Boromir, Gollum and Eowyn

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Some very interesting initial responses – and much, as I predicted, that I had not considered.

Sauce: I don’t think that Denethor ‘belongs’ in this grouping of characters for the reasons you outline, but I agree that he is definitely important to the discussion. I think of all the characters in the story he is the one who most obviously, or most fully, gives way to despair. Saruman also gives up all hope of defeating Sauron, but he is motivated by his desire to replace him as well. Gollum, Boromir and Éowyn all give in to despair, but they never really give up. Denethor’s ‘madness’ is really not psychological or even emotional, but spiritual. He has been tricked by Sauron into believing that hope is impossible. In this way he stands as an important foil to the GBE triad (and I can already see how I’m going to regret putting it that way…). He is the unredeemed version of despair, and the result of this is that he seeks to destroy himself and others (Faramir directly, and Minas Tirith indirectly, through inaction).

Mithalwen: I can readily appreciate your resistance to my proposition that Éowyn does evil, but I really do think that it is important to recognise that she has done evil. You cite Faramir and Éomer as also doing evil in that they go against their fathers/Kings, but these are decidedly different. Unlike Éowyn they take counsel on their actions and do what they think is best for everyone involved; more importantly, they are forced into these positions by having fathers/parents who are no longer in their right minds. When Éowyn goes against Theoden and Aragorn, the former has been healed and the latter is, well, Aragorn! She also breaks her duty to them both entirely on her own. Yes, her motivations might be noble and even rewarded, but she’s an oath-breaker – like them fellows in that there mountain!

Mark: I also would resist the absolute characterisation of Gollum as evil, if by that you mean he is beyond all hope of redemption, untouchable and untouched by the good. There are a number of times in his journeys with Frodo that we see him very much moved by and toward the good, and the possibility of penance is there for him all along. Yes, he has done appalling things – evil things – but he is not evil in the way that Sauron or Melkor or Shelob are evil.

These questions that Mark and Mith rather demonstrate what I think makes these three characters so very interesting insofar as there’s not going to be much debate about whether Frodo, Aragorn, Sam, Gandalf, Merry, Pippin, Legolas, Gimli (and on and on and on) are good or if Sauron, Saruman, Grima, Shelob (and on and on and on) are evil – but with Boromir, Éowyn and Gollum (BEG?) there is a discussion possible. They are good people, who do evil things, but these evil things in the end are in the service of good. It gets even more complicated: they are good people who are doing what they think are good things, but which are evil anyway, despite their intentions or how sympathetic we might feel toward them. I find it interesting that so far we’ve had people come forward in defence of Éowyn and in condemnation of Gollum, but so far no-one has weighed in on Boromir – is this the result of G and E being far more sympathetic characters, insofar as they are more pathetic and vulnerable, victims even, whereas Boromir is a mighty warrior who ‘brings it on himself’ or is even ‘asking for it’?

B88: you (quite wonderfully) write that:

I'm not sure about Gollum, but in Boromir and Eowyn's case they have people to help them out. With Boromir, it's Faramir, who he's always looking after, and as it states in the appendix, despite the father's favortism they rarely fought. Eowyn has Theoden she's looking after, and Eomer is looking after her. I'm not sure where Gollum fits in, because he really doesn't have anyone, except the Ring.

I had not considered this in the slightest, but I think it’s brilliant. Gollum very much has a ‘place’ in here, too insofar as he looks after Frodo and is looked after by Frodo on their journey. Their bond is an odd one, and an adversarial one, but it is one that is as emotionally charged as the one between Sam and Frodo. There are many ways in which Frodo and Gollum understand one another better than any else could ever understand them: who but they know the full torment of bearing the Ring? What’s interesting to me is how each of the three (GEB?) is redeemed by the person they care for: Éowyn saves Theoden after breaking her duty to him; Faramir succeeds in letting the Ring go where Boromir failed; Gollum gets the Ring into the Fire because Frodo has let him live.

And this matter of parents that you raise is also interesting, particularly in reference to the mothers: Faramir is much more like his mother than his father, Gollum was kicked out of his society by his grandmother (whom Gandalf singles out as “a mighty person” in her own right), Éowyn is a woman utterly isolated in a world of men to the point where her own mother is entirely non-existent in the tale. Her own redemption takes the form, in part at least, of her willing adoption of a motherly role for herself. Not really sure where to go with this, but it’s interesting…