1. What is the difference between bravery and duty? Bravery is knowing what dangers lie ahead and yet proceeding. But duty... duty has been the chain that binds me for many years. Duty is knowing what you wish to do and yet doing what you must.
2. What is your greatest regret? We should have gone south. The Gap of Rohan was the long road, but the safer. We went through the mountain, into the dark, and Gandalf was lost. I shall regret that all of my days.
3. What do you think of yourself? How do you value your own life?I think myself worth no more than any man or elf or hobbit or dwarf. Why should my life be worth more than that of a farmer who works the land, or a smith who sweats over a furnace to craft a sword or plough? Some might believe that I have a great destiny and that my life holds more value than any other man's, but I would forsake my inheritance, my destiny and my life to save a farmer or a smith. You asked about duty: duty is defending those that cannot defend themselves, whatever the cost.
4. What is more important: friendship or power? A wise friend of mine would answer that by saying that power shrouds men in darkness while friendship lifts them up the the light. He is - was - more sage than I, but I will say that I would rather one true friend than all the power in Middle-earth. Better to sit around a camp fire laughing and singing with friends than alone in a mighty citadel.
5. Do you ever aspire to be more than what your original purpose? Do you regret being the way you are? When I was just a boy I had no purpose: I was free from obligation, free from the past, free from duty. But then I was told who I was: that I was Isildur's heir. I remember being so angry when Elrond told me the truth; I begged him to take it all back, to make things the way they had always been. But the bright and carefree days of childhood were behind me. I was a man. And yet I was not a man: I was a tool; a weapon forged in ancient fires, by many hands, to bring about a future that others saw. I regret that I was born the heir of Numenor, and could not choose my own path, my own life. And yet if I were not who and what I am, who would I be? I aspire to a lesser purpose, but am bound by destiny and by duty to be what I am. Some day, I hope, the weapon will be unmade and I will stand in its place, free to choose my own path at last.
Q&A Responses
Bravery is knowing what dangers lie ahead and yet proceeding. But duty... duty has been the chain that binds me for many years. Duty is knowing what you wish to do and yet doing what you must.
2. What is your greatest regret? We should have gone south. The Gap of Rohan was the long road, but the safer. We went through the mountain, into the dark, and Gandalf was lost. I shall regret that all of my days.
3. What do you think of yourself? How do you value your own life?I think myself worth no more than any man or elf or hobbit or dwarf. Why should my life be worth more than that of a farmer who works the land, or a smith who sweats over a furnace to craft a sword or plough? Some might believe that I have a great destiny and that my life holds more value than any other man's, but I would forsake my inheritance, my destiny and my life to save a farmer or a smith. You asked about duty: duty is defending those that cannot defend themselves, whatever the cost.
4. What is more important: friendship or power? A wise friend of mine would answer that by saying that power shrouds men in darkness while friendship lifts them up the the light. He is - was - more sage than I, but I will say that I would rather one true friend than all the power in Middle-earth. Better to sit around a camp fire laughing and singing with friends than alone in a mighty citadel.
5. Do you ever aspire to be more than what your original purpose? Do you regret being the way you are? When I was just a boy I had no purpose: I was free from obligation, free from the past, free from duty. But then I was told who I was: that I was Isildur's heir. I remember being so angry when Elrond told me the truth; I begged him to take it all back, to make things the way they had always been. But the bright and carefree days of childhood were behind me. I was a man. And yet I was not a man: I was a tool; a weapon forged in ancient fires, by many hands, to bring about a future that others saw. I regret that I was born the heir of Numenor, and could not choose my own path, my own life. And yet if I were not who and what I am, who would I be? I aspire to a lesser purpose, but am bound by destiny and by duty to be what I am. Some day, I hope, the weapon will be unmade and I will stand in its place, free to choose my own path at last.