Tony Meade
Active Member
SESSION 138
Comment on Boromir’s prudence:
Comment on Boromir’s prudence:
- While Boromir shows both pride and provincialism, he is also reasonably skeptical given his situation. He doesn’t know any of these people personally, and no reason to believe them.
- The reveals that he witnesses are more and more wondrous, so he may suspect an agenda.
- While Elrond is deemed one of the Wise, so is Saruman. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to equate wisdom with craftiness, as it often is, such as with Saruman, as we will see.
- Boromir has personal reasons for rejecting a claimant to the throne, but he also might have a romanticized idea of what a returned king would look like, and Aragorn is not that.
- Even the Stewards’ oaths charge them with protecting the throne, and that would include pretenders and plots, and Boromir might suspect both within the Council.
- Note: Faramir will say to Frodo that if Boromir were satisfied of Aragorn’s claim, he would greatly reverence him, which is revealing in that is shows us what he thinks of the claim now.
- While Boromir has pride for his family, his line, and his country, but he would also feel awe if he felt that this claim was true, as if it were a eucatastrophe that this could happen now.
- One thing motivating Boromir’s skepticism could be that this might be too good to be true.
- Note: Because Denethor feels his position is in threat and says his scathing words about Aragorn, and Boromir is described as following his father’s views, it is easy to attribute these same feelings to Boromir as a mirror of Denethor. It may be an element, but not everything.
- Note: The awe that Boromir might feel at the appearance of the heir of Elendil is similar to what Éomer expresses about “legends springing out of the grass” later in Rohan.
- In both of the occasions when Bilbo’s poem is recited it is when Aragorn’s identity and trustworthiness is in doubt by the hearer of the poem.
- The one difference in the two versions is that there is a comma after “broken” and before the last line, “The crownless again shall be king”, and in the new version, it is a colon.
- This emphasizes this last line, as in this occasion, it is the bombshell, where before it was just poetry. In Bree, it wasn’t clear what the line meant, and Gandalf had to explain it to Frodo.
- Frodo neither takes that last line literally nor seriously, so it wasn’t consequential at the time.
- Strider had taken out the broken sword to show that the penultimate line wasn’t just a metaphor, but the hobbits had not made the connection to the last line, too.
- Bilbo is saying directly what Elrond and Aragorn have been so indirect about, but that has been because of both their caution and the priority of defeating Sauron over any claim to kingship.
- In Bree, the pivotal line was the first line, when the issue was doubting him because of his looks.
- Also, the poem was not directly connected to Aragorn, but acted more as a set of proverbs about not judging people by their appearances, and hope that things will get better over time.
- It’s only after we learn so much more about Aragorn after Bree that when we come to the poem again, the metaphorical and literal meanings of the poem emerge over the mere proverbial.
- However, in Bree, the effect was more direct and practical, reassuring the hobbits that Gandalf was helping them through his friend Strider, who’s quoting the poem acted like confirmation.
- In Rivendell, it is more abstract and theoretical, and only expresses Bilbo’s faith in his friend, and in the concept of a greater hope for the world, including the return of the king.
- Note: In Sindarin, there are two words that translate as “hope”: amdir and estel. While amdir refers to the practical hope that things will turn out well, estel refers to a more spiritual hope. This distinction will be best expressed in Sam’s losing hope in his success but gaining hope in going on regardless. Amdir is not enough to get them through Mordor, but estel is enough.
- When Bilbo makes his self-effacing comment about the poem, he reveals that it is he that wrote it, which is ironic in that the poem played such an important role in reassuring Frodo.
- Aragorn has clearly embraced this poem as a statement of his identity, and while it seems at the time that it is a prophecy from long ago, it turns out to be a relatively recent poem by his friend.
- What did this poem mean to Bilbo when he wrote it? He seems to have been very inspired by Aragorn’s story and imagining the lost kingship and the fulfillment of that promise.
- He makes Aragorn not only the subject of the poem, but it’s primary audience, and it is designed to inspire Aragorn with both statements of present fact and future promises.
- Aragorn has spent decades in hard labors without clear results, waiting for a sign to appear, and when it does, it is a sign of doom, and that things will get worse before they get better.
- He also has no idea if they will win or even survive, but he has to hold onto hope. The fact that Bilbo wrote this poem and Aragorn has taken it on as a source of hope reveals their relationship.
- The fact that Bilbo refers to him as Dúnedan means that he continues to draw attention to this, using it as almost a title, and it seems that Bilbo isn’t alone in Rivendell in thinking this way.