Faramir is only five years younger than Boromir, he was a grown man too ;)

As far as I know, there is no mention to Boromir being married or not, but it is commonly assumed he was not. Why? The reason is simple enough: there is no mention in LOTR (nor in the Appendix) to his supposed wife or wedding -- and even if he had a daughter (not to mention a son!), be certain Tolkien would have mentioned it, even if for the sake to write of Faramir's feelings toward his niece or his sister-in-law. On the contrary, Tolkien mentions in one of his Letters (can't recall the #, sorry), of Faramir's world, without women, motherless and sisterless; surely he would have appreciated to have a sister-in-law? And since Boromir and Faramir are *very* alike, I bet he would have liked his brother's life and, after to know of his death, he would have hurried to check how were she doing, even in half of Mordor had been waiting for him at the very gates of Minas Tirith.

Oddly, it happens the same with Theodred, Theoden's heir. Considering Tolkien mentioned even Eomer's parents (even Theoden's parents!), had Boromir and Theodred been married, he would have, doubtless, metioned it too.

Now as for the age of the brothers: they are dúnedain and supposedly they would live more than common men; Faramir died being 99. So, it would not be a nonsense if they married later?. When Denethor married at 46, he is said to have married late, but surely "common" men would marry being 25 or so; 46 is, indeed, late, even for a gondorian. (As a note: when Arathorn was asked at the age of 56 to marry Gilraen, he is said to be merely "of full age". Gilraen's father objected, because he forsaw that Arathorn would be "short-lived" -he was killed four years later, at 60- and also because Gilraen, at twenty, "had not reached the age at which the women of the Dunedain were accustomed to marry." But ok, arnorians lived more than gondorians, it seems...). On the other hand, Denethor, who is 88 at the time of the War of the Ring, is said to have been "aged before his time by his contest with the will of Sauron". So, it seems that both in Gondor and among the Rangers in the north, those families that maintain a purer Numenorean descent still managed to live over 100, possibly even to 200; that is, at least half again if not twice as long as normal men in Middle Earth.

I think that Boromir, being the High Warden of the White Tower and the Captain-General of Gondor, was very busy and war-focused (as Faramir was in Ithilien) to care to take a wife and sire a couple of children; since his father married late too (and Denethor eyed his son as invincible, sort of -- and Boromir thought the same about himself), he would think Boromir had time. I don't find it odd, it happened the same to some other great kings of the past, such as Alexander Magnus, Richard the Lion-heart or Julius Caesar (ok, Alexander and Richard were homosexuals but it little mattered, others were too and sired children). And, again, in the same Middle-Earth we have Theodred as an example of "there is no need to hurry, war is more important, time we'll have".

It is said in the "Laws and Customs of the Eldar" that Noldor did not marry and sire children in wartime (well, sometimes they did :P); surely the edain did the same, for they copied most of the Noldor's laws and adapted them to the edain houses. Perhaps, so many years after, such a thing was marked in the people's memory and, even unwittingly, they did as their ancestors would and, doubtless, the years before the War of the Ring were a dark time.

My two cents.

Nolen

That brings up another question. Does anyone know how old Eldarion was when Aragorn died? I haven't been able to find this out and am curious. (Is it correct that Aragorn was 87 or 88 when he became king?)

Edited by: Gwaihiril at: 7/28/05 10:29 pm