[davem]

On vows:

[QUOTE]'Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens,' said Gimli.

'Maybe,' said Elrond, 'but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.'

Yet sworn word may strengthen quaking heart,' said Gimli;

Or break it, said Elrond. [QUOTE]

If Boromir, Eowyn & Smeagol swear oaths they are bound by them, but perhaps their mistake was in swearing the oaths in the first place. That is perhaps the starting point, if we're bringing in the oaths they swore - should they have sworn those oaths - weren't they asking for trouble in doing so?

Yet at the same time it seems that each of them was backed into a corner & had little choice but to swear those oaths, & once sworn they were bound by those oaths to, in the case of Boromir & Smeagol, to their own destruction.

What this says about Tolkien's own attitude to oaths is perhaps worth exploring. Gimli seems almost to be looking for an oath to swear, & Boromir seems equally to jump at the chance, in order to prove he is a man of honour - he's a warrior & that's the kind of thing warriors do. Smeagol swears his oath of service out of fear & desperation in extremis. Eowyn seems to have sworn out of duty.

In each case the oath quickly becomes a burden, something which they each seem to try to extricate themselves from while retaining their honour. They each attempt to construct clever arguments to get out of doing what they'd sworn to do. But this doesn't - probably can't - work. An oath is an oath. Things are called into action, forces, which cannot be put aside or ignored in the hope they will just go away.

They are each on a journey from despair - but to 'hope'? Boromir dies not so much with 'hope' but with faith. At the end I'm not sure he believes that the Good will attain victory in the world, but I think he does die knowing he has done the right thing, & perhaps realises that is enough - or that it is all a man can do. Gollum dies not in a state of hope, but of exultation at finally achieving his desire. Eowyn lives & she does attain to hope, but in a sense that hope is not due to the victory over Sauron, it is hope in life itself.

Its interesting that the concept of Mandos is not present in LotR. There is no sense of that kind of metaphysical dimension after death - Theoden expresses his belief that he will go to be with 'his fathers', but this seems to be a Rohirric belief, rather than being based in knowledge of the Halls of Waiting. The characters do not seem to live out their lives, or make their decisions, based on a sense of their lives on earth being merely a prelude to eternity. Boromir dies knowing he has done the right thing, but i don't get any sense that he thinks he is going to 'heaven'. Same with Smeagol. And Eowyn too. They are all looking for 'redemption in the world, in the sense of either achieving happiness, or power, or renown.

Any 'afterlife' is a mystery, the great unknown, & not something that anyone has as a motivation for their deeds on earth. Good & 'ungood' are choices made in order to achive worldly things, not eternal ones. There is almost a sense of failure about Frodo's end precisely because of this - he doesn't achieve worldly happiness or success. He fails because he has to leave the world & doesn't get what Sam gets, or Aragorn, or Legolas, Gimli, Merry & Pippin, et al. No-one seems to be looking beyond the world for meaning - not even the Elves, really - they are leaving not in the hopes of attaining something beyond Middle earth, but rather because they can no longer stay.

I don't know if this takes the discussion any further, but it just struck me as a point to add....