#i ended up re-reading most of them and i'd forgotten how clear his grief for boromir is

[anghraine]

I was talking the other day about how strongly Faramir is associated with Númenor in the book, and thought I’d actually look up his scenes/references to him to see how persistent the association really is. So here are the occasions I found where he either refers to Númenor stuff or is associated with it:

“We of my house are not of the line of Elendil, though the blood of Númenor is in us.”

—Faramir, “Window on the West”

-

“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor”

—Faramir, “Window on the West”

-

Before they ate, Faramir and all his men turned and faced west in a moment of silence. Faramir signed 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 beyond Elvenhome and will ever be.”

—“Window on the West”

-

“We are a failing people, a springless autumn. The Men of Númenor were settled far and wide on the shores and seaward regions of the Great Lands, but for the most part they fell into evils and follies ... It is not said that evil arts were ever practised in Gondor, or that the Nameless One was ever named in honour there; and the old wisdom and beauty brought out of the West remained long in the realm of the sons of Elendil the Fair, and they linger there still.”

—Faramir, “Window on the West”

-

“Death was ever present [in Gondor], because the Númenoreans still, as they had in their old kingdom, and so lost it, hungered after endless life unchanging.”

—Faramir, “Window on the West”

-

“For so we reckon Men in our lore, calling them the High, or Men of the West, which were Númenoreans ... we too have become more like to them [the Rohirrim], and can scarce claim any longer the title High. We are become Middle Men, of the Twilight, but with memory of other things.”

—Faramir, “Window on the West”

-

“But there you touch upon another point in which we have changed, declining from Númenor to Middle-earth ... For as you may know, if Mithrandir was your companion and you have spoken with Elrond, the Edain, the Fathers of the Númenoreans, fought beside the Elves in the first wars, and were rewarded by the gift of the kingdom in the midst of the Sea, within sight of Elvenhome.”

—Faramir, “Window on the West”

-

“Ah well, sir,” said Sam, “you said my master had an elvish air; and that was good and true. But I can say this: you have an air too, sir, that reminds me of, of—well, Gandalf, of wizards.”

“Maybe,” said Faramir. “Maybe you discern from far away the air of Númenor.”

—“Window on the West”

-

“It is said [of the conquerors of Minas Ithil] that their lords were men of Númenor who had fallen into dark wickedness”

—Faramir, “The Forbidden Pool”

-

“Until that time, or some other time beyond the vision of the Seeing-stones of Númenor, farewell!”

—Faramir, “The Forbidden Pool”

-

“He [Denethor] is not as other men of this time, Pippin, and whatever be his descent from father to son, by some chance the blood of Westernesse runs nearly true in him; as it does in his other son, Faramir”

—Gandalf, “Minas Tirith”

(Sidenote: in Letter 230, Tolkien paraphrases this as a reference to “the curious fact that even in the much less well preserved house of the stewards Denethor had come out as almost purely Númenórean”; i.e., the meaning of the original ROTK passage is not that Denethor and Faramir are almost Númenórean, but that by a quirk of genetics, they’re almost entirely Númenórean)

-

Here was one with an air of high nobility such as Aragorn at times revealed, less high perhaps, but yet also less incalculable and remote: one of the Kings of Men born into a later time

—“The Siege of Gondor”

-

“It reminds me of Númenor,” said Faramir, and wondered to hear himself speak.

“Of Númenor?” said Éowyn.

“Yes,” said Faramir, “of the land of Westernesse that foundered, and of the great dark wave climbing over the green lands and above the hills, and coming on, dakrness unescapable. I often dream of it.”

—“The Steward and the King”