Tolkien describes Faramir as a man who is “personally courageous and decisive, but also modest, fair-minded and scrupulously just, and very merciful” (Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien 323). After the Captain of the Ithilien Rangers meets Frodo and Sam, he says he will not lie even to an Orc. The Ring-bearer’s impression of him during the man’s initial interrogation is that “he felt in his heart that Faramir, though he was much like his brother in looks, was a man less self-regarding, both sterner and wiser” (LotR IV:5, 650). Sam recognizes the wizard-like air the man has, which is actually the grace of pure Númenórean blood. Pippin’s first impression is “Here was one with an air of high nobility. . . one of the Kings of Men born into a later time, but touched with the wisdom and sadness of the Elder Race. . . . He was a captain that men would follow, that he would follow, even under the shadow of the black wings” (V:5, 792). Aragorn says of him in the Houses of Healing, “He is a man of staunch will, for already he had come close under the Shadow. . . Slowly the dark must have crept on him, even as he fought and strove to hold his outpost” (V:8, 846). Éowyn sees him as “stern and gentle” (VI:5, 938). Appendix A notes that Faramir “read the hearts of men as shrewdly as his father, but what he read moved him sooner to pity than to scorn. He was gentle in bearing, and a lover of lore and of music, and therefore by many in those days his courage was judged less than his brother’s. But it was not so, except that he did not seek glory in danger without a purpose. He welcomed Gandalf at such times as he came to the City, and he learned what he could from his wisdom” (1031). It is likely then that “Faramir, the quiet student of Gandalf, a man with a Númenórean soul undimmed by his ancestors’ years of life in Middle-earth” (Johnson, “Grief” 124) learned his pity from Mithrandir just as the Maia had learned it from Nienna (Tolkien, Silmarillion 18).

It would seem with these qualities, and because Faramir received the dream first and more often that Boromir came to Rivendell to unravel, that it would have made more sense for Denethor’s younger son to go and become one of the Nine Walkers. It was, however, Ilúvatar’s will that Boromir be the one. If Faramir was part of the Company, he may not have fallen to the lure of the Ring as his brother had, but Frodo’s will perhaps would not found release from the shackles of terror that held it bound. If the Ring-bearer had not chosen the moment he did to separate from the Company because of Boromir’s fall, he may have been captured with his cousins and the Ring come into the custody of either Saruman or Sauron. If Boromir, rather than Faramir, had met Frodo and Sam alone in the woods, he could have taken the Ring then or at Henneth Annûn while surrounded by men loyal to him. Even if Frodo put on the Ring and disappeared as easily as he did at Parth Galen, escape would have been harder with so many men around. He would have had to wear the Ring longer out of necessity, which would make it easier for Sauron to hone in on his position. If he took it off to ensure this did not happen, he could have been either re-captured or taken by the troops of the Enemy marching toward Mordor. He would have no chance to put the Ring back on if he was bound. The Quest could have ended in disaster. Yet it did not because the sons of Denethor are in the places they are meant.

As the younger son, Faramir has no ambition for positions he had no hope for. He is not set from birth to be Steward, or so he thinks, which makes him more free to become whom Ilúvatar intends, rather than who his earthly father would mold him into. “Despite [not being heir], or perhaps because of it, Faramir is a capable leader, a Man more concerned with the welfare of his people than any illusions of transitory power. Such nobility comes easily to him, making him an even better candidate for the stewardship than his more power-hungry brother” (Benne and Forbeck 40). Bradley J. Birzer observes, “Faramir knows his place in creation, and he desires nothing more than to play out Ilúvatar’s role for him” (Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth 86).

Though a man, the Ranger captain resembles the hobbits in his humility and gentleness and the fact that he is a reluctant warrior, though a capable and respected one. He does not love “the bright blade for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness” (LotR IV:5, 656). He does not kill even beasts without great necessity. This saves Gollum’s life and the Quest itself after the Ranger Anborn refrains from shooting what he thinks is black squirrel but is actually Frodo and Sam’s wretched guide. Faramir fights, as the hobbits do, to protect his land and those he loves, but like them, he does not do it for the joy of it, as his brother did or the Rohirrim do. He shares the hobbits’ love of peace, though he understands that sometimes wars must be fought to have such peace. Faramir sees people with hearts and souls rather than cold objects on a chess board to be moved about, spent, and removed, as his more military-minded father viewed the men under him. A smile from the Ranger captain would be real and warm solace, instead of a grimace if any look came from Denethor. Gandalf recognized the young man’s gentle greatness that Denethor despised.

