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Excellent topic, Kransha! You put well-researched facts together to show the whole picture. Denethor is another example for the depth of Tolkien's characterization - no black or white here! I'd like to add one thing that I noticed (Encaitare touched on it briefly) - history, including family history, repeats itself when we do not learn from it. Denethor suffered from his father's favoritism towards Thorongil, whom he perceived as his rival, and what does he do as a father? The same thing! It didn't take modern psychology and knowledge about dysfunctional families to be aware of that - it shows up in early Bible accounts as well. (See Jacob, who didn't learn from his father's mistake in favoring Esau and did the same with Joseph... )
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth.. .'
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