Thinking before you speak, by Jason Rowley

Introvert (schematic)

The poll about Bombadil’s introversion seems to have resonated with the online Tolkien community. Among many other reactions, Daniel Stride of A Phuulish Fellow (his book is up to #2 in my “to-read” pile) has a response. He dives into which characters in Tolkien are introverted, besides the obvious bad guys, and comes up with some interesting pearls.

I have one disagreement with Daniel (and a lot of redditors): some people seem to think that introverts don’t talk much, and therefore Tom Bombadil can’t be an introvert. Taciturnity and introversion are not correlated! Half of all introverts talk less than average, but the other half — well, I won’t expect anyone to understand if I mention Uncle Page, but most of the USA has heard of Garrison Keillor. The man made a career out of getting up on stage every Saturday night and talking hilariously for two hours about how shy and reclusive he is. Click that link and read his front-page coronavirus essay, and you’ll see what I mean. (N.B.: your Idiosopher might have been accused of insufficient taciturnity once or twice himself.)

But this post isn’t to argue with anyone. The virtue of scholarship (and a goal to which Idiosophy aspires with rare success) comes when it’s useful for understanding something. And there are two names on Daniel’s list that struck me as particularly useful applications.

Beorn

Beorn lives by himself, and doesn’t like visitors. Strong indications of introversion. Except he also built a big hall that can seat dozens of people. He can set a table for 16 at a moment’s notice. How do we resolve this paradox? Maybe he’s not so much a born introvert, but rather has had introversion thrust upon him. I mean, he’s also a grizzly bear. Grizzly bears require about 300 square miles (78,000 ha) of territory, each. That, plus the fact that everyone’s terrified of him, is going to lead to a lot of what we now call social distancing.

It’s interesting to think about how Beorn’s heroism at the Battle of Five Armies might have contributed to a certain kind of fame, enough to attract 100%-humans from Rhovanion to his lifestyle. But years of isolation don’t slough off instantly. Bringing new people in as followers of a war hero is a well-structured relationship. This is important to introverts, which meant that he could make it work and become the founder of a new society of Beornings.

Faramir

People who fancy themselves political realists (don’t worry, G., I’m not mentioning any names) claim it’s a shortcoming of Tolkien’s plotting in LotR that no opposition factions in Gondor are mentioned. Why did Faramir passively accept Aragorn’s claim to the throne? He had an army of loyal soldiers, much bigger than Aragorn could call on. Without his consent, Aragorn is only a Ranger.

If Faramir is really an introvert, it all makes sense. I went back and looked at Olga’s wonderful essay about his “quality”, and sure enough, through that lens lots of his behavior looks clear. (Also his clumsy approach to romance.) Faramir’s emotional reaction to Boromir’s death is mostly fraternity, but it’s easy to see a streak of dismay in it that he is suddenly expected to spend the rest of his life as a politician. Once he recovered from the Black Breath and learned that the battle had ended with so many signs and portents of a returning King, he would have felt like it was his own personal eucatastrophe.

So thanks, Daniel – that’s really interesting!