Society for the Protection of the Canonical Denethor

I'm working on a fanfic, and I wanted to make sure I didn't inadvertently pass on fanon. I was hoping that the experts would steer me in the direction of canon.

I remember reading somewhere that Denethor hated Elves, and did not allow them to enter Gondor. Unfortunately, I don't remember the source, so I can't evaluate it. (It feels wrong; after all, Elves and Men were allies against Sauron before, and Denethor, of all people, would know that history.) But I'm not sure where exactly I would find the information in canon.

Thank you in advance!

Hey there, everyone. I'm not sure how closely this falls within the community guidelines, but I thought you folks might find it interesting -- and besides, the place has been awfully quiet for the past few months.

I've been trying to put together a collection of links to Denethor fiction, fanart, etc. from around the internet, and I currently have about 150 stories linked, not including the drabbles, poems, essays, etc. (Who knew there was so much Denethor fic out there? o_O) A number of the stories, of course, were written by spcd members; and one reason for my posting this here is to make sure nobody has any great objection to my linking to their works. (If you do object, just let me know and I'll remove the links -- though I do hope nobody does! ;)

So feel free to check out the site, and, if you like, to send me links to anything you've written/drawn that I may have overlooked. Just follow the banner. :)


http://whitetower.onlyfiction.net

This debate seems to come up from time to time, and I thought I would sort of throw my hat in the ring.

About a year ago, I got into a fairly heated discussion about Denethor and Aragorn at HASA. Several posts included some very interesting points about these two characters, and I thought maybe others would enjoy reading the discussion and/or making comments on it.

You can find excerpts at my journal home at 

http://roh-wyn.livejournal.com/224… 

For those of you who have already seen this and commented on it, I apologize for the cross-posts.

Regarding comments to the previous post, I see that Tolkien actually left quite a bit of ambiguity about what was actually said between Faramir and Denethor in "The Siege of Gondor." Faramir's account of his meeting Frodo and Sam is not actually narrated; I had assumed that Faramir did not tell Denethor about the Ring, but I see now that there is also support for making the opposite assumption. I'm curious what you guys think.( And some follow-up questions behind the cut.Collapse )

While there seems to be less of the "Denethor eats babies" sentiment going around lately, I've seen several people arguing that, however noble the Steward may otherwise seem, he deserves to be hated anyway, because, after all, he did tell Faramir in no uncertain terms that he wished he were dead.

Only we know it wasn't quite like that. Anyone care to discuss?

( Do you wish then that our places had been exchanged?Collapse )

Cross-posted to my journal. Sorry to those who see this twice...

Spot which one's the the idiot:

Aragorn Gets Brainwashed:


( Or 'Denny,' as she calls him:Collapse )

At least this snippet ends on a canonical note. That's more than can be said for the story.


Ultimatums:


( Vs. Imri:Collapse )


I actually have great respect for the second one, knowing how hard it is to write a character ICly that I personally don't give more than a general canon-nazi's concern about.

Sure, we've all seen Abusive!Evil!Denethor fics. As long as there are movie fangirls who have not read the book, we'll probably continue to see fics featuring some poor excuse for a Steward who'd love to rape a Sue or wangsty!Filmamir. But how often do you see fics that not only avoid fanon murderous tendencies, but all of Denethor's bite entirely? How prettily can authors paint him before you can no longer recognize the difference between their Denethor and the typical Legolas!Stu?

I was reading through the section on the Palantiri in Unfinished Tales yesterday and I came across one of Tolkien's original notes to the text that struck me as quite telling:

The use of the palantiri was a mental strain, especially on men of later days not trained to the task, and no doubt in addition to his anxieties this strain contributed to Denethor's "grimness". It was probably felt earlier by his wife than by others and increased her unhappiness, to the hastening of her death.

--from Unfinished Tales, p. 534 HarperCollins pb ed

Yes, that totally sounds like an abusive relationship. Not.

Some of you may have already seen this, but I thought it deserved mentioning here:

Finally, Denethor has a character category at fanfiction.net!

So if you have any stories about Denethor up at ff.net, you can now edit them so that readers can find them by searching Denethor's name. Just go to "Stories: List Stories: Edit" and select him from the list next to "Character 1" or "Character 2."

In a way, it's almost a pity... now I have to take down my Get Denethor a Character Category campaign banner, which I'd become rather fond of.

Cheers to you guys who set up the campaign -- it looks like it made a difference after all. :)

Hello all, as you may have heard, kielle (aka _redpanda_ ), a well-known member of the LotR online community, has recently passed away after being diagnosed with cancer. Should you wish to do so, here is the list of charities you can donate to in her name: http://www.livejournal.com/users/k…

I am sure all our thoughts are with her family and friends at this terrible time.