is all quite different from the novel, in which Denethor does everything in his power to prepare and defend the city, even at the great risk of using the palantír from the tower of Minas Anor, which began to lead him towards despair, but did not go mad until after Faramir was wounded (apparently mortally) and the war situation appeared hopeless.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Denethor at the Internet Movie Database
- Denethor at the Tolkien Gateway
- Denethor at The Thain's Book
| Preceded by Ecthelion II |
Stewards of Gondor | Succeeded by Faramir |
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