return

1384 the return of the king
discovered who this stranger Thorongil in truth was, and suspected
that he and Mithrandir designed to supplant him.
‘When Denethor became Steward (2984) he proved a masterful
lord, holding the rule of all things in his own hand. He said little.
He listened to counsel, and then followed his own mind. He had
married late (2976), taking as wife Finduilas, daughter of Adrahil
of Dol Amroth. She was a lady of great beauty and gentle heart,
but before twelve years had passed she died. Denethor loved
her, in his fashion, more dearly than any other, unless it were
the elder of the sons that she bore him. But it seemed to men
that she withered in the guarded city, as a flower of the seaward
vales set upon a barren rock. The shadow in the east filled her
with horror, and she turned her eyes ever south to the sea that
she missed.
‘After her death Denethor became more grim and silent than
before, and would sit long alone in his tower deep in thought,
foreseeing that the assault of Mordor would come in his time. It
was afterwards believed that needing knowledge, but being
proud, and trusting in his own strength of will, he dared to look
in the palantír of the White Tower. None of the Stewards had
dared to do this, nor even the kings Eärnil and Eärnur, after
the fall of Minas Ithil when the palantír of Isildur came into the
hands of the Enemy; for the Stone of Minas Tirith was the
palantír of Anárion, most close in accord with the one that
Sauron possessed.
‘In this way Denethor gained his great knowledge of things
that passed in his realm, and far beyond his borders, at which
men marvelled; but he bought the knowledge dearly, being aged
before his time by his contest with the will of Sauron. Thus
pride increased in Denethor together with despair, until he saw
in all the deeds of that time only a single combat between the
Lord of the White Tower and the Lord of the Barad-dûr, and
mistrusted all others who resisted Sauron, unless they served
himself alone.
‘So time drew on to the War of the Ring, and the sons of
Denethor grew to manhood. Boromir, five years the elder,
beloved by his father, was like him in face and pride, but in little
else. Rather he was a man after the sort of King Eärnur of old,