Success through Failure

[The Saucepan Man]

Your Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while all the Company is true.

Galadriel just about sums it up, really. The Quest is fraught with danger and there are inevitably moments of failure. It is how those involved react to that failure that determines whether the Quest will succeed or fail. While they remain true, then there is hope.

To use an example from Doug's original post, had they lost hope following Gandalf's fall from the Bridge of Khazad-Dum and simply stayed there grieving, then they would have been over-run by Orcs. Aragorn recognises this and moves the Company on swiftly.

I agree that it is all down to self-determination. At each point of seeming defeat, they could have just given in and say "Oh well, we tried". But they don't - the Company remains true and hope remains.

Even Boromir's attempt to seize the Ring is consistent with the Company remaining true. He is being "true" to his belief that the Ring can be used to defend Gondor. Had he not attempted to seize it then, as Doug points out, Aragorn might not have been there to save Gondor (I like that irony).

One exception to the success from failure principle occurs to me though (there are probably many more). Had Isildur not failed to throw the Ring into Mount Doom when he had the chance, then both the Ring and Sauron would have been destroyed there and then.