#an impression of indistinct and strange power that maybe cannot be fully understood

[anghraine]

I already replied with more serious thoughts but I was taking my last break from the dissertation to think about this again. It's interesting to consider that the Rohirrim's approval of Boromir is framed by them less as "Boromir was unlike a few very peculiar Gondorian Dúnedain" but as "Boromir was unlike his weird people in general, and instead cool and normal, like us."

Personally, I also feel that something is lost in the flattening of Númenóreans' weirdness specifically in the context of Rohan's norms around beauty, masculinity, maturity, prestige, even general demeanor. And that thing is Éowyn's specific tastes in men:

And she [Éowyn] now was suddenly aware of him [Aragorn]: tall heir of kings, wise with many winters, greycloaked, hiding a power that yet she felt.

And she looked at him [Faramir] and saw the grave tenderness in his eyes, and yet knew, for she was bred among men of war, that here was one whom no Rider of the Mark would outmatch in battle ... She guessed that this tall man [Faramir], both stern and gentle, might think her merely wayward, like a child

Tolkien may have intended for Elves and Númenóreans to just be objectively super hot in an absolute sense that Éowyn is responding to. But given how extremely peculiar the Dúnedain's physical markers of prestige and maturity and beauty etc are vs Rohan's, I feel like Éowyn could also be seen as a bit of a monsterfucker by Rohirrim standards. A sadly neglected angle of her characterization, alas :(

The weirdness of the Dúnedain is definitely downplayed in the fandom, but I really don’t think people get how strange Gondorian Dúnedain must seem to the Rohirrim.

There’s a spooky mountain on their border full of ghosts that are trapped there because a Gondorian king cursed them. In the war of the ring the Gondorians talk of their head of state being prematurely aged because his hair began to grey in his 60s. They put this down to him mind wrestling an evil demigod, and they’re right! Some of them can actually read minds, others can command horses with only thought. They’re very tall and have bright eyes that are sometimes described as glowing.

This is very weird! Their main ally is ruled by giants who age weirdly and look like elves with strange powers from a drowned continent.