LotR -- Book 4 - Chapter 05 - The Window on the West

[Bêthberry]

Like Mithalwen, I will make just a short stop here for a first post. I think Estelyn picked up a good point about naming:

I find it rather amusing that Sauron is called “He whom we do not name” or the “Nameless One” by Faramir

A point which Lalwendë has rightly explained in terms of traditional injunctions not to name an evil thing.

Such veiled allusions abound in this chapter and acrue particularly to the Faramir character. It is part, I think, of Tolkien's way of suggesting the spiritual nature of his tale without using dogmatic, direct statement.

For instance, consider the style of the grace which Faramir enacts and then explains at the dinner:

Before they ate, Faramir and all his men turned and faced west in a moment of silence. Faramir signeled to Frodo and Sam that they should do likewise.

"So we always do," he said, as they sat down: "we look towards Númenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is behong Elvenhome and will ever be. "

Compare this with the Catholic prayer called, I believe, the "Glory Be":

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now,
and ever shall be,
world without end.

Was this part of the "consciously so in the revising" of which Tolkien spoke?