[Eorl of Rohan]

Nice to meet another Boromir fan

Heroic redemption motif is cool, but I think Boromir's attractiveness also comes from the fact that he was seduced.
Boromir was all too human in his tragic flaw of hubris. He was not a hero, nor a maiar, but a man -
Man who had to live with the choices that he had made and acted as best as he could.
Like Hurin, lashing out at the Elf-King in his grief, or Feanor, his home awash with blood in his battle for the silmarils.
They made the wrong choice, but only consequences tells us that these choices were wrong;
like Thomas Hardy says: "these purblind doomsters had as readily sown blessings in my path as pain."
Now that I think about it, perhaps this is why I love that motly assortment of characters; because they were Man.

And it is only the Man that makes a Hero.

(Well, yeah, that and dying awesomely and horribly and tragically. Possibly marrying your own sister.
Or getting yourself mutiliated by your half-brother. Or trying to burn yourself and your son to death on the pyre. Er...)