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Event Website
https://www.mythsoc.org/oms/oms-2023.htm
Start Date
8-5-2023 12:00 PM
End Date
8-5-2023 12:50 PM
Description
One character in Tolkien’s Legendarium stands out as one of the more morally sad and complicated individuals: Denethor, the Steward of Gondor. Although he tries to defend the kingdom he cares for, his own significant moral weaknesses subvert even the best of his intentions. His despair, provoked by the death of his favorite son—and the apparent death of his other son—sends him into a spiral of self-destructive harm from which there is no return. What accounts for this are three factors. First, his self-imposed isolation from others cuts him off from the necessary fellowship that could sustain his character; his rejection, for example, of the help that Gandalf and others offer him. This is further complicated by his solitary use of the Palantír alone in the tower. Second, his arrogance in thinking that he, and only he, knows how things will inevitably transpire seen in his derision of anyone who disagrees with him, “a fool.” And third, the despair in assuming that the good he desires—the salvation of his kingdom—is no longer a viable possibility. His death by suicide is a kind of self-imposed, isolated hell of his own making.
Included in
Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, Modern Languages Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons
Denethor’s Descent into Hell
One character in Tolkien’s Legendarium stands out as one of the more morally sad and complicated individuals: Denethor, the Steward of Gondor. Although he tries to defend the kingdom he cares for, his own significant moral weaknesses subvert even the best of his intentions. His despair, provoked by the death of his favorite son—and the apparent death of his other son—sends him into a spiral of self-destructive harm from which there is no return. What accounts for this are three factors. First, his self-imposed isolation from others cuts him off from the necessary fellowship that could sustain his character; his rejection, for example, of the help that Gandalf and others offer him. This is further complicated by his solitary use of the Palantír alone in the tower. Second, his arrogance in thinking that he, and only he, knows how things will inevitably transpire seen in his derision of anyone who disagrees with him, “a fool.” And third, the despair in assuming that the good he desires—the salvation of his kingdom—is no longer a viable possibility. His death by suicide is a kind of self-imposed, isolated hell of his own making.
Comments
SESSION II
12:00 Noon—12:50 PM Eastern
11:00 AM—11:50 Central
10:00 AM—10:50 Mountain
9:00 AM—9:50 Pacific
4:00 PM—4:50 GMT