Gondor, Rohan and Lorien

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

I've always wondered what the difference with Rivendell is. Even though if we eventually see Boromir not accept and believe what the Council decided. But of course he went to Rivendell to get answers to the dream, and he said he came since Elrond was known to be wise and give good advice. I just wonder what the difference in belief is to go to Rivendell, then vehemently refusing to go to Lorien. Is it perhaps because of the fact that Rivendell is a known place for Council where all races go if they are seeking advice, so it would be a more welcomed place?

Originally Posted by Raynor

Elrond was more active in his fight against evil (or, at least, more known - seeing that one could perceive that Lorien is protected by singing in the trees); he fough directly against Sauron in Eregion and at the last alliance, he sends his sons into battle, he houses the dunedain, and, very importantly, is descending from human himself.

You do get the impression that Rivendell has always been a place which was more welcoming to other races, even though it remains hidden (see Boromir's wanderings in the wilderness, though I think he'd found himself a really good Holiday Inn somewhere and was holed up with some beer having a good time on expenses ).

Anyway, Elrond clearly does have lots of links with Men in particular, and its not unlikely that either Denethor or Faramir would have known of the Last Homely House, maybe even from Gandalf in Faramir's case.

[Boromir88]

Yes, I think it comes down to a matter of understanding. What do Men do when they don't understand something? They either try to break it down, find out what it's made of and master it, or they create whacked out stories and try to avoid the place as much as possible.

I definitely got a sense that Rivendell was a place that Men (of Gondor) knew and understood it to be:

'Of these words we could understand little, and we spoke to our father, Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith, wise in the lore of Gondor. This only would he say, that Imladris was of old the name among the Elves of a far northern dale, where Elrond the halfelven dwelt, greatest of lore-masters.'

So, Rivendell was at least a place that Men could understand and knew about.

Where Lorien was a place where nobody had been