LotR -- Book 2 - Chapter 02 - The Council of Elrond

[davem]

Originally Posted by Esty

The ultimate goal of personal development is not delegating one or the other element to a partner, but learning to integrate both within one's self to achieve balance.

Yet its interesting to see how various characters abilities & personalities are enhanced by their partners, & how the opposite can also be the case - Manwe is able to see farther from his seat on Taniquetil when Varda is beside him, Beren could not have achieved his Quest without Luthien, Aragorn won through in the end not just because of his own courage, but because Arwen aided & watched over him.

On the other hand, after Galadriel passed into the West Celeborn seemed to fade & lose purpose, the loss of Celebrian seems to have devastated Elrond, & perhaps played some part in his view that life is simply a series of 'defeats & fruitless victories'.

One other thing - Elrond's statement that its often the case that small hands do the great deeds because they must while the great are concerned elsewhere - is this actually the case? It seems from a reading of the Legendarium that its the opposite - its the great who do the great deeds, not the small. So why would Elrond claim otherwise - to encourage Frodo? In fact it seems that the only examples we have of 'small hands doing great deeds' is in the Hobbit & LotR. Is this a case of Tolkien changing his philosophy between the early tales & LotR?