This week (and possibly subsequent) I need to speak a bit extra Tolkien, however in a considerably totally different vein from regular. Somewhat than discussing the historicity of Tolkien’s world or diversifications of it, I need to take a second to debate a few of the themes of Tolkien’s work, which categorical themselves within the metaphysical structure of Arda itself. Particularly, I needed to do that as a result of it struck me how badly Rings of Energy had fumbled the core story of its second season, the Fall of Celebrimbor, seemingly failing to know the underlying ethical themes of Tolkien’s legendarium and thus not understanding which parts of Celebrimbor’s story have been ‘load bearing’ and why.
That mentioned, for individuals who are simply right here for the historical past, this isn’t completely a ‘skip week!’ As historians, we don’t merely doc occasions, but in addition search to know previous societies and the distinctive, typically fairly alien, ways in which they understood themselves and their worlds. In brief, the historian tries to, in a means, inhabit the worldview of individuals lengthy gone and to speak these values and assumptions to a contemporary viewers. One of many methods we do that’s studying the issues these previous folks wrote rigorously for precisely that: values, morals, assumptions concerning the world, mentalités because the Annales college would phrase it or Weltanschauung (‘worldview’) as German would categorical it. While you discover the identical concept or assumption concerning the world seem a number of sorts by a piece or physique of labor, we name that single strand of worldview a ‘theme,’ and so in a way after we learn a piece for its themes, what we’re actually asking is, “in what methods do the worldview or mentalities of the person-or-society that produced this work ‘poke by’ the web page?”
So we’re going to do a little bit of that with Tolkien, trying on the means his legendarium treats sin and redemption, by the lens of two ambiguous characters: Celebrimbor and Boromir. I feel the comparability of those characters is particularly helpful, in my opinion, due to what their distinction reveals in what Tolkien thinks is efficacious and necessary. Each figures die preventing in opposition to Sauron and evil, however equally show character flaws that make them weak at key factors to the manipulations and machinations of Sauron. When it comes to achievement, we might nearly definitely regard Celebrimbor because the higher of the 2: a king of the Elves and the maker of the Rings, the best of Elven craftsmen aside, maybe, from his personal ancestor Fëanor.
But the decision of the textual content is kind of totally different: whereas Celebrimbor fails fairly utterly, Boromir is redeemed and conquers, even in defeat.
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The Fall of Celebrimbor
Our details of reference for Celebrimbor’s fall are a number of quick paragraphs in “Of the Rings of Energy and the Third Age” (as a part of the Silmarillion, henceforth in quotation as Sil.) and some equally quick pages in “The Historical past of Galadriel and Celeborn” (as a part of Unfinished Tales, henceforth Tales). It’s not quite a bit to go on, however I feel we will get a broad sketch of Celebrimbor’s character. What I feel we see is a personality who just isn’t evil, per se, however who’s overwhelmed by his character failings and in consequence fails in his function. Celebrimbor just isn’t, I might argue, a tragic hero redeemed in sacrifice, however extra akin to Denethor: a flawed ruler who at some instances tried to do the fitting factor, however whose personal ethical shortcomings result in the sins that led to the failure of his rule. Rings of Energy, I feel, acquired this character fairly flawed, trying to painting Celebrimbor as a superb man (properly, elf), undone partially by his delight however mainly by his gullibility and compassion.
One of the simplest ways to point out that is merely to maneuver by Celebrimbor’s arc in each the legendarium and Rings of Energy in parallel, to point out each Tolkien’s ethical imaginative and prescient and the way Rings of Energy fumbles its execution by pulling out a few of the load-bearing parts of his character.
