Akin to the Pattern of Her Breathing - "Borrow"

[wormwood_7]

Author: wormwood_7
Characters: Denethor, Finduilas
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Source: LOTR
These characters belong to Tolkien. I make no money from this.

Comments

[engarian]

Although I would love to think of Denethor in these more kindly terms, I'm afraid I'm more jaded than that and think that these thoughts, although they might occur, are all too fleeting. It's beautifully expressed, though, and I could hope that he would be more influenced by her memory than he was.

- Erulisse (one L)

[wormwood_7]

I find Denethor fascinating. He is a Numenorian, like Aragorn and Faramir, but that is a troubled ancestry. He has inherited the unquestioning belief in own judgement that sometimes goes along with it and which Sauron later uses to control him, as he had another Numenorian a millennium earlier. So I don't see Denethor as evil, far from it in fact. But when Finduilas dies, something dies in him too. These are my own thoughts entirely of course.
Thanks for reading!

[curiouswombat]

I think it is no wonder that Denethor was easier prey to the palantir than he thought he was, when he had his centre of sorrow.

[wormwood_7]

That's the way I see it too. And he was under it's influence for years. By the end he went truly mad, and no wonder.
Thanks for reading!

[clodia_metelli]

'Fragmented ghosts' is a wonderful description. We remember pieces of people, rarely the whole person. Poor, grieving Denethor.

[wormwood_7]

You are right, we remember pieces of people. I tried to describe how this process sometimes work, especially in times of grieving: sudden phantom scents followed by stinging flashes of memory.
In time it usually hurts less and can even be pleasurable, but perhaps not for Denethor.

[silverstarspray]

I love the image of the candle's reflection (ghostly, and so fitting), and of the memories being tied to scents.

[wormwood_7]

Yes, a flame, a kind of ghost-image in itself, reflected in the raindrops like hundreds of fragmented ghosts. It seemed a fitting image of how we sometimes remember someone who is no longer there. And scents are a memory conjurer like no other.
Thanks for reading!

[lindahoyland]

Just heartrending.

[wormwood_7]

That was the intended effect. I am glad it spoke to you :)