Was Boromir a mistake?

[Halfir]

The Youngest Ent:Your post has ceratinly sparked some erudite and entertaining responses.

One point that interests me is that of the quest and the quest heros - a fundamental aspect of any epic story or poem.

In the quest tradition we have the numinous object- in this instance the Ring - and those who seek - in the LOTR context - not to search for it but to destroy it. We have the Fellowship, representing Istari, Gandalf, Men - Aragorn -Boromir, Dwarves - Gimli, Elves - Legolas, and the four Hobbits.
The inter-play of characters both within races - Boromir -Aragorn, and between races Gimli - Legolas, as the quest unfolds is a powerful one.

Boromir clearly was not meant to be the recipient of the dream's message. The dream came often to Faramir but only once to him, as you note. But chance, which plays such an important role in any epic, intervenes, in the form of Boromir's insistence and Denethor's support, and it is Boromir who makes the journey.

Mistakenly? I think not. Others have posted more elgantly than I can both the literary and the philosophical reason why Boromir has to be part of the Fellowship and why his betrayal of his honor and the Fellowship's trust - albeit later redeemed in his life-sacrifice for Pippin and Merry - is integral to both the plot and the philosophy of LOTR.

Boromir's hubris- his pride - is of course his fatal flaw. He is the extremehero. As one critic has written:"He protects and leads because he considers his followers to be incapable of protecting themselves.; he trusts his own experience but is unwilling to accept anyone else's word for things outside his expereince; his physical prowess is unquestioned , but his mental strength is dubious."

And in the end, as others have said,it is Boromir's madness that provides Frodo with the impetus he needs to separate himself from the Fellowship.

Boromir's blindnes to the weakness of the heroic ethos he represents permist Frodo to go forward - aware of his own frailties. His encounter with the Nazgul has shown him what happens to those who accept a ring from Sauron; Boromir's failure shows him that process in action.