We start with Celebrimbor’s motivation for making the rings within the first place. Put frankly Rings of Energy reframed Celebrimbor’s motivation, from one thing boastful and transgressive within the books to one thing compassionate and altruistic within the present. I discovered once I pointed this out on social media, some people have been confused, however there actually isn’t a lot doubt within the textual content. Within the Silmarillion, we get each Sauron’s arguments and the Elves personal reasoning for accepting them. Sauron, as Annatar, presents his case thusly:
Alas for the weak point of the nice! For a mighty king is Gil-galad, and sensible in all lore is Grasp Elrond, and but they won’t assist me in my labours. Can or not it’s that they don’t need to see different lands develop into as blissful as their very own? However wherefore ought to Center-earth stay for ever desolate and darkish, whereas the Elves might make it as truthful as Eressëa, nay whilst Valinor? And since you haven’t returned thither, as you may, I percieve that you just love this Center-earth, as do I. Is it not then our activity to labour collectively for its enrichment, and for the elevating of all of the Elven-kindreds that wander right here untaught to the peak of that energy and data which these have who’re past the Sea? (Sil. 287; emphasis mine)
I need to pull out a number of issues from this argument. First, it’s a name, nevertheless pleasantly worded, for one thing approaching blasphemy: an effort by the Elves, underneath their very own energy, to craft what’s successfully a heaven on earth and to reverse the grand plan and can of Eru Ilúvatar (the singular creator god) that the Elves ought to come to dwell in Valinor and Center-earth cross to Males. However notice additionally how it’s ‘gross sales pitch’ that goals to play off of the ambition and vanity of the listener, quite than their compassion or generosity, bidding them to lift their greatness (that of the Elven-kindreds) to match these “who’re past the Sea” (which might imply the Elves in Valinor, however equally the Valar themselves).
And the Elves of Eregion (mainly, we discover out within the Unfinished Tales, the smiths of the Gwaith-i-Mírdain, the “folks of the jewel-smiths”), perceive the attraction in principally these phrases:
It was in Eregion that the counsels of Sauron have been most gladly recieved, for in that land the Noldor desired ever to extend the talent and subtlety of their works. Furthermore they weren’t at peace of their hearts, since they’d refused to return into the West, and so they desired each to remain in Center-earth, which certainly they liked, and but to benefit from the bliss of people who had departed. (Sil. 287; emphasis mine).
Observe once more the dual strains of ambition – to extend the talent and subtlety of their works – twisted with a need for one thing that contravenes the desire and plan of Eru – to have the bliss of Valinor whereas nonetheless dwelling in Center-earth. I ought to notice, this temptation – that the immortality of Valinor may very well be seized by artwork or craft, exterior of the deliberate will of Eru – can also be precisely the temptation Sauron will use to lure the Númenóreans to their destruction underneath Ar-Pharazôn (Sil. 274-5). Certainly, this temptation is on the root is successfully all evil in Tolkien’s legendarium: the start of evil is in Melkor’s choice to attempt to bend the Music of creation to his personal tune.
In Tolkien’s distinctly Christian worldview, each the actual world and his created secondary world are ordered to the desire of divinity and that may is basically Good; alternative is given to Males and Elves however defiance of that overarching plan is essentially the most basic act of insurrection, the very root of sin. And it’s what Celebrimbor is considering in his creation of the rings. Furthermore, allow us to notice that this motivation is wholly and fully egocentric: the aim of those rings is to make the ageless, never-ending bliss of Valinor out there for the Celebrimbor and the Elves. There is no such thing as a intent to share it with anybody else. The motivation right here is comprehensible – immortal beings grieved that the world adjustments whilst they don’t – however Tolkien’s morality says, in essence, ‘thems the breaks.’ Or, to place it within the quite extra eloquent phrases of Gandalf, “however that isn’t for them to determine. All we now have to determine is what to do with the time that’s given us.”
