[Fordim Hedgethistle]

I’ve been thinking about the discussion about the nature of Amon Hen, and figured I would go to the source to see if there are any clues – by “the source” I mean, of course, philology.

In Old English, æmen means “uninhabited, desolate, desert”. An associated word is æmenne which means simply “solitude”. I think that this is pretty straightforward – Amon Sul and Amon Hen are both deserted places. More importantly, they are places of solitude, in the sense that in each there is a solitary battle or trial of the heroes (Frodo by the Witch King and then Sauron; Aragorn with himself as in each place he doubts his leadership and his decisions).

The “Hen” has proved a much more interesting riddle. In Old English, hen is a form of hēan which means “lowly, despised, mean, or abject”. But it can also mean “to raise, exalt or extol” (in certain contexts, when used with the associated words hien or hyn which mean “high” or “raised”). “Hen” is also sometimes used as prefix, in which case it is being used as a form of hēanes which means simply “something high, a high place, height.” Finally, it is also associated with “hienan” which means to “fell or prostrate” or “abase, humble, insult”, “accuse or condemn.”

I think it should be obvious by now the ways in which this little word hen can be applicable to the action of this chapter and the previous one. The Seat of Seeing is indeed in a high and desolate place, but it also marks a high point and a low point in the adventure. It is the place where Boromir is made abject, possibly even condemned of a crime or sin, but it is also where he is exalted and raised back up. I think that Aragorn as well goes from a low to a high, in terms of his spirits and his sense of doubt becoming a sense of heroic purpose. Perhaps Frodo, too, moves from a depressive and worried low to some kind of exalted height, when he heroically undertakes the Quest by himself. This is also a kind of ‘condemnation’ of him, however, insofar as he is now condemned to a terrible journey.

So putting it together I would think that “Amon Hen” means a place of solitary trial, in which the hero is raised up and exalted from a state of lowness. So it would appear that the Seat of Seeing is dependent, in some way, upon both the individual using it and some other power which watches over the locale. It is a deserted place of solitary trial (Frodo, Boromir and Aragorn all have their individual battles with their own inner doubts and despair). At the end of these struggles, they are all of them ‘exalted’ in some way, or raised up and aided during it. Frodo is aided by Gandalf during the struggle with Sauron, but it is Sam who lifts his spirits and goes with him to Mordor. Boromir is exalted by Aragorn. All this would appear to bear out my idea that this chapter is really about Aragorn, though, insofar as he exalts himself – unlike Boromir or Frodo he does not turn to another to lift him from his abject lowness, but proceeds to become the King-Hero he is meant to be by dint of his own efforts. Perhaps this is why Frodo sees so much from the Seat, while Aragorn does not: Frodo requires and will require the aid of others for the completion of his journey, so he is ‘given’ some vision by the place, whereas Aragorn must rely upon himself – he will be alone on his individual journey, and he is sufficient to the task, so the place does not need to give him any aid in the form of a vision. He sees only what he needs to see in order to make up his own mind.

Just throwing ideas around now…