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The Men Who Would Be Steward - Page 2

© Michael Martinez

The reason for the importance of stewards lies in the architecture used by northern Europe's early peoples. They lived in long houses (going back thousands of years) which eventually evolved into the halls of Norse and Germanic song and legend. Heorot, the golden hall of Hrothgar, King of Denmark (in the poem "Beowulf") is a typical if idealized northern hall. The hall-warden would have been the most important servant of the lord, looking after the animals and managing the lord's affairs in his absence. The hall-warden and sty warden were virtually the same person, since animals were commonly kept in the ancient long houses. As the power of the northern chieftains grew and they became kings of early Anglo-Saxon peoples in England, their Sty Wardens assumed more important duties. Eventually, Stewards were as important to the Anglo-Saxon kings as Major Domos were to the Frankish kings. But the Anglo-Saxon kings managed to retain their power. Walter Fitz-Alan, a Norman knight, founded the Stewart Clan which eventually assumed the throne of Scotland. He served King David I in Scotland's wars with the Vikings. Walter's great-grandson Alexander became Lord High Steward (Stewart) of Scotland. Sir John Stewart, a descendant, married Marjory, daughter and only child of Robert Bruce. Their son Robert became Robert II, King of Scotland, and the Stewart Kings of Scotland and England were descended from him. Thus, one of the first apparent ironies stems from the fact that Tolkien's choice of title for the "temporary" rulers of Gondor, the Stewards, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon surname of an Norman-Scottish family. The Normans were responsible for destroying the ancient English nobility, along with suppressing their English literature and language with which Tolkien had fallen in love. Despite history's examples, Tolkien clearly wanted his Stewards to keep their place. They were not destined to assume the throne of Gondor, although at least one member of the family had royal aspirations. Boromir, elder son of Denethor II, asked his father how long it would take for a Steward to become King. "Few years, maybe, in other places of less royalty," Denethor told him. "In Gondor ten thousand years would not suffice." The comment seems to be a poke in the eye to the Pepinids, who supplanted the rightful heirs of Clovis as Kings of the Franks. Boromir obviously chafed at the confinement tradition (and law) had placed upon him. As he grew up, he could only expect to become the faithful steward to a long-dead line of kings. He undoubtedly felt his family was wasting its time, waiting for the impossible return of a king who could not possibly exist. In contrast, the Pepinids chafed under the rule of weak Merovingian kings (Merovech was the grandfather of Clovis, and the dynasty is named after him). The Merovingians occasionally tried to curb the power of their Major Domos, and eventually the Major Domos simply got rid of them. Tolkien's Stewards thus proved to be more reliable than the Frankish Major Domos.

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