Burning Bodies like the heathen kings - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Dûrbelethwen · 07-28-2005, 12:59 PM

There was a line like that in the movie that Denethor said that he would burn his and Faramir's bodies like the heathen kings. I could not find an exact line like that in the Return of the King except for a line where Gandalf says something to the fact that the heathen kings chose when their children died like what Denethor was about to do to Faramir. Is the first reference relating to the Romans who burned the bodies of their dead and others. Or if Professor Tolkien was not thinking that way but closer to the passage that I found in the book relating to how some of the Judean kings (after they fell away from Yahweh) sacrificed their children to idols, sometimes burning them alive. As what happened during the reign of King Ahaz.

07-28-2005, 12:59 PM	#1
Dûrbelethwen Haunting Spirit Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 80	Burning Bodies like the heathen kings There was a line like that in the movie that Denethor said that he would burn his and Faramir's bodies like the heathen kings. I could not find an exact line like that in the Return of the King except for a line where Gandalf says something to the fact that the heathen kings chose when their children died like what Denethor was about to do to Faramir. Is the first reference relating to the Romans who burned the bodies of their dead and others. Or if Professor Tolkien was not thinking that way but closer to the passage that I found in the book relating to how some of the Judean kings (after they fell away from Yahweh) sacrificed their children to idols, sometimes burning them alive. As what happened during the reign of King Ahaz.