Rings of Energy fumbles this ingredient nearly utterly, substituting new and totally different motivations. Whereas within the legendarium, Gil-galad, Elrond and Galadriel all need nothing to do with Annatar!Sauron (Sil. 287; Tales 227), in RoP, Gil-galad particularly is consumed with fear concerning the fading of the Elves and particularly that it’ll go away the remainder of Center-earth weak to Sauron. Lest the viewers assume that is merely a rationalization, we’re handled to a ‘ticking clock’ within the type of a sacred tree and repeated insistence that when the final leaf falls, the Elves can be compelled to sail for Valinor. All of a sudden, quite than embracing the rings as an act of revolt in opposition to the desire of Eru, the Elves are searching for a method to divert their decline – not introduced as a part of the divine plan – in an effort to shepherd and safeguard the opposite peoples.
That change in motivation extends to Celebrimbor and right here it’s value noting that Rings of Energy has modified the order wherein the rings are made. Within the legendarium it’s specific (e.g. Sil. 287, Tales 227-8, RotK 415) that the lesser rings have been created first, the Three Elven Rings second and the One Ring final; RoP inverts the primary two, having the Three created earlier than the Seven and 9. Furthermore, it adjustments the motivation: in RoP the primary three Elven rings are enough to avert the decline of the Elves, which might after all take away the unique motivation for making them. So the present has Sauron, in disguise, recommend Celebrimbor make the opposite rings of energy for the aim of giving them to Males and Dwarves. Now on the one hand, I might argue this isn’t a deception Sauron would truly use: Sauron understands energy and domination, not altruism and he doesn’t tempt Males or Elves with the higher angels of their nature. Even when the One Ring – a shadow of Sauron’s personal corrupting energy – tries to tempt Boromir or Sam, it tempts them not with altruism however with greatness and adulation, with “nice alliances and superb victories….and he solid down Mordor and have become himself a mighty king” (FotR 469; RotK 195-6). ‘Thankless service’ just isn’t a language Sauron speaks and so not a temptation he would use.
However extra broadly, this shifting plot level, which appears to me to have been a product of the present shifting round occasions and characters to attempt to make its multi-threaded construction work, basically alters Celebrimbor’s motivation: quite than a unhealthy finish (overturning the desire of Eru) which seems badly it turns into a good finish (aiding the opposite Peoples of Center-earth) turned to evil.
The following disconnect within the two tales is broadly in culpability. Rings of Energy does quite a bit to restrict Celebrimbor’s guilt (if not his broader duty) for the autumn of his kingdom, partially as a result of the writers of Rings of Energy haven’t fairly grasped the types of arguments Sauron makes use of – and thus the form of arguments Tolkien imagines can be persuasive to figures like Celebrimbor. As talked about already, the present has Sauron, disguised as Annatar and presenting himself as an emissary of the Valar, encourages Celebrimbor to make the lesser rings in an effort to assist Dwarves and Males. Somewhat than preying on Celebrimbor’s delight, he preys on his compassion, an emotion Sauron ought not think about or perceive.
However the bigger break comes as soon as Adar’s siege arrives. To be able to preserve Celebrimbor engaged on the rings, within the present, Sauron alters Celebrimbor’s sense notion, inflicting him to see his metropolis at peace and flourishing even when it’s underneath assault and burning and I don’t assume the writers and showrunners fairly realized what giving Sauron direct thoughts management powers does to the ethical arc of Tolkien’s universe. In a later scene (s2e7 at 58:05) Sauron seizes direct and complete management over a bunch of Elf warriors, compelling them to kill one another over their obvious struggles. The present’s excuse is that in permitting Sauron in, the Elves of Eregion put themselves ‘underneath his energy,’ however this makes little ethical sense for troopers who had no concept who ‘Annatar’ was and no say in letting him in regardless. As a substitute, giving Sauron straight-up thoughts management – the power to make Celebrimbor see no matter he desires, to make different Elves do no matter he desires – obliterates Celebrimbor’s ethical duty for his personal actions. Celebrimbor doesn’t reply incorrectly due to his ethical failings however as a result of he’s prevented by power majeure from seeing the world because it actually is. Certainly, the second he does see the world as it’s, he responds accurately – making an attempt to prepare the protection – however is prevented as a result of Sauron makes use of magic to make it appear to be Celebrimbor has callously murdered one in every of his smiths.
