[Belegorn]

I know this was a post from a while ago and I don't think there are any rules against bringing up an old topic.

Anyways I want to give my opinion on this. In Gondor the life span is basically all but regressed back to normal levels even in the people oh higher Numenorean descent. Faramir makes a statement that, "if the Rohirrim are grown in some ways more like to us, enhanced in arts and gentleness, we too have become more like to them, and can scarce claim any longer the title High. We are become Middle Men, of the Twilight, but with memory of other things." [TTT, p. 339] Here Faramir makes clear that even the nobility are but Middle Men.

Now there is one thing that we should look at as regards to purer houses in Gondor. Even though their lifespans are basically that of other men they do not necessarily age as other men do as they can remain vital longer. Gandalf says, "the span of their lives had waned to little more than that of other men, and those among them who passed the tale of five score years with vigour were grown few, save in some houses of purer blood." [RotK, p. 149] So here we have the notion that although the span of the lives of these purer families may have decreased to about the same as other men, the number of those years spent in vitality is certainly longer. In other words they would be like the Kings of the Numenoreans who died still vital without holding onto life. Those who did would grew sterile.

Faramir may have been in some way related to the house of the Kings, but even if that were so, we do know that the 7th Steward was the last man in Gondor to live 150 years. So even if there were still relatives of the King in Gondor even their life spans were much diminished. However, the line of Kings would always have the longer lifespan compared to other people of Numenor. In the beginning when they lived to 400 years or more, other Numenoreans lived to around 200 years. I think that the diminishment of lifespans had much to do with the way of life of the Dunedain. Those closer to an Elvish sort of life were longer lived than those who rebelled. Like in the end of Numenor you had the Faithful and the King's Men. The Kings life spans were diminishing rapidly. The last king felt death at his doors when he was around 220 years of age. Elendil who was related to the house of the Kings was over 300 years old when he was slain by Sauron. The father of the last king of Numenor died before he was 200! I would say the gift most effected by Rebellion and the life was lifespan. Other gifts it seems did not take that big of a hit. As we see Denethor was like a wizard to the Hobbits, Faramir too. They had great powers normal men did not possess and one would think like much of the noble houses still in existance they would remain vital deep into their life. Of course, Denethor was said to age prematurely, and this may have been due to his struggles with Sauron in the Palantir.

Also I believe if you take a look at it the Stewards tended to be longer lived than the Princes of Dol Amroth. I think Faramir and his father, like Aragorn, were probably among the greatest men of their day, but I would say we could apply some of their attributes to the purer people in Gondor. For example, of Faramir, Eowen "knew, for she was bred among men of war, that here was one whom no Rider of the Mark would outmatch in battle." [RotK, p. 265] Or Pippin thinking, "how closely he resembled his brother Boromir... Here was one with an air of high nobility such as Aragorn at times revealed, less high perhaps, yet also less incalculable and remote: one of the Kings of Men born into a later time, but touched with wisdom and sadness of the Elder Race." [RotK, p. 91] Obviously Faramir and Denethor were more the exception even among the purer Gondorians as they were more like to the High Men than the Middle Men which Faramir claimed the people of Gondor were basically become. Gandalf also says how this blood of Westernesse runs truer in father and son which does not necessarily account for any extreme lifespan, "He is not as other men of this time [they are High Men], Pippin, and whatever be his descent from father to son, by some chance the blood of Westernesse runs nearly true in him; as it does in his other son, Faramir, and yet did not in Boromir whom he loved best. He has long sight. He can perceive, if he bends his will thither, much of what is passing in the minds of men, even of those that dwell far off. It is difficult to deceieve him and dangerous to try." [RotK, p. 33] This is just an account of some of the power of Denethor and his son Faramir. Also add to this the vitality they will take with them into old age and their physical abilties as Eowyn saw in Faramir. Faramir and Denethor are the cream of the crop in Gondor until Aragorn arrives.