Beregond and Bergil

Beregond and Bergil are father-and-son fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. They appear in The Return of the King, where Beregond has a key role in saving Faramir from death. Bergil plays a smaller part in saving a number of characters.

Neither Beregond nor any of his family appear in the film version: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Beregond

Beregond
Race Man
Information
Book(s) The Return of the King

Beregond is the first Captain of the White Company; the guard of Faramir, Prince of Ithilien; and previously, a member of the Third Company of the Guard of the Citadel in Minas Tirith. He is appointed to this rank after he saves Faramir's life during the Siege of Minas Tirith. In the novel, he and his son Bergil were also noted for being the guides of Pippin Took in Minas Tirith. The two form a deep friendship and talk about their various troubles. In later battle, Beregond and Pippin are stunned and crushed by the bodies of oncoming enemies. Both are saved when Gimli notices the familiar shape of Pippin's foot and digs for him.

During the Siege of Gondor, Beregond received news from Pippin that Denethor intended to kill both himself and the seemingly-dead Faramir. Leaving his post, he fought the door guards of the place where Denethor had taken Faramir in order to reach him, until the arrival of Gandalf and Pippin, whereupon Faramir was saved. After protecting Faramir, he carried him to the Houses of Healing and stood guard over him until he awoke.

Beregond traveled with Aragorn's army to the Black Gate to challenge the forces of Sauron. They served under Prince Imrahil, and during the Battle of the Morannon, Beregond was nearly killed by a Troll.

After the War of the Ring, Beregond was brought before the newly crowned Aragorn II Elessar to answer for the abandonment of his post, as well as the murders of those who stood in his way as he raced to rescue Faramir. Recognizing that what he did was out of love for his lord, he did not impose the death penalty upon him; the newly crowned king's largesse allowed for Beregond to simply be banished from Minas Tirith and live in Ithilien to serve Faramir, for whom he had broken the laws to rescue. He was then promoted to the rank of Captain of the White Company.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Family

Beregond was the son of Baranor, who lived in Lossarnach, a province of Gondor near Minas Tirith. Their ancestors came from Ithilien, where Beregond lived after the War of the Ring. He had two sons: Bergil, who (like Beregond himself) features in The Return of the King, and Borlas, a significant character in The New Shadow.

Bergil

Bergil
Race Man
Information
Book(s) The Return of the King

Bergil is the older son of Beregond of Gondor.

He was born in T.A. 3009. A boy of ten at the time of the War of the Ring, he is one of the few children allowed to remain in Minas Tirith during that period. He guides Pippin Took throughout the city when he first arrives, and they watch the arrival of soldiers from other parts of Gondor from the gate of the city together, becoming very good friends in the process.[7] During the siege of Minas Tirith, Bergil helped the healers of the city as an errand runner and so eventually contributed to the healing of Faramir, the Steward's son and later Prince of Ithilien.

Bergil who was running errands for the healers of Minas Tirith, told Gandalf where Pippin and the injured Meriadoc Brandybuck were; Merry, suffering from the Black Breath had gotten lost. He was also the one who brought the athelas leaves to Aragorn; at that time, he showed his love for Faramir by bursting into tears. Bergil also kept Merry company while the Captains of the West led their men off to the Black Gate, and then he escorted him back to the Houses of Healing.[3]

Of Bergil's destiny the novel or its appendices tell nothing. It is probable that he went with his father into Ithilien after the War of the Ring was over. His younger brother Borlas was central to "The New Shadow", the soon-abandoned draft for a sequel to The Lord of the Rings published in The Peoples of Middle-earth.[8]

Bergil had an uncle named Iorlas, the same age as Pippin. It is not certain whether Iorlas was the brother of Beregond or of Bergil's mother, although Iorlas does not follow the alliterative pattern evident in males known to be related to Beregond (Bergil, Borlas).

Character assessment

Bergil is one of the few children in The Lord of the Rings who is affected by the course of war.[9] By refusing to leave the endangered city, he, like many other characters in the novel, turns into an "unlikely hero" and "courageously serves his 'master' and his country in ways unanticipated by his father, Beregond".[10] His friendship and loyalty to Peregrin Took contributes greatly to establishing the latter's affinity to Gondor.[11]

References

  1. ↑ The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 1: "Minas Tirith"
  2. ↑ The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 4:"The Siege of Gondor"
  3. 1 2 The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 8:The House of Healing
  4. ↑ The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Book Five, Chapter 9:The Black Gate Opens
  5. ↑ The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter 6; The Steward and the King
  6. ↑ The Complete Guide to Middle-earth
  7. ↑ Drout, Michael D.C. (2006). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-96942-0.
  8. ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 12: The Peoples of Middle-earth, XVI: "The New Shadow"
  9. ↑ Croft, Janet B. (2004). War and the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Praeger. ISBN 978-0-313-32592-2.
  10. ↑ Chance, Jane (2001). Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power. The University Press of Kentucky. pp. 103–104. ISBN 978-0-8131-9017-4.
  11. ↑ Wiggins, Kayla McKinney (2007). "The Person of a Prince, Echoes of Hamlet in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings". In Croft, Janet B.; Palumbo, Donald E.; Sullivan, C.W. Tolkien And Shakespeare: Essays on Shared Themes And Language. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-2827-4.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1955), The Return of the King, The Lord of the Rings, Boston: Houghton Mifflin (published 1987), ISBN 0-395-08256-0
  • "Beregond". Tolkien Gateway.
  • "Bergil". Tolkien Gateway.
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