What has happened to Boromir's shield in the snows of Caradhras?

Flammifer

Well-Known Member
We are told, when the Company leaves Rivendell, that, "Boromir had a long sword, in fashion like Anduril but of less lineage, and he bore also a shield and his war-horn".

One would have thought that a shield might be as good or better than 'spades' to dig or plough a path through the snow. It might also be used as a sled to drag some Hobbits down the mountain rather than having to carry them. However, mention of the shield there is none.

Has Boromir lost his shield somewhere? Do we ever hear any mention anywhere of Boromir's shield after the departure from Rivendell?

If Boromir had had his shield at Parth Galen, maybe he would not have been 'pierced with so many black-feathered arrows', but there is no mention of it there either.
 
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Boromir's shield is mentioned in the song they sing for him at the beginning of The Two Towers ("His cloven shield, his broken sword, they to the water brought.") so I doubt he's lost it. I think the reason he's not using it in this case is simply that a shield is not a very good tool for either case.

A shield wouldn't really have any convenient place to get a grip on it that would be useful for shoveling, and without a handle to give some leverage, trying to pick up a scoop of snow would be very heavy and awkward. I think using the shield here could well have been slower and more tiring than simply using their arms.

As for using it as a sled, there are several issues with this. First, there would be the issue of how they would pull it. Even if they had enough cord to affix to the shield, any places they could reasonably attach the cord would be unlikely to be in areas that would allow the shield to be pulled smoothly (being chosen for balance rather than for dragging stability). Not to mention that in snow this soft, without some sort of lip or something around the shield, it would be more likely to end up digging into the snow rather than gliding smoothly across it. And even if those problems were overcome, there's the issue of control. Given how high up they are, with plenty of potentially blind falls, you wouldn't want a sliding shield to end up catching a slope and starting down it, ultimately throwing its occupants over the edge.
 
Good catch on the reference in the song JJ48.

Have you often shoveled deep snow? A shield, while less wieldy than a snow shovel, would be superior to hands when digging and dumping snow. It would also be very useful as a plough. In this case, it would be just held as normal and angled to plough the snow aside while pushing forward with the legs.

I imagine using the shield as a sled, not to sled over the top of the snow (difficult to impossible in powder snow), but to sled the Hobbits along the path Boromir and Aragorn created, rather than having to carry them. This would involve pulling the shield/sled over packed snow on the path, this would make the shield digging into the snow less likely, and most shield shapes are curved in some dimension, providing the sort of lip which you discuss. Sledding along the beaten path would also obviate the risk of the sled skittering off over some slope or precipice.

Even if the company don't have enough rope or cord for traces for the shield, traces could be improvised from the shoulder and waist straps on the packs, sword belts, and/or spare articles of clothing from within the packs. The grips or harness inside the shield should provide practical attachment points for the traces.

We don't know what sort of shield Boromir carried, but if it had a shoulder strap, as many historical shields did, attachment of traces would be easy. If it had a central hand grip under the boss, like Viking shields, attachment to that, and pulling in line with the long dimension of the grip, would probably still work, though not as well. The passenger could help to guide the tow and prevent the traces from slipping too much to port or starboard.
 
We don't know what sort of shield Boromir carried, but if it had a shoulder strap, as many historical shields did, attachment of traces would be easy. If it had a central hand grip under the boss, like Viking shields, attachment to that, and pulling in line with the long dimension of the grip, would probably still work, though not as well. The passenger could help to guide the tow and prevent the traces from slipping too much to port or starboard.

Boromir as a noble might be averse to using someting outside of its proper function - especially dedicated military equipment - even more if it is a heirloom or had been gifted to him by someone important - like e.g. his late mother.
 
Good catch on the reference in the song JJ48.

Have you often shoveled deep snow? A shield, while less wieldy than a snow shovel, would be superior to hands when digging and dumping snow. It would also be very useful as a plough. In this case, it would be just held as normal and angled to plough the snow aside while pushing forward with the legs.