In brief, Sauron’s skill to regulate perceptions and minds considerably reduces – if it doesn’t completely take away – Celebrimbor and his smith’s company within the story, which in flip reframes them are comparatively extra harmless victims of Sauron’s energy.
Which is very a lot not how the seem within the legendarium! As famous above, within the Silmarillion, we get a direct report of the arguments Sauron, as Annatar, makes use of to influence the Elves and there may be nothing of compassion for Males or Dwarves in it, however an open invitation to aim to construct heaven on earth, to attain “the peak of that energy and data which these have who’re past the Sea?” which is accepted as a result of “in that land [Eregion] the Noldor desired ever to extend the talent and subtlety of their works” (Sil. 287). In brief, Sauron is from the start asking the smiths of Eregion to do one thing flawed, which they know is flawed (because it defies the order set by Eru), his trickery which they have no idea is that he intends to betray them, however that they do flawed, they know on the outset.
Because the narrative continues within the Unfinished Tales, we see that not solely the enterprise begun wrongly, it continues wrongly. Sauron, as Annatar, convinces the brotherhood of Elven crafters underneath Celebrimbor, the Gwaith-i-Mírdain, to hitch his plan and so they and Celebrimbor start working underneath him “in secret, unknown to Galadriel and Celeborn” who have been, on the time, the rulers of each Eregion and Lórinand (later to be Lothlórien; Tales 228). They’re working in secret as a result of whereas Galadriel and Celeborn don’t appear to know that Annatar is Sauron, they’ll inform one thing is up with him and refuse to deal with with him – in spite of everything, he retains suggesting folks do a unhealthy factor, as famous above. Sauron, nevertheless, is ready then to influence the Gwaith-i-Mírdain “to revolt in opposition to Galadriel and Celeborn and seize energy in Eregion” at which level Galadriel flees to Lórinand, whereas Celeborn stays in Eregion however “disregarded by Celebrimbor” (Tales 228).
Which is to say that when the rightful rulers of the dominion, Galadriel and Celeborn, accurately level out, “hey, this Annatar man is sketchy and appears to be asking you to do one thing that at the very least shades into evil,” Celebrimbor and the Gwaith-i-Mírdain reply by launching a coup, forcing Galadriel out of the dominion and excluding Celeborn from the federal government. Having already begun a activity on the recommendation of Annatar which is, on the very least, morally doubtful, they’ve then taken an motion – revolt in opposition to lawful authority – which is clearly morally flawed in its pursuit.
Celebrimbor solely repents of this alternative as soon as the One Ring is made and the lure revealed, not earlier than (Tales 228; Sil. 288), which once more implies that Celebrimbor solely turns in opposition to Annatar!Sauron when it turns into clear it is going to be unhealthy for Celebrimbor if Sauron achieves his goals; he was positive when it was merely an evil in opposition to Galadriel, Celeborn and the order of creation set out by Eru Ilúvatar. On this sense, I might notice, Celebrimbor’s vanity and delight in a means neatly mirror that of Denethor’s: each characters are notionally on the aspect of Good in opposition to Evil and that’s definitely what they’d let you know should you requested them, however equally each characters are, of their delight, rebelling in opposition to rightful authority (“I cannot step right down to be the dotard chamberlain of an upstart…I cannot bow to such a one, final of a ragged home lengthy bereft of lordship and dignity” RotK 142). Certainly, Gandalf’s rebuke to Denethor, “authority just isn’t given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your dying” (RotK, 141) might equally have been given to the Elves searching for to recreate in Center-earth the deathless, eternity of Valinor.
