Looking inside the Sauron Project - Page 8
© Michael Martinez
Slowly, bit by bit, kingdom by kingdom, Sauron topples his foes. He drives political wedges between them, or induces them to wander far apart. Elves no longer consort with Men, Dwarves no longer dominate the roadways, Men fight with Men. No one trusts anyone at the end of the age. The West is all but crushed because it no longer works together. The Council of Elrond tries to amend the 3,000 years of division among the Free Peoples, but it has no hope of rebuilding the great alliances. Even where there are still numerous people living and opposing Sauron, they are either too far distant from the greatest need or simply too weak to make a difference.
So it is left to the good guys to become sneaky and manipulative, even when they don't agree on how to proceed. Gandalf has to rescue Rohan from the clutches of Saruman's designs. The Rohirrim have been effectively neutralized by the threat of invasion from Isengard. It doesn't matter that if Theoden were to gather all his Riders together he could probably defeat Saruman's army in the field. Theoden has been demoralized and his people cannot agree upon a course of action. So Gandalf must devote vital time and energy to straightening out the mess in Rohan.
Denethor, proud and vigilant, stands aloof much as Sauron does. His mistake lies in viewing himself as a lord opposite to Sauron in the political game. "Denethor was tainted with politics," Tolkien wrote in Letter 183. "Hence his failure, and his mistrust of Faramir. It had become for him a prime motive to preserve the polity of Gondor, as it was, against another potentate, who had made himself stronger and was to be feared and opposed for that reason rather than because he was ruthless and wicked. Denethor despised lesser men, and one may be sure did not distinguish between the orcs and the allies of Mordor. If he had survived as victor, even without use of the Ring, he would have taken a long stride towards becoming himself a tyrant, and the terms and treatment he accorded to the deluded peoples of east and south would have been cruel and vengeful. He had become a 'political' leader: sc. Gondor against the rest."
Denethor was in no way Sauron's equal. Like Sauron Denethor used "others as his weapons," as he told Pippin when Gandalf announced the Lord of the Nazgul was come up against Faramir's army at the Rammas forts. "So do all great lords, if they are wise, Master Halfling. Or why should I sit here in my tower and think, and watch, and wait, spending even my sons?"
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