[Eorl of Rohan]

Kath, please disregard my last PM. I think I'd have to re-evaluate my status on Ferethor's age, as I replied to you without reading the discussion going on here. I'll post my thoughts on the thread itself.

I set Ferethor's age as thirty-one after much deliberation, I'm afraid. Thirty-one is the line drawn between youth and adulthood, not only in mere numbers, but a certain point in life where one passes from the first fire of youth into the more mature understanding of the world and the responsibilities one has for various social positions one plays - in his case, as a soldier, as a father, as a thrall at the oars, as a man with all his weakness and pride. That is why he is thirty-one.

Not that it matters anything to anyone but me, I guess.

A Brief History: And yes, Ferethor did marry in pure impulsiveness when he was nineteen. The young wife died soon after, sad and wasted, uncared for, because her husband knew no love but that to the king and no dedication but that to the country. She had given him a son, though. This is Kath's character. He almost shamefully neglected the child, having justified his lack of attention as the noble sacrifice to the call of duty. He wasn't a bad father. When he had time, which was not often, he used to tell the little boy stories of far lands he had traveled in and the adventure of being a Gondorian Soldier. But he was almost never home. When the boy was three, Ferethor left for a quick patrol of the Gondor boundaries and never returned...

Er, this is completely improvised, although very likely considering Ferethor's character, so if anything is not to your taste, please tell me.

As for the question, we can make Kath's character three-years-old when Ferethor disappeared, if he would consent, (That way he can remember dim images of his father - like, for instance, the rough and scratchy feel of bristles on his father's chin as Ferethor laughingly rubbed it against the boy's cheek in a rare show of affection. Babes remember the strangest of things.). I'd like him a starry-eyed young idealist, about seventeen, and as Ferethor married at nineteen, my character has to be thirty-seven, I see. I'd be willing to change his age into 37. Thanks for reading my train of long monologues.