It has been my presumption that he was the heir presumptive to the Stewardship after Faramir,who I assume was a cousin
(of course Faramir had descendants so Hurin never succeeded).

Denethor however was despairing of his line having failed (which would imply no cousins at all if he meant
that broadly).

Anyone else have thoughts?

-=-=-
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at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

Louis Epstein <le@main.lekno.ws> wrote:

> It has been my presumption that he was the heir presumptive to the
> Stewardship after Faramir, who I assume was a cousin (of course Faramir had
> descendants so Hurin never succeeded).
>
> Denethor however was despairing of his line having failed (which would
> imply no cousins at all if he meant that broadly).

I very much read his despair as about Gondor.

After a long life experiencing slow decline, and after what Sauron let
him see in the palantir when he unwisely turned to it, this was not a
wholly unreasonable outlook.

Cheerio,
Hauke

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On Mon, 14 Aug 2023 04:09:29 -0000 (UTC), Louis Epstein
<le@main.lekno.ws> wrote:

>It has been my presumption that he was the heir presumptive to the Stewardship after Faramir,who I assume was a cousin
>(of course Faramir had descendants so Hurin never succeeded).
>
>Denethor however was despairing of his line having failed (which would imply no cousins at all if he meant
>that broadly).
>
>Anyone else have thoughts?

Perhaps I am mis-understanding you a bit here, but
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faramir> reminds us that:

Faramir is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the
Rings. He is introduced as the younger brother of Boromir of the
Fellowship of the Ring and second son of Denethor, the Steward of
Gondor.

As another has pointed out (I am sure you know all this very well,
BTW) Denethor was discouraged by his use of the Palantir. He also very
much wanted Boromir to succeed him, and the failure of his line
expressed his feelings about the fact that Faramir would succeed him
instead.

As to Hurin of the Keys, I don't see a Wikipedia article, although
there are several fan-based sources. Which may or may not be about the
books. One of them suggest that he was high-born, but, given the
nature of the society that should pretty much go without saying. And
the "high-born" probably were all cousins (of some sort) by this time.

Well, unless he slew a dragon or did something equally impressive and
was elevated even though base-born as a result, of course.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"