If Denethor hadn't committed suicide

[Kitanna]

Originally Posted by alatar

What if, after Aragorn claims the Kingship and Faramir the Stewardship, Denethor has an epiphany, eats some humble pie, and decides that he's glad to be quit of these times, and lets go of his desires and goes off to wander the world (or visit the places his dead son last walked), now that he's more free of care.

Or, instead of committing suicide, he could go mad before the coronation and run off into the night, and people could leave food out for him, and Denethor could vanish into myth.

Maybe the humble pie drove him to insanity. Someone always poisons the pie, I swear.

Seriously though I have to agree with alatar here that perhaps going off to travel Boromir's last road would be a possibility. Though I think it's more likely he'd just have to hand the Stewardship over to Faramir and resign himself to private life, probably disappearing entirely from the public's eye, brooding in his own anger/frustration.

Though think of all the politics and extra detail that could be needed in ROTK if Denethor had lived. Tying up the loose ends in a novel can be tedious enough, just imagine how the end would go if Tolkien left Denethor alive for Aragorn to fight (verbally not physically) after all that he'd already been though.