Homework: About the Valar Not Accepting the Ring, According to Elrond

[Rachel Port]

First, if you haven't read the fascinating discussion in Flammifer's Homework post, go read it.

My thoughts are much more mundane - literally, as well as in its ordinary meaning. (From "monde" meaning world.) I immediately thought about good parenting.

Good parents give their children the tools they need to be able to solve problems. What if the members of the Council were brought together not to stay in Imladris to defend it and the Ring, but so representatives of all the children are present to bring their particular strengths to the task of solving the problem of the Ring. They are gathered because among them is the knowledge and skill to come to the right decision and to carry it out. You have everything you need, you don't need our help except perhaps a little boost from afar now and then. You have our representatives among you, and you don't really need anything else other than what you may learn along the way, and help may come from unexpected sources. This is your great test, and you can pass it. The elder days are gone, and the middle days are nearing their end as well.

How would Elrond know this? He can see the flow of time and history in both directions. Has he had direct contact with the Valar? Perhaps. But most likely he can sense the path that fits the flow of history, and knows by instinct that the history of the Ring belongs to Middle Earth - all of its history, including the possible ending.

 

[Tidwald Bridge-Talker]

Good parents give their children the tools they need to be able to solve problems. What if the members of the Council were brought together not to stay in Imladris to defend it and the Ring, but so representatives of all the children are present to bring their particular strengths to the task of solving the problem of the Ring. They are gathered because among them is the knowledge and skill to come to the right decision and to carry it out. You have everything you need, you don't need our help except perhaps a little boost from afar now and then. You have our representatives among you, and you don't really need anything else other than what you may learn along the way, and help may come from unexpected sources. This is your great test, and you can pass it.

Thanks for posting this, I tend to agree with this sentiment. I know I’m not alone in sometimes forgetting that the council being present is already somewhat of an intervention on behalf of greater powers. And in that light I see this question much in the way you do.

Had Elrond sent out invitations and done all the bookings for the council himself, it might be quite sensible to turn to the divine. But in the world in which the characters inhabit, there has already been some purpose clearly shown by the course of events and fate to get all the pieces set, Gandalf & Elrond as well as some others present would probably not have missed this.

That “little boost from afar” factor is actually a huge factor considering the current audience of the council is present because of it. And it suggests that if there is a path to take it rests with them. It seems unlikely to me that the Valar would have placed dwarf, elf, hobbit and the rightful king and a captain of Gondor in a room simply to ship the ring out west. And with all we’ve heard from Aragorn and Boromir I think, again that Elrond & Gandalf are on that page without having to perform any guess-work or rely on ancient knowledge of the Valar.

 

[Tidwald Bridge-Talker]

And to clarify further, that quest they are being mustered for will be hard, it will cost lives and cause suffering and pain but from that will come redemption, hope and beauty.

I don’t think this is simply all a matter of too much could go wrong with a ring-bearer travelling west being tempted. Its not about minimising possible risk, its about maximising possible good, contending against darkness, a new king, a changed and more beautiful world despite the hardship (and even because of it). That seems to be the general motive of the Valar, all the way back to the first song.

Do Gandalf and Elrond get that? I don’t know, but its possible.

 

[Rachel Port]

I don’t think this is simply all a matter of too much could go wrong with a ring-bearer travelling west being tempted. Its not about minimising possible risk, its about maximising possible good, contending against darkness, a new king, a changed and more beautiful world despite the hardship (and even because of it).

Yes, that's what I was thinking. You remind me of a line from George Eliot's book Felix Holt, the Radical: It isn't true that love makes things easy; it makes us choose what is difficult. It seems that a lot of characters are going to choose what is difficult before the story is over, and those choices are important to the ultimate outcome.