Faramir - Concept and Creation

Concept and Creation

Faramir's decision to reject the One Ring shows influences from a kind of courage and behaviour that was known to Tolkien from the medieval poem The Battle of Maldon. By not taking the Ring, Faramir rejects the desire for power and glory and the desire for renown which a defeat of Sauron would bring him.

The speed of the relationship of Faramir and Éowyn reflects a culture which Tolkien describes to be "less corrupt", and nobler in which the "petty fencing and approaches" of courtly love is disregarded. A factor in the development of their love came from Tolkien's personal belief that feelings grew quickly in periods of great stress and under the expectation of death. Originally, Tolkien employed the use of thou and thee in The Lord of the Rings to show a "deliberate change to a form of affection or endearment". His son has presented the original drafts for the chapter "The Steward and the King", in which such usage was employed to emphasize the relationship's development:

The 'sudden change' to which he referred here ... is possibly to be seen in their first meeting in the garden of the Houses of Healing, where Faramir says ( p. 238): 'Then, Éowyn of Rohan, I say to you that you are beautiful', but at the end of his speech changes to the 'familiar' form, 'But thou and I have both passed under the wings of the Shadow' (whereas Éowyn continues to use 'you'). In the following meetings, in this text, Faramir uses the 'familiar' forms, but Éowyn does not do so until the last ('Dost thou not know?', RK p. 242); and soon after this point my father went back over what he had written and changed every 'thou' and 'thee' to 'you'.