Likewise, I don’t assume within the books that Celebrimbor is redeemed in his dying. In Rings of Energy, a fantastic deal is fabricated from Celebrimbor’s resistance to Sauron on the finish and his unwillingness to surrender the places of any of the rings, in addition to his determined efforts, as issues come crashing down, to do the fitting factor: he tries to prepare the protection, however is prevented by Sauron’s trickery, he tries to assault Sauron, however is prevented when Sauron mind-controls his guards, and he refuses to inform Sauron something even underneath torture.
In contrast, the portrait within the Unfinished Tales just isn’t so flattering. When Sauron’s assault falls on Eregion, it’s the disregarded Celeborn who makes the preliminary sortie. Celebrimbor solely seems after the attackers breach Eregion, defending “the chief object of Sauron’s assault, the Home of the Mírdain, the place have been their smithies and their treasures” (Tales 228). Whereas that is after the “repentance and revolt [against Sauron] of Celebrimbor” (Tales 228), I feel it’s revealing that Celebrimbor is taken defending the factor he basically cares about this most: the works of his fingers and people of the Mírdain, their treasures. It’s as a substitute Elrond who takes care for individuals who survive the autumn of Eregion (Tales 229): so whereas Elrond and Celeborn search to save lots of folks, Celebrimbor, in his final acts, seeks to save lots of issues. In line with the Tales, the 9 Rings have been there within the Home of the Mírdain and Celebrimbor, tortured, revealed the places of the Seven “as a result of neither the Seven nor the 9 did he worth as he valued the Three…the Three have been made by Celebrimbor alone” (Tales 229). Observe after all, these Seven rings have been “bestowed” to folks (Tales 229) whom Celebrimbor is giving up as a substitute of the Three not as a result of he cares concerning the folks however as a result of he cares concerning the issues and particularly he values the Three not for who holds them however as a result of they have been the works of his fingers.
To summarize then, Rings of Energy‘s Celebrimbor was a principally good Elf, who sought to resolve an actual and urgent drawback (the fading of the Elves, which could go away Center-earth defenseless), unknowingly enlisted the help of a nasty fellow in fixing it, who – as soon as he found that reality – instantly set about making an attempt to proper his errors, albeit failing within the course of, as a result of Sauron has Magic Thoughts Management Powers.
In contrast, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Celebrimbor just isn’t an evil Elf, in that he doesn’t need domination – which is the sine qua non of capital-E Evil in Tolkien’s legendarium. Tolkien writes, in spite of everything, “Celebrimbor was not corrupted in coronary heart or religion, however had accepted Sauron as what he posed to be” (Tales 228). However Celebrimbor is an boastful and proud Elf who does a lot flawed and is undone by his wrongdoing. For causes we’ll get into in a subsequent publish, the trigger and impact right here is direct: the ethical universe (the Unseen) of Arda has a direct, causal influence on the bodily universe (the Seen); Celebrimbor is undone by his wrongdoing – that’s, had he executed proper he wouldn’t have been undone. This model of Celebrimbor pursues an goal that was flawed in its conception, trying to show apart the plan of Eru for a way the world would change (demanding heaven on earth as a substitute of Heaven and Earth, because it have been), then executed wrongly with a coup. And in his ultimate moments, Celebrimbor reveals what all the time mattered to him most as he defends not his folks however his issues, the merchandise of his fingers that he valued most, a form of love I’ve little question Tolkien would view as inordinate – in a literal sense ‘out of order,’ and thus inappropriate.
Consequently, whereas Celebrimbor revolts in opposition to Sauron, he by no means actually adjustments his character, remaining prideful and bold to the top and unwilling to see his prized creations destroyed – because the textual content notes, “they need to have destroyed all of the Rings of Energy right now [before the fall of Eregion], ‘however they failed to seek out the energy.’” (Tales 228); one other indicator, by the by, that the rings of energy themselves ought to not have been made underneath any circumstances. Celebrimbor doesn’t redeem himself and fall heroically, however quite is, ultimately, consumed by his folly.
