LotR -- Book 2 - Chapter 03 - The Ring goes South

[tar-ancalime]

davem said:

And why nine companions in the Fellowship - it seems that Elrond felt that the number was so significant that he decided on that first, & then struggled to find people to make it up. Why was it so important that there be nine companions?

Elrond said:

"The company of the Ring shall be Nine; and the Nine Walkers shall be set against the Nine Riders that are evil."

Just before that, Gandalf said:

"It is rash to be too sure, yet I think that we may hope now that the Ringwraiths were scattered, and have been obliged to return as best they could to their Master in Mordor, empty and shapeless. If that is so, it will be some time before they can begin the hunt again."

Elrond is setting up the Fellowship as a symbolic challenge to the Nazgul. Nine who travel with the Ring versus nine who seek it.

It works on more levels than that, too. It sets Rivendell up as the antithesis to Mordor: the Nazgul come from Minas Morgul and hunt the Ring almost to the door of Rivendell, while the Company sets out from Rivendell with the ultimate goal of destroying the Ring in Orodruin. It's true that none of the members of the Fellowship (besides Frodo) are really bound to travel the whole distance (and they're certainly not bound to each other or to Elrond with anything like the bond between Sauron and his Wraiths), and indeed Boromir and Aragorn state their destination to be Minas Tirith, but the Fellowship's existence is so heavily symbolic that it is really immaterial whether or not all of its members complete the mission.

The point is the setting out, as illustrated by Gandalf's pronouncement concerning the Nazgul. At the time the Company starts from Rivendell, the Nazgul are at least temporarily incapacitated. So in addition to becoming the symbolic foils for the Nazgul, the Nine Walkers at first even replace the Nine Riders, stepping into the world at a time when their enemies have temporarily been incapacitated.

All of which brings up another interesting conjecture--by sending out his own hand-picked Company of Nine against the other Nine, is Elrond setting himself up as the symbolic enemy of Sauron? It's not too implausible--he's one of only a few First-Agers still around at this point in the story, he's a Ring-Bearer, he's certainly the master of one of the more powerful realms remaining in the world. And at least temporarily, the Ring is in his house, not Sauron's.