That Frodo and Sam encounter Faramir and his men in Ithilien due to the smoke from the hobbits’ fire, is another of the ‘chance’ meetings which occur throughout the tale. This fortunate event brings about another good from Gollum’s guidance of the hobbits through the Dead Marshes. They arrive at the proper time and place for the Rangers to find them and so escape capture in the woods. The men give them needed shelter and without the extra food that Faramir supplies, the Ring-bearer and his companion would have collapsed days away from the achievement of their Quest.

Birzer notes several other reasons why Faramir is special: “Faramir embodies grace at a number of levels. First, Tolkien had not planned on his appearance. God had created him and inspired Tolkien to include him in the story – or so the Oxford don believed. Second, it was the healing of Faramir, along with Éowyn and Merry, that revealed the true nature and kingship of Aragorn. Third, and perhaps most important, Faramir offers one of the very few obvious allusions to religion [the Standing Silence]” (Myth 86).

Fleming Rutledge recognizes the connection between Aragorn and Faramir: “Like a Christian disciple, as Strider the Ranger, [Aragorn] has been in training for anonymous service for many years. That same self-effacing commitment to ‘valor without renown’ distinguished Faramir from his father Denethor” (Battle for Middle-earth 307).

Another connection between the future King and Steward is that Faramir does not make a rash decision about what to do with the two strangers who come across his path. He shows the same wisdom as Aragorn did in Fangorn Forest in that he does not shoot his potential enemies on sight, but he seeks to find out whether they are indeed foes first. In his initial interrogation of Frodo, Rutledge notes, “Tolkien is giving us another illustration of excellence in leadership. The ensuing dialogue is a display of noble manliness all round” (213).

Faramir admits he has no hope of defeating Sauron, yet he fights on and speaks of his dream that he would see “the White Tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace” (LotR IV:5, 656).

Faramir shows his quality once more as Frodo and Sam must be blindfolded once they near Henneth Annûn. Richard C. West observes, “That he apologizes for this necessity is courtly and courteous, something that might not be expected given the exigencies of war, but it is in character for him. . . [as] one of the noblest characters in the book” (“Name” 7). Another instance of this courtesy asking Frodo for forgiveness for interrogating him harshly at first.

Faramir and his Rangers show their awareness of the spiritual world around them and their connection to it in their observation of the Standing Silence: “We look towards Númenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and ever will be” (LotR IV:5, 661). Faramir gives another indication as he tells Frodo that he knows there are paths he and the Ring-bearer are both fated to take: “In the morning we must each go swiftly on the ways appointed to us” (IV:5, 666). Such faith and trust allow him to make the decision to go against his father’s orders, even at the possible expense of his own life.

After the rocky beginning in which Faramir’s ‘sauce’ angered Sam, the fact “that Faramir seemed to refer to Elves with reverence, . . . won Sam’s respect and quieted his suspicions” (IV:5, 664).

Faramir faces the temptation of the Ring after Sam ‘accidentally’ lets out the fact that Frodo has it and is akin to the gardener in his utter rejection of it. The Ring’s way to his heart is through his desire to finally obtain approval in his father’s eyes: “A chance for Faramir, Captain of Gondor, to show his quality!” (IV:5, 665). But the temptation has no allure for him. He has already said he would not pick up Isildur’s Bane by the side of the road or use it even if that was the only way to save his beloved home. Michael J. Brisbois observes a great difference between the two sons of Denethor: “Boromir is corrupted by the One Ring because of his desire for power – he believes in winning war by any means necessary. Faramir clearly does not. He is unwilling to sacrifice the virtues he is fighting for. This disregard for power and focus upon virtue is similar to Sam’s focus on simple domestic pleasures – both remain largely unaffected by the Ring because neither desires power” (“Blade” 95).