The distinction with Boromir is marked: the place Celebrimbor, for all of his artifice and greatness fell, Boromir, we’re informed, conquered.
Why Boromir Conquered
First, I feel we must get the details of the narrative out of the way in which. In a straight studying of occasions of the Breaking of the Fellowship, Boromir doesn’t come off tremendously properly. When Frodo splits off from the group at Nen Hithoel, Boromir follows him and falls to the Ring’s temptation, first making an attempt to influence Frodo after which ultimately making an attempt to take the Ring by power. He recovers himself as soon as Frodo vanishes and flees, however then wanders for at the very least half an hour (FotR, 476) earlier than returning to the remainder of the Fellowship, the place he then refuses to be completely truthful, although he doesn’t lie (FotR, 475-6) after which, as if the total import of the second has lastly hit him, simply form of breaks down, “put his head in his fingers, and sat as if bowed with grief” (FotR, 476) whereas the Fellowship begins to scatter.
As an apart, I feel that is one level the place I feel the notion that Peter Jackson’s movies are a bit extra favorable to Boromir than the books deserves some credit score. First, this returning scene – the place Boromir wastes time and breaks down, is gone completely, however I feel extra importantly, whereas within the books Aragorn, heading off, by no means finds Frodo within the movie he does. And we see Aragorn tempted by the Ring too, one thing we don’t get within the books. The sting in Viggo Mortensen’s voice and the threatening means he’s shot within the scene is not only, I feel, a faux out, however quite we’re to know that Aragorn right here too is struggling to withstand the Ring and succeeds solely with issue, which is why he sends Frodo away. There was actual peril on this second and Aragorn, in his knowledge, realizes the reply to Frodo’s query, “Are you able to shield me from your self?” is “no.” I feel that second does quite a bit to humanize Boromir’s failure – he wasn’t the solely member of the Fellowship to be damaged by the Ring, merely the first; the others would have fallen, one after the other, given time (which I feel, for what it’s value is the appropriate studying of the textual content: the Ring would have destroyed all of them, given the time, simply as it will definitely, within the final occasion, claims Frodo).
In any case, Aragorn bids Boromir preserve the opposite hobbits secure whereas he searches (FotR, 476). Boromir meets this cost, trying to guard Merry and Pippin even to the price of his life. Right here, after all, he fights and apparently fails totally: he’s mortally wounded and each hobbits in his care are taken certain by his enemies as soon as he’s too wounded to struggle again. The orcs give attention to what they assume is their goal (no, I cannot let Saruman reside down this little bit of horrible operational planning, thanks) – capturing hobbits – however don’t (within the ebook) trouble to complete Boromir off; they merely go away him to bleed out (TT, 18).
In brief, then, we would say Boromir succumbed to temptation, then misplaced his head at a important second, then tried to perform one thing in battle, failed completely and was slain. That sounds quite a bit like Celebrimbor, however whereas the fundamental details of the 2 kind of match, what’s of their hearts doesn’t and that makes all of the distinction.
Boromir’s verdict on himself is sharply damaging, specializing in these details: “I’ve tried to take the Ring from Frodo,” he mentioned, “I’m sorry. I’ve paid…Farewell Aragorn! Go to Minas Tirith and save my folks! I’ve failed” (TT, 18). Besides after all, that’s Boromir talking and one factor we’ve realized is that Boromir, no matter his virtues – and he has them – just isn’t among the many sensible. One of many key issues for understanding The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s broader legendarium is that statements needs to be evaluated by the speaker; phrases from the wisest characters, like Gandalf, are sometimes deeply true to the purpose of being prophetic, however much less sensible and even silly characters, like Saruman, regularly err or say greater than they imply. Critically, what makes one sensible just isn’t an understanding of the Seen world (the bodily, ‘actual’ world) however an understanding of the Unseen world and its deeper, extra profound ethical realities. Boromir can not see that whereas he has failed within the Seen world, he has triumphed within the Unseen world.
