[Sarumian]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

Actually by that sort of thinking, it almost makes no sense NOT to have Glorfindel going, limit of nine or no. Elrond KNOWS Aragorn and Boromir are planning to not go with the fellowship into Mordor, but head for Minas Tirith. In otherwords, two of the objectively best fighters in the group are planning to leave around when the trip will be most likely to get into the point where being spotted and having to fight is probably most likey (i.e. even if Sauron isn't expecting anyone to do what the fellowship is doing, Mordor is going to have a much higher likeyhood of bumping into Mordorian troopd on random patrol than anywhere else.) Elrond THINKS Gandalf will probably stick with Frodo, but there are probably circumstances where even HE might break off (say if Sarumam comes up with a plan so dangerous that Gandalf needs to directly intervene to keep it from suceededing (basically what he does do, but happening while Gandalf is still accompanying an unbroken fellowship as opposed to one that no longer has a Frodo and Sam with it, and Gandalf still being the Gray) Plus Elronds seems to have some inklings that something might happen to Gandalf. So under those circumstances, Elrond would have to assume that Frodo might be entering Mordor guarded by only three hobbits one elf and one dwarf. Legolas and Gimli can safely be assumed to be competent fighters, but they aren't going to likely to be enough to deal with say the group being surrounded by an Orc platoon. Sam Merry and Pippin will certainly fight to the death to protect Frodo, but in this case "to the death" is likey to be very very soon, and not actually accomplish much vis a vis keeping Frodo safe. Under those circumstances sending Glorfindel as a sort of "backup" Gandalf would make a lot of sense. He is going to be at least decent guide, especially if Elrond thinks far enough ahead to send him a long with a COPY of the Map Frodo was shown (seriously, given how long the fellowiship was in Rivendell preparing, you'd think Elrond would have seen a copy got into thier hands (maybe he did, but he gave it to Gandalf or Aragorn). He's a master warrior, so probably can slaugter any roving orc patrols they are unlucky enough to bump into. And if worse comes to worse, and a Nazgul actually does spot Frodo, Glorfindel is probably the only person in Middle Earth (again except maybe Gandalf) who can go toe-to-toe with a Ringwraith and have a decent chance of actually winning, or at least surviving.

If it had happened that in Mordor the group is "surrounded by an Orc platoon", they would have been almost certainly doomed anyway - the disclosure was a sentence. And, I am sure, there was nothing that Saruman could do to make Gandalf abandon Frodo, unless he (Saruman) goes forward and fights Gandalf in person.