I imagine using the shield as a sled, not to sled over the top of the snow (difficult to impossible in powder snow), but to sled the Hobbits along the path Boromir and Aragorn created, rather than having to carry them. This would involve pulling the shield/sled over packed snow on the path, this would make the shield digging into the snow less likely, and most shield shapes are curved in some dimension, providing the sort of lip which you discuss. Sledding along the beaten path would also obviate the risk of the sled skittering off over some slope or precipice.

Even if the company don't have enough rope or cord for traces for the shield, traces could be improvised from the shoulder and waist straps on the packs, sword belts, and/or spare articles of clothing from within the packs. The grips or harness inside the shield should provide practical attachment points for the traces.

We don't know what sort of shield Boromir carried, but if it had a shoulder strap, as many historical shields did, attachment of traces would be easy. If it had a central hand grip under the boss, like Viking shields, attachment to that, and pulling in line with the long dimension of the grip, would probably still work, though not as well. The passenger could help to guide the tow and prevent the traces from slipping too much to port or starboard.

Have you ever shoveled deep snow? Trying to simply push snow out of the way like a plough quickly ends up with the snow building up to the point that it's too heavy to push, even with relatively light snow. To be effective, a plough needs to be fixed at a certain angle to deposit the snow to the side as fresh snow is being caught, which is really tough to do just with your hands, especially when Boromir would have to be bent over to be able to push the shield-plough effectively.

All this, and what benefit would even be gained by it? They're not trying to shovel a driveway down to the concrete; they're just trying to clear enough snow to escape. I don't see that a shield could accomplish enough to be worth the drawbacks in how awkward and clumsy it would be to use.

As for straps from their gear, besides the fact that it would take a bit of time to arrange everything, it would also make carrying the gear itself more cumbersome. Either the shield would need to be huge enough that gear could be transported in it with the Hobbits, or else they'd need to make more trips (not something they're likely going to want to do when they don't know when the mountain may start assaulting them again).

I guess for me, the question is why they would bother trying to use the shield for either purpose when their approach worked perfectly fine, and was much faster.
 
I guess for me, the question is why they would bother trying to use the shield for either purpose when their approach worked perfectly fine, and was much faster.

One will always seek to avoid getting one's body and clothing wet and cooled out when exposed the elements and far from any shelter where one could change clothes and warm oneself. Is such case using a shield - even if less economic and more time consuming - would be sensible if it only would help one to get less wet and cold.
 
One will always seek to avoid getting one's body and clothing wet and cooled out when exposed the elements and far from any shelter where one could change clothes and warm oneself. Is such case using a shield - even if less economic and more time consuming - would be sensible if it only would help one to get less wet and cold.

Except there's still no reason to think that using the shield would help them avoid getting cold and wet. Not only would they be further down in the snow to be able to push the shield properly, they very well may end up sweating more from the effort, resulting in being even more damp than they would be otherwise.
 
Except there's still no reason to think that using the shield would help them avoid getting cold and wet. Not only would they be further down in the snow to be able to push the shield properly, they very well may end up sweating more from the effort, resulting in being even more damp than they would be otherwise.


It still would limit the amount of direct contact of hands / gloves and sleeves with wet snow.
 
It still would limit the amount of direct contact of hands / gloves and sleeves with wet snow.

Not really. You'd still get plenty of it falling over or behind the shield to the point where any difference would be negligible. And with how long they're working, they're going to be covered with snow all over regardless. The only reason to take such an approach would be if it were more productive or more efficient.
 
Not really. You'd still get plenty of it falling over or behind the shield to the point where any difference would be negligible. And with how long they're working, they're going to be covered with snow all over regardless. The only reason to take such an approach would be if it were more productive or more efficient.

Anytime had your finger frozen-wet and been forced to move on dealing with it? - one would be thankful for even a mere spoon just to put anything between oneself and the snow...
 
