Letters from Faramir

Author's Letter to the Reader

by Alcardilme

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Another author on another board wrote tongue-in-cheek letters from Boromir to Faramir as he progressed along the journey with the Fellowship. The letters began in Rivendell and finished on Amon Hen. They were witty and delightful and I read them voraciously, being a Boromir fan.

However, when the last letter was written from Amon Hen, it was funny – yet incredibly chilling. Boromir stopped the letter by saying he must get away or he would go mad. And then, of course, he does for a brief moment - go mad that is. I was stunned by the impact of 'knowing' that he had just written the letter and then was dead. It was heart-breakingly real. I was reading it at work and cried a little at my keyboard and then had to wipe my tears and get back to work.

But on the way home, the letter came to mind again and I broke down and sobbed all the way home, thinking that I had joined Boromir in some madness.

By the time I reached my home, I realized that I was crying over my husband and his death and how I didn’t get to say good-bye. The letter spoke to my heart and I felt I had to, in Faramir’s stead, reply. And so I was going to write one or two letters.

Well, it turned into many more as I looked into the depths of my heart and finally faced my feelings of loss and aloneness… and a bunch of other feelings besides. My brother also had died when I was in my thirties. He was my big brother, my love, my confidant, and I grieved seriously when he died. I thought of Faramir and how hideous it must have been for him, for it seemed to me, even though Tolkien writes of Faramir being very wise, it seemed to me that the hero that he loved so was taken from him and he would respond in like manner to what I felt.

Perhaps a totally wrong premise – but I believe the Letters came to me to help heal me and became an opportunity to share grief with others. I don’t know.

My daughter thinks I have made Faramir too wimpy. Perhaps I have; but these are letters born from the pain in his heart, letters to be hidden, letters to cry out with when he had no one to cry out to, except his dead brother. And I hope Boromir, wherever he was at, heard them.

Thank you for reading.

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