Denethor II

Lineage and youth

Denethor was the son of Ecthelion II, twenty-fifth Ruling Steward of Gondor, of the House of Húrin that had held the stewardship since the days of the kings. He was born in 2930 and grew up in the Minas Tirith of his father's rule, a city still strong but hemmed in, with Mordor stirring across the river. He was in every way the type of the ancient Númenóreans: tall, grey-eyed, dark-haired, noble in bearing, gifted with a mind that could read the thoughts of Men and see far into the future, and proud to the edge of arrogance. Those who knew him said that he had more of the blood of Westernesse in him than almost any man of his day, more even than his sons, and that in another age he would have been a great king.

His father did not favour him above all others. Ecthelion took able men from many lands into his service and trusted them, and the most trusted was the stranger called Thorongil, who came out of Rohan around 2957 and became Gondor's greatest captain. Denethor was said to have guessed who Thorongil was, though he never spoke it, and to have resented both the man and the counsel that Thorongil gave, which was to heed Gandalf and distrust Saruman. Thorongil left Gondor in 2980 after his raid on Umbar, and Denethor, whatever he suspected, was left with a settled dislike of Gandalf and a wariness of the North that lasted the rest of his life.

Marriage and sons

In 2976 Denethor married Finduilas, daughter of Adrahil of Dol Amroth and sister of Imrahil. She was gentle and beautiful and had grown up by the sea, and the stone city under the shadow of Mordor withered her. She bore Denethor two sons, Boromir in 2978 and Faramir in 2983, and died in 2988 after twelve years of marriage. Her death changed her husband. He grew more silent and grim, and it was after it, men believed, that he began to shut himself in the high chamber of the White Tower where the palantír of Anor was kept.

The Steward's rule

Denethor succeeded his father in 2984 and ruled for thirty-five years. He was a masterful lord, and Gondor was well governed: its defences kept, its levies ready, its alliances with Rohan and the fiefs in good repair. He valued Boromir, who was a warrior of his own kind, above Faramir, who loved lore and music and Gandalf's company, and the difference between the sons became a grief to all three. The Enemy was the whole of his thought. He read the archives of the city, he took counsel with no one, and he came to know more of what was happening in Middle-earth than any man in Gondor could account for.

The secret was the palantír. Denethor had dared to use the Seeing-stone of Minas Anor, which no Steward before him had done, and by his strength of will he had bent it to his purpose. But the stone of Minas Ithil was in Sauron's hands, and whenever Denethor looked far the Dark Lord could choose what he saw. He was never deceived into serving Sauron, and he was never broken; but he was shown, year after year, the vastness of Mordor's strength and nothing of any hope, and he aged early and came to believe that the West could not win. He fought on regardless, for the honour of his house and city, and he held the line of the Anduin against the first assault of June 3018, when his sons destroyed the last bridge of Osgiliath.

The War of the Ring

After that battle both his sons dreamed of a riddle bidding them seek the Sword that was Broken in Imladris. Denethor sent Boromir, whom he could least spare, because Boromir insisted. He did not see him again. In March 3019 Gandalf and Pippin arrived in Minas Tirith, and Denethor received them with the cloven Horn of Gondor on his knees, already knowing that Boromir was dead. He took Pippin's service in payment for his son's life and used the hobbit to learn what Gandalf would not tell him, and in the days that followed he and the wizard fenced with words over the Ring, which Denethor guessed was near.

When Faramir returned from Ithilien and admitted that he had let the Ring go on into Mordor with Frodo, Denethor's control broke. He wished aloud that Boromir had lived and Faramir died in his place, and the next day he sent Faramir to hold the ruins of Osgiliath and the causeway forts against the whole army of the Witch-king, a task that could only end one way. Faramir was carried back on 13 March with a Southron dart in him and the Black Breath on him, and Denethor sat by his bed as the siege closed round the city and the Gate was assailed. Word came that the Rammas was breached, that the fields were full of the enemy, and Denethor went up alone to his secret chamber and looked once more in the stone. Sauron showed him the black ships of Umbar coming up the river, and he did not know that Aragorn was aboard them.

Death

He came down and gave the order: the Steward's line was ending, the city would burn, and he would go to his death in his own way. He had Faramir carried to the House of the Stewards in Rath Dínen, laid him on a bier with himself beside it, and ordered oil and wood. Beregond and Pippin refused the order and Pippin ran for Gandalf; Beregond held the door against the Steward's servants and killed the porter and others to keep the pyre unlit. Gandalf came with Shadowfax through the burning city, and in the tomb he lifted Faramir from the pyre and confronted Denethor, who stood with the palantír in his hands and its fire in his eyes. Denethor would not be commanded. He declared that he would not be the dotard chamberlain of an upstart king from the North, whatever the wizard's hopes, and that he would have things as they had been all his days or nothing at all. Then he seized a torch, leapt onto the pyre, broke the Steward's rod across his knee, and lay down with the stone clasped to his breast. The fire took him, and the palantír of Minas Anor ever after showed only two burning hands to any but a king.

He died on 15 March 3019, the day of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, in the hour that Théoden fell and the Witch-king was destroyed, and his last act delayed Gandalf from the Gate and so, as the wizard reckoned, cost lives on the field.

Legacy

Denethor was not a traitor and did not go over to the Enemy; his despair was the despair of a great mind that had seen too much and trusted no one. Faramir, healed by Aragorn, became the twenty-seventh Steward and surrendered the rod to the king, who gave it back to him and made him Prince of Ithilien. The House of the Stewards in Rath Dínen was rebuilt, and Denethor's memory in Gondor was of a great lord broken at the last.

Burned himself alive on a pyre in the House of the Stewards on 15 March 3019, holding the palantír, after Gandalf rescued Faramir from beside him.