Anytime had your finger frozen-wet and been forced to move on dealing with it? - one would be thankful for even a mere spoon just to put anything between oneself and the snow...

Ignoring the fact that a spoon would be far more helpful than a shield in this situation, there's also the fact that this is an emergency. Boromir and Aragorn need to make a path through so everyone can get down off the mountain before the next assault kills them all or time freezes them to death. They don't have the luxury of taking time to engineer some convoluted, impractical alternative. Neither one of them is going to be selfishly concerned with his own comfort when the fate of the entire company is on the line.
 
Carrying the Hobbits down the beaten path by Boromir and Aragorn presumably takes 6 trips (3 each by Boromir and Aragorn - one trip down carrying two Hobbits, one trip by each back up, another trip down by each, carrying the other two Hobbits). Depending on the size of the shield, (could it transport 2 Hobbits as a sled?) might mean that 2 trips (one Hobbit carried by each Man, and two Hobbits on the sled - pulling the sled does not take much effort, it is downhill all the way) or 4 trips (carrying 2 Hobbits and towing one on the sled) and one more round trip (going back and picking up the fourth Hobbit) equaling 4 trips, or 1/3 time, or 2/3 the effort. Well worth taking a bit of time rigging up the shield as a sled.

As for using the shield to clear the path. If you have ever shoveled snow, you will realize that using a shield to scoop up and dump snow out of the way would be much more efficient than using hands. (As kids, building snow forts, any tool larger than hands, such as a 6" wide by any length more than 2 foot plank, or a 10" x 10" square of plywood (for example) would accelerate the fort building enormously - these would be used both as a plough (initially) and as a shovel (subsequently - when the ramparts got higher)). Also, using a snow shovel to pick up and dump snow is far more tiring than using the snow shovel as a plough to push the snow aside. This is far more efficient (where possible) than using the shovel to pick up and dump the snow. A shield would be pretty effective as a plough, and more effective than hands as a shovel.
 
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Carrying the Hobbits down the beaten path by Boromir and Aragorn presumably takes 6 trips (3 each by Boromir and Aragorn - one trip down carrying two Hobbits, one trip by each back up, another trip down by each, carrying the other two Hobbits). Depending on the size of the shield, (could it transport 2 Hobbits as a sled?) might mean that 2 trips (one Hobbit carried by each Man, and two Hobbits on the sled) or 4 trips (carrying 2 Hobbits and towing one on the sled) and one more round trip (going back and picking up the fourth Hobbit) equaling 4 trips, or 1/3 time, or 2/3 the effort. Well worth taking a bit of time rigging up the shield as a sled.

As for using the shield to clear the path. If you have ever shoveled snow, you will realize that using a shield to scoop up and dump snow out of the way would be much more efficient than using hands. (As kids, building snow forts, any tool larger than hands, such as a 6" wide by any length more than 2 foot plank, or a 10" x 10" square of plywood (for example) would accelerate the fort building enormously - these would be used both as a plough (initially) and as a shovel (subsequently - when the ramparts got higher)). Also, using a snow shovel to pick up and dump snow is far more tiring than using the snow shovel as a plough to push the snow aside. This is far more efficient (where possible) than using the shovel to pick up and dump the snow. A shield would be pretty effective as a plough, and more effective than hands as a shovel.

Well, it's clear we're just talking in circles at this point. We've answered the question of what happened to Boromir's shield (he still has it), so believe what you want about why they didn't use it.
 
He has it in the poem, but he doesn't have it in the descriptions of his last battle and emplacement in the boat. My actual suspicion is that JRRT sometimes forgot about the shield. But, maybe not?
 
He has it in the poem, but he doesn't have it in the descriptions of his last battle and emplacement in the boat. My actual suspicion is that JRRT sometimes forgot about the shield. But, maybe not?


The problem is also, that if Boromir does have his shield on him, this would impact his ability to carry the hobbits.
 
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