#rían daughter of barahir

Now that I’m thinking about the Ruling Stewardship being inherited through female lines a couple of times, by contrast to Gondor’s (and apparently Arnor’s/Arthedain’s) firm position that only male-line male heirs could inherit the crown, I’m wondering a lot about Denethor I.

This Denethor was the son of Steward Dior’s sister Rían, and the first person to inherit the rule of Gondor through a woman. We don’t really have any details of how he inherited the Stewardship—was there any controversy? was it Dior’s decision? the Council’s? was it a perfectly smooth transition? what was Rían’s place in all this?

If there wereany shenanigans to enable the continuance of the Ruling Stewardship, it’s interesting that the consequences of Rían’s descendants succeeding to the Stewardship were so directly spectacular. Denethor I’s son was the asskicking Steward Boromir whom even the Witch-king feared, and Boromir’s son was Cirion himself, “a man of little pride and of great courage and generosity of heart, the noblest of the Stewards of Gondor.”