Faramir already intuitively recognizes the wisdom of a later age: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul” (Mark 8:36/Matt. 16:26). Faramir has strength and love for his land that his father does not. As Elrond and Galadriel have already said of their own lands, the young man would rather lose his beloved home than use the Ring to save it. The three realize such use would destroy their land and that they would lose themselves in the process, as the Ring would possess them rather than they possessing it. Denethor does not have this wisdom, but Faramir has only to look as far as his beloved brother, Boromir, to know how the Ring corrupts the heart and “that there are some perils from which a man must flee” (LotR IV:5, 666). After the Ranger’s triumph, when he does indeed show his quality, he tells Frodo, “If you took this thing on yourself, unwilling, at others’ asking, then you have pity and honour from me. And I marvel at you: to keep it hid and not to use it” (IV:5, 666).

Faramir resists the allure of the Ring because he knows his potential weakness: “I do not wish to see it, or touch it, or know more of it than I know (which is enough), lest peril perchance waylay me and I fall lower in the test than Frodo son of Drogo” (IV:5, 666). The vow the man previously took not to touch it strengthens the man’s resolve, but he knows just because he triumphed over the temptation once does not automatically mean he would again.

After Faramir asks what the hobbits’ further plans are, Frodo no longer evades the question and openly speaks of his errand. After the grief-stricken the Ring-bearer collapses from exhaustion and stress, the Ranger tenderly takes care of him. The man also comforts Sam, who is upset that he gave away the secret of the Ring. The Ranger tells the gardener that he was meant to seemingly slip up: “Your heart is shrewd as well as faithful, and saw clearer than your eyes,” (IV:5, 666). This revelation would, if the Ranger could manage it, work to Frodo’s good. After Sam praises Faramir for resisting the Ring, the man’s humility deflects it and says that “I had no lure or desire to do other than I have done” (IV:5, 667).

After Frodo begs for Sméagol’s life at the Forbidden Pool and say that “this creature is in some way bound up with my errand,” (IV:6, 671) Faramir, “at the prayer of Frodo,” (IV:6, 674) also gives mercy and spares Gollum’s life after it should have been automatically forfeit. He helps save the Quest, even though the man, as an adept discerner of souls, also recognizes the evil that dwells within the ruined hobbit and fears for his new friends.

Before Frodo and Sam part from Faramir, the discussion between the Ranger and the Ring-bearer brings home the importance of keeping a promise even if there is a possibility it will bring harm to oneself. Frodo has promised to look after Sméagol, and he does not want to go back on this even after Faramir warns him of the possibility of betrayal by Gollum. But the man still does not counsel that Frodo be false to Sméagol. He and Frodo both value being morally upright over physical safety and in keeping their word even if they could be harmed by it. They value their souls over their bodies and their spiritual life over their physical life.

Faramir tells Frodo that he does not hope to meet him again, but he also imagines the possibility that one day they will be together “sitting by a wall in the sun, laughing at old grief” (IV:6, 678). While the future is unknown and indeed seems bleak, Faramir still believes in the hope of a better time after the darkness passes. He speaks of this to Éowyn as well. He sees beyond the black night that his father is lost in and dies in. He looks to the dawn that he does not even know for sure will come but which has already risen in his heart. In all this, he is a spiritual twin of Sam, which is a sign of grace in both of them.

Faramir tells Frodo, “You shall go now with my blessing upon you, and upon all your people” (IV:6, 678). At their departure, he equips the hobbits with food and walking staves. He demonstrates his gentleness again as he bids them farewell “after the manner of his people, stooping, and placing his hands upon their shoulders, and kissing their foreheads” (IV:7, 680).

The Ranger meets another of the Little Folk in Gondor. One of the great goods that comes out of Pippin’s gaze into the palantír is the saving of Faramir’s life. Denethor wished to rob his son of this, but it demonstrates another reason Ilúvatar wanted Merry and Pippin as part of the Company. Pippin would not be in a position to aid Faramir if Boromir’s valiant efforts to save him and Merry had not inspired him to offer his service of Denethor and so learn of the Steward’s mad plans. He would not be there at all if he had not looked into the seeing stone, and Gandalf had to spirit him away ahead of the others going to Minas Tirith. Just as Merry is at Éowyn’s side in battle, so “she should not die alone, unaided” (V:6, 823), Pippin is at Denethor’s side so Faramir does not. Ilúvatar places both hobbits exactly where and when they need to be.

