Folcwine's Twin Heir
 

I was thinking...were Folcred and Fastred, sons of Folcwine, sent to Gondor, so that if one of them dies, one could claim the throne undisputedly? Because if they were both alive, that would spell trouble for the kingdom-it may lead to the splitting of the kingdom-at worst it would lead to a devastating civil war. What'ya think?

->The Son of Finrod

You suggest that they were sent to Gondor in the hope that they'd be killed? I very much doubt it. The Rohirrim were not the sort of people prone to such disputes. They were, in such matters, fairly sensible. I should think that one of the sons would -- sensibly -- leave the throne to the other if it was thought that civil war was likely to ensue.

This would only happen if the brothers decided to actually fight it out, making the Rohirrim take sides with them, which somehow is not something I can envisage the Rohirrim really doing. Interesting thought, but I think it very unlikely.

The brothers seemed to be on better terms with each other than that, and with the king. I seem to remember from somewhere that it was the brothers themselves that persuaded their father to let them take his place.

An evil governor? Rohan didn't have them until Grima. The king probably did have a Witan-like council, but matters such as this were decided in the end by him -- and thus for reasons that he himself could see. I somehow doubt he himself came up with a scheme to get his own sons killed; he sent his sons away himself, on their wishes, and not for such dark espionagish reasons as this. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[ September 25, 2003: Message edited by: Gwaihir the Windlord ]

Not overtly! of course! I'm not saying the king sent them with this in mind, or that the twins were on bad terms with each other, but you know...because if both of them had not died, a schism would result--unless one of them was willing to drop his claim to the throne. Or they would have a power-sharing arrangement, but the last time I knew that happened(outside Ea, of course) was in Antigone, when Eteocles and Polyneices had some power-sharing thing, but the Thebans loved Eteocles more, and...just general chaos ensued.

If they did survive, I don't think there would be any succession disputes. One of the brothers would have been older than the other, even though it only would have been by a short time. The elder brother would have become king and the other one probably wouldn't have had any problem with it.

I don't think that a dispute would have ensued, if both twins had remained alive. The Rohirrim all led quite dangerous lives, and they were prepared for death at all times. So most likely, one of the twins would have died before the other, and the surviving twin would have taken the throne. If both had remained alive, then I think that one of them would have given up his right to his brother.