However Aragorn, Aragorn is one of many comparatively sensible characters, despite the fact that he’s not with out fault (certainly, he spends a lot of the chapter “The Departure of Boromir” reminding the reader that “All that I’ve executed right now has gone amiss.” (TT 19)), and so we will put a good bit extra inventory in Aragorn’s judgement. And Aragorn instantly corrects Boromir, with a judgement that offers us the title of this publish:
“No!’ mentioned Aragorn, taking his hand and kissing his forehead. “You might have conquered. Few have gained such a victory. Be at peace! Minas Tirith shall not fall!”
Boromir smiled. (TT 18; emphasis mine)
First I need to notice using the phrase ‘conquered’ right here, which can strike readers as unusual. In trendy English, we usually use ‘conquer’ to imply the seize of territory (that’s, conquest), however Tolkien was a classically educated philologist and so, like many Latin and Greek college students earlier than and after him, he can have used ‘conquer’ regularly to translate Latin vincere and Greek νικᾷν each of which have a way of successful a victory or prevailing in a contest in a wider sense (as an example successful in an athletic contest).
Observe that Aragorn at this level not merely suspects that Boromir tried to take the Ring, however is aware of it, as Boromir has informed him. He likewise is aware of that the hobbits have been taken, although he doesn’t but know for sure it’s simply Merry and Pippin (he’ll understand Frodo and Sam went elsewhere in a few pages). In brief, Aragorn has encompassed the total magnitude of Boromir’s folly and failure and fears but extra in addition to. And but he declares “You might have conquered.”
In case you have been considerably unfamiliar with the way in which Tolkien’s characters work, you may learn Aragorn’s assertion as merely a comforting lie informed to a dying man, however I feel that will be profoundly out of character for Aragorn, who doesn’t lie casually. You may also learn it as Aragorn merely commenting on what number of orcs Boromir slew – at the very least twenty earlier than he fell – however that too can be stunning for Aragorn, who you could notice doesn’t participate in Gimli and Legolas’ sport at Helm’s Deep.
However then after all Gandalf returns later within the ebook and affords his personal judgement:
Poor Boromir! I couldn’t see what occurred to him. It was a sore trial for such a person: a warrior, and a lord of males. Galadriel informed me that he was in peril. However he escaped in the long run. I’m glad. It was not in useless that the younger hobbits got here with us, if just for Boromir’s sake. (TT 118)
And we must always keep in mind right here that Gandalf is, actually, Olórin, the wisest of the Maiar. He isn’t all-knowing and certainly on this passage admits to gaps in his data, however his ethical instinct and understanding of the non secular construction of Arda is unsurpassed by any character we meet or actually might meet within the context of the narrative. We might take his judgement right here as basically axiomatically true. He too, is aware of Boromir’s folly (proper earlier than this sentence, he basically tells Aragorn this, with out revealing it to Gimli and Legolas) and is a little more reserved than Aragorn, framing Boromir’s dying as an escape from the peril he was in, which Galadriel perceived – and he chalks up the hobbits having greater than a little bit function on this escape, declaring himself glad of it.
I feel the “younger hobbits” function in that is our key to know why Boromor “escapes” and “conquers” whereas Celebrimbor fails and falls: evidently Gandalf would have us perceive the presence of the “younger hobbits” completed one thing “for Boromir’s sake.” They definitely didn’t change the ‘details on the bottom,’ because it have been: their presence modified nothing for Boromir within the Seen world. However they modified the whole lot for Boromir within the Unseen world, which is, I hope we’re coming to know, the extra necessary one.
We see Boromir, like Celebrimbor, succumb to a second of temptation – he tries, by his personal admission, to take the ring, a grievous failure. Within the interval that follows, I feel we must always perceive his sullen silence as a wrestling with what that second means. Boromir acknowledges his failure and regrets it, immediately, in spite of everything, however then has to take a seat with the guilt; it will be all too straightforward for him to rationalize away his failure – to say it wasn’t a failure in any respect, however that Frodo was the idiot – or to fall into despair. However Aragorn bids him to do one thing and that appears to snap Boromir out of his sullen state.
