Isabeau's Journal

By:Isabeau
 November, 12 2005

OK, folks-this is the general forum now for questions that don't seem to fit in any of the other threads. I'm going to sort some of the earlier posts into the appropriate forums, but it might take a while, so bear with me. I'll delete the ones that have already been reposted by their authors.

Comment:
I'm recently re-read Blackbow, and Denise's questions about the story reminded me of a question I wanted to ask for a long time:

Is there ever an explanation why there's no proper healer in Henneth Annûn, at least as far back as 3015?

It seems to me as there should be one - it is the easternmost outpost of Gondor, on the forefront of Mordor; it stations a big company of Rangers; it's under the command of the Steward's son, the Captain of the Rangers; the Gondorian forces are undermanned as it is and should thus husband their strengths. And furthermore, as Mablung is second-in-command, it would seem as though he has to make extra time if his skills as stitcher and improvised healer are needed (as you write in ch.1).

Is this/will this ever be more fully explained (e.g. in the continuation to Blackbow *hint, hint* *g*)?

Thoughts I had about it that could explain it a bit:

- It has to do with Denethor's deteriorating stewardship as further evidenced by Faramir's more-or-less underhand dealings with Imrahil re: supplies (in Blackbow), or the neglect of the repairing of the Rammas Echor (in RotK)

- Lore is neglected in favour of training soldiers as we know from the books, so perhaps educations in medicine (or other sciences) is limited resulting in a dearth of able personnel across the whole width of the kingdom, and people have to muddle through as they can

I'm curious if I'm even close to the mark.

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