Faramir Fiction Archive

Cedar and Cloves (PG)

Written by Mira Took

19 December 2010 | 7721 words

Chapter 3

Faramir stood, soldier-straight, in front of his father’s desk. Boromir had one arm along the mantel while he stared into the fire. The Steward had summoned them both to his study in the afternoon, apparently for a lecture on the hazards of allowing Gondor’s councils to be influenced from afar by Elrond of Imladris. The visit of Lord Elrond’s sons was the initial theme, but Denethor also touched on the danger of the King being reminded of the Elvish ways of his childhood and from there passed on to a wide-ranging critique of Elrond’s upbringing of his foster son.

“It’s a wonder that the great Lord Stardome can tell his sons from his fosterlings, the way he names them all after himself. El-rohir, Ell-adan, El-essar, as though he were creating a constellation.”¹

Faramir forbore to point out that the names of many Men of Gondor, including several in the line of Mardil, shared a first syllable with those of their fathers or brothers. As he had been told many times, no one had asked his opinion.

“I don’t see why he goes by that Elf-title Elessar anyway,” commented Boromir. “Aragorn is a much stronger name. Kinglier-sounding, too, for that matter.”

“His name is not the point,” Denethor said testily and with no regard for the fact that he had brought up the question of names himself. “He could be called Wilwarin² for all I care. The point is that these so-called brothers of his are to be avoided. Civilly, of course. The House of the Steward does not slight the King’s guests. But there is no need to be friendly towards them. Faramir!”

“Yes, Father?”

“I noticed you speaking to the pair of them after breakfast today. I desire you to avoid them in future.”

Faramir had had every intention of doing just that. Last night’s meetings in the garden had been unsettling. This morning after a formal breakfast, the twins had come up to greet him, and though they spoke commonplaces yet he was keenly aware of their presence. He had thus decided it was best to see them only in public for the rest of their stay. Indeed, his father’s warning did not lessen his desire to avoid the twins; it was not in his nature to respond to admonitions with rebellion. Yet something in his father’s voice gave him pause. If Faramir did not know the Steward to be fully master of any situation, he would have thought his father was unsettled by them, too.

“It’s hardly Fara’s fault if the Elves decide to speak to him,” Boromir said reasonably. He was the only one who could get away with the nickname, which Denethor hated and Faramir would not accept from anyone but his brother. As a child, Boromir had stubbornly refused to stop using it and eventually even his father had given in. “It’s not as if they were speaking about affairs of state. It sounded to me as if Elladan was just being courteous.”

“And Elrohir?” questioned Denethor, scenting a possibly deliberate omission.

“He was going on about some young woman he’d met who shared his taste in green apples over red. I’m not sure who it was, but it can’t have been anyone important or she’d have been invited to the breakfast banquet.”

The young woman was in fact the stablemaster’s prize mare, Faramir remembered with an inward smile. He had followed the Elf-knight’s conversation from beginning to end that time, being familiar with both the speaker and the horse in question. Hardly a wonder that Boromir hadn’t. Faramir wondered, though, at his brother’s characterization of the other twin. Courteous Elladan certainly was, but there was a hidden current to his conversation that could be just as difficult to follow as Elrohir’s non sequitors. Why, for instance, had he asked if Faramir liked eating in Hall? What was the point of such a question? Surely Elladan, the eldest (if only by moments) son of a great lord, saw public banquets as a matter of course. He was certainly good at them: conversing easily, eating gracefully, and never showing a sign of the strain Faramir felt. What had he meant by asking what Faramir liked?

Faramir turned his attention back to his father, who had now moved into a well-worn rant about the sort of folk that the King saw fit to invite to Hall. The solution to the problem of the twins was simple. Faramir would stay out of their way.

¹ El is the word for ‘star’ in Elvish: Elrond = ‘star-dome’. However, the root in the other names refers to ‘Elf’: Elrohir = ‘Elf-knight’, Elladan = ‘Elf-man’, Elessar = ‘Elf-stone’. Denethor is apparently unaware of this derivation.

² Wilwarin is the group of stars called ‘the butterfly’ in Sindarin. (Denethor’s scholarship does extend to childish insults.)

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