After the victory at the Pelennor Fields, Aragorn enters the City as healer. The first he tends to is Faramir, whose reaction to the man diametrically opposes that of Denethor’s. The younger man chooses love, light, and life; the elder scorn, darkness, and death. Faramir waits most anxiously for the return of the king; Denethor has no desire for any king to return, as this would remove him from power. For Faramir, this longing is not a faded dream, just one that has not yet come true. The Ranger captain has already given his heart to this dream-king and immediately surrenders it after the dream becomes flesh: “Suddenly Faramir stirred, and he opened his eyes, and he looked on Aragorn who bent over him; and a light of knowledge and love was kindled in his eyes, and he spoke softly. ‘My lord, you called me. I come. What does the king command?’” (V:8, 848). In pride and despair, Denethor fled into death so he would not have to say such words. Faramir returns from near-death so he could, using words, as Jane Chances observes, “similar to those of a Christian disciple” (Tolkien’s Art 177).

Miryam Librán-Moreno speculates that, even after all the coldness and trauma that he had suffered from his father for much of his life, Faramir’s feelings for him after the man’s death were “pity, forgiveness and abiding love.” This would match his character, though she admits that such emotions are not recorded because it would break the younger man’s “decorous restraint and modest reserve with uncharacteristic, too-direct self-revelation” (“Parallel Lives” 27).

The fulfillment of the part of Pippin’s vocation which was to save Faramir also saves Éowyn from the despair that held her prisoner. She desires death in battle, as she thinks this is the only way that she can gain the peace she wants. But Faramir’s gentle courting while she is still fragile from her wounds shows her another way. “There are ways to plant healthy coping skills in the garden of the soul, and to help someone reconcile with their losses. Faramir . . . demonstrates the skills needed to assist someone in their recovery from traumatic grief. . . . He connects with her, carefully challenges her beliefs, and gradually adds meaning and purpose to her life” (Johnson, “Grief” 124, 125).

After the men of Rohan and Gondor leave for the Black Gate and the days stretch slowly by with no word, the suspense of those left behind becomes almost intolerable. As they await news, Faramir speaks to Éowyn of hope for the dawn beyond the dark night that may soon descend upon them. He acknowledges the possibility that doom is about to fall upon their world, but his words make clear that he still hopes that it will not, which is the total opposite of what his father had done. Faramir would courageously stare death in the face, sword still in hand, while Denethor had already surrendered to his despair and darkness and fled from the death he feared right into the arms of the death of his own choice.

As Éowyn speaks of feeling that she stands upon the edge of an abyss, Frodo truly does. Both wait upon “some stroke of doom” (LotR VI:5, 941). Then suddenly the man and woman witness in the far distance what could be the end of their world. The greatest manifestation of Faramir’s hope comes as the world seems poised upon utter ruin: “The reason of my waking mind tells me that great evil has befallen and we stand at the end of days. But my heart says nay; and all my limbs are light, and a hope and joy are come to me that no reason can deny. Éowyn. . . in this hour I do not believe that any darkness will endure!” (VI:5, 941).

After Faramir asks for Éowyn’s hand, her acceptance frees her from her darkness. Their joining is in fact a gift from Boromir, whose death moved Pippin to offer his service to Denethor.

That Faramir kneels in front of Aragorn to surrender the office of Steward again shows the opposite of reactions between Denethor and his son. Such humility had long deserted the older man who had killed himself so he would not have to kneel to anyone. Faramir is ready to step aside, but Aragorn retains him in his office and tells him the line of Stewards shall continue. He names the younger man Prince of Ithilien as well. One imagines what an excellent counselor and dear friend the new Steward would be to his king.  

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 This was originally published in the September 2010 issue of Beyond Bree. It has been since modified and adapted in part from my book, Moments of Grace and Spiritual Warfare in The Lord of the Rings (WestBow Press, 2012), which also includes a chapter on The Hobbit. For more details and to order the book, please visit http://ow.ly/ez2dT. You can also find me at www.pinterest.com/authorannemarie.