Denethor's plunge

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by alatar

Have we considered that fire may have not even been real?

When Gandalf begged Saruman for information outside Orthanc, Saruman sent down a fireball to the new White Wizard. Gandalf astride Shadowfax was unharmed by the blast, and so:

• Gandalf is able to create a cloak of sorts that protects those so covered from fire, yet permits the fire to burn as it would on the outside, or

• Gandalf saw the fire for what it was, just another mind trick. Saruman's voice did not fool Gandalf, and though the others saw the flames, Gandalf did not and so was unharmed. There is precedent in at least two Star Trek episodes (original and NextGen), as well as in the 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' movie, and so I feel that I'm on solid ground here.

So were the flames that burned Denethor real? Did Gandalf cloak him, to protect the Steward in his madness, but the Steward ran off before Gandalf could continue to thump him senseless? Or, did Gandalf, a quick study, learn the spell from Saruman and decide that the Steward needed a lesson, thinking that the burned hand teaches best? Again, Gandalf may have started it off with good intentions, yet did not think that Denethor would take so long a dive.

Oh, gosh, I've just thought of something that might relate to fire things. I think we have a precedent of some sort here.

Moses is reported as seeing the Lord speaking to him out of a burning bush. I seem to recall that the bush was not consumed. So, I'm not sure if the bush or the fire was actually doing the speaking, but something along the lines of imperishable was part of the story.

So, in the hands of lesser writers than those of Holy Writ, we could have the Steward speaking to us out of flames and not being consumed. Thus we would be able to conjecture a very long run on the part of Denethor (whoops, almost wrote Denimthor there) unhampered by the flames.

This would suggest that PJ and the other filmic writers have a unique understanding of Flame Imperishable in Tolkien's works. Or else they are suggesting something about Denethor's sense of himself as having proportions almost approaching that of a deity.