Extra to the purpose, the factor Aragorn bids Boromir to do requires the rejection of his false considering and the embrace of one thing selfless. Whereas Celebrimbor, on the final, fell defending the very issues that had been his sin and smash – his delight in his craftsmanship, made manifest and tangible within the Rings – Boromir doesn’t rush to defend his ambition or the glory of Gondor, or his goals of conquest. He doesn’t search a grand viewers and certainly when the deed is finished, requests scorn, not reward, for it. As a substitute, in any other case alone, unwatched and unnoticed, he fights a battle he should know is hopeless to reply his cost and defend two younger hobbits who are completely superfluous to the search as he understands it. They don’t matter within the Seen world, which is a part of why they matter a lot: Boromir isn’t doing this for glory or reward, however merely as a result of it’s the proper factor to do.
I feel Boromir will need to have had one thing of a disaster of id in these sullen minutes. Boromir had imagined himself as the nice hero of Gondor and it was this false delight that the ring had used to wedge itself in his thoughts; in accepting his failure, that false picture has to fall away. Boromir has to develop into somebody totally different and Aragorn, maybe unknowingly, offers him the chance by charging him to do one thing good with no promise of glory or renown or energy, an opportunity to take the brand new Boromir forming within the soul and make him actual on this planet. I feel we see a touch of this new Boromir in his dying phrases, the place he bids Aragorn, “Go to Minas Tirith and save my folks!” – the outdated Boromir wouldn’t simply have yielded the glory of saving his folks to a different, however the brand new Boromir, a wiser Boromir, acknowledges this activity was not the one allotted to him; his activity was to defend the younger hobbits, a activity with little hope of glory or energy (TT, 18). It didn’t matter if Boromir succeeded or failed in that activity, as a result of the end result of the battle was much less necessary than the ethical option to struggle it.
The hobbits matter for Boromir’s sake as a result of they supplied the chance for him to take his ethical transformation and make it actual by placing actual sacrifice behind it. That is the factor Celebrimbor, defending his rings to the final, doesn’t do. It’s essential to notice, after all, that this can be a very Christian worldview that Tolkien is advancing: what issues is Boromir’s soul, which is influenced by his choice to sacrifice even when the battle just isn’t. Celebrimbor’s actions have the identical affect on the battle, however not the identical influence on his soul, for he doesn’t abandon his useless ambition, even on the finish.
After all, in Tolkien’s legendarium, the ethical power of actions has its personal logic to it and bears out its penalties within the Seen world in its personal means. Boromir has, in spite of everything, in his stout – if forlorn – protection of the hobbits, helped to save lots of Gondor, although he is aware of it not. For the hobbits will now go to the Ents and so assist topple Saruman, and from there to Gondor, the place Pippin will assist to save lots of Faramir from Denethor’s pyre and Merry will assist to fell the Witch King on the sector of battle. As we’ll see subsequent week, we ought not dismiss that chain of occasions as ‘mere likelihood.’ In Tolkien’s world it’s the ethical universe, the non secular worth of our decisions, that matter most, excess of the bodily outcomes these decisions produce. It’s the option to struggle for the great quite than victory in battle, that issues to Tolkien and to his world. But on the identical time, Tolkien exudes a confidence that if we select to do proper, issues can be proper, even when we don’t reside to see it.
On Borormir then, I feel it’s best to offer Pippin the final phrase, “However I honor his reminiscence, for he was very valiant. He died to save lots of us, my kinsman Meriadoc and myself, waylaid within the woods by the soldiery of the Darkish Lord; and although he fell and failed, my gratitude is none the much less.” (TT, 29).
And so Celebrimbor fell, however Boromir conquered.
