LotR -- Book 2 - Chapter 09 - The Great River

[Boromir88]

I wanted to bring up some striking parallels between the Company travelling in Moria, and the company travelling down the Anduin.

For eight dark hours, not counting two brief halts, they marched on; and they met no danger, and heard nothing, and saw nothing but the faint gleam of the wizard's light,...
In this way they advanced some fifteen miles, in a direct line east, though they must have actually walked twenty miles or more. As the road climbed upwards, Frodo's spirits rose a little; but he still felt oppressed, and still at times he heard, or thought he heard, away behind the Company and beyond the fall and patter of their feet, a following footstep that was not an echo.

This is sort of like as Gandalf would say "the deep breath before the plunge." It's relatively quiet, they don't hear or see anything, but still we get this sense of ill will to come. And Frodo thinks he heres other "steps" following that aren't the Company's steps. We get this sense of foreboding ill, to come, and it does come.

The eighth night of their journey came. It was silent and windless, the grey east wind had passed away.

Right before this we have the bit with Gollum, and him creeping behind the fellowship, so again we get this sense of ill to come. And again we have the "silent and windless night." Not a short while, after the company reaches Sarn Gebir, they are attacked, and then later again at Amon Hen. Both cases there is this unsteady, sort of like that "silent, too silent" phrase, where you get this unsteady feeling before the "big plunge."

Sam looked from bank to bank uneasily. The trees had seemed hostile before, as if they harboured secret eyes and lurking dangers, now he wished that the trees were still there. He felt that the Company was too naked, afloat in little open boats in the midst of shelterless lands, and on a river that was the frontier of war.

More sense of uneasiness. But also, Sam is true, the river is "a frontier of war." On one side is warring Rohan with Isengard, on the other is Mordor, with their own patrols, reaching the edges of Gondor. I wonder if Anduin was a good choice for the Company, it does give them more time to think of the decision ahead, but Anduin is an unstable road, with much danger (The danger of being out in the open, shot at, and its made clear that the bows can shoot across the river, or atleast reach the Fellowship, and the danger of Sarn Gebir). Anduin is a very unstable place right now, one each side lies danger, and even travelling down the river is a danger.

[Encaitare]

I noticed that twice the number eight is used in Boromir's post above...

For eight dark hours, not counting two brief halts, they marched on...

The eighth night of their journey came....

Perhaps, since eight is one less than nine, this number foreshadows a death in the Fellowship. It's used just before Gandalf's death. Then, after Gandalf has returned to life unbeknownst to the rest of the Fellowship, it's used again before Boromir's death, as though their number is destined to be eight.

Or perhaps this is just me reading way too far into things.

As the company leaves the realm of Galadriel, they spy black swans in the sky, a sharp contrast to Galadriel's white swan-ship. The Elves seem to be very much connected to or enamoured of swans -- seen in the name "Alqualonde" and how in the Lay of Nimrodel, Amroth went "riding like a swan." The black swans are almost like the anti-Elf, the negative image of everything they stand for and love: beauty, timelessness, song. The company enters the barren lands south of Lorien and loses all that; their comfortable stay is without a doubt over.

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

This is a transitional chapter. It takes place on the river that forms the border between two enemy forces, that demands a choice of goal before it ends.

It seems to me that this sense of transition is heightened by the fact that the Chapter opens and closes with a reminder that the Fellowship faces this choice:

Not that most of the Company were eager to hurry southwards: they were content that the decision, which they must make at the latest when they came to Rauros and the Tindrock Isle, still lay some days ahead; and they let the River bear them on at its own pace, having no desire to hasten towards the perils that lay beyond, whatever course they took in the end.

…

They could go no further without choice between the east-way and the west. The last stage of the Quest was before them.

So this Chapter, and the River itself, represents a kind of "limbo" in which the decision can be delayed. However, the choice must be made in the end, although not in the manner in which the Fellowship (and the reader) imagines. Ultimately, the Chapter represents a transition between the journey of the Fellowship and the separate Quests that they each pursue once it has broken.

And now, on to my current favourite subject: Boromir. There is ample evidence here that, following his experience in Lothlorien, he is suffering inner turmoil:

Merry and Pippin in the middle boat were ill at ease, for Boromir sat muttering to himself, sometimes biting his nails, as if some restlessness or doubt consumed him, sometimes seizing a paddle and driving the boat close behind Aragorn's.

Classic signs of stress. And the object of his internal struggle is clear:

Then Pippin, who sat in the bow looking back, caught a queer gleam in his eye, as he peered forward gazing at Frodo.

Interesting that it is Pippin who picks up on this. Once again, he seems to have some (unconscious) connection with the presence of evil, this time the evil that the Ring is working within Boromir's heart.

Boromir's growing obsession with Frodo, and more particularly Frodo's burden, is also evident when he resolves to continue with the Fellowship to the Tindrock:

Boromir held out long against this choice; but when it became plain that Frodo would follow Aragorn, wherever he went, he gave in.

Boromir could leave the Company at this point and followed his proposed course, alone, to Minas Tirith. But he does not. Rather he chooses (or is compelled) to follow the same course as the Ringbearer. He explains his decision by asserting that it "is not the way of the Men of Minas Tirith to desert their friends at need" (and there is no doubt still some truth in this), but it is Frodo who is singled out here as Boromir's reason for continuing with the Company. Boromir makes clear that he will go no further than the Tindrock and it occurred to me to wonder whether he already has an idea that this might be the place for him to make his move, if he is to make it. In any event, his words which follow are tragically prophetic:

To the tall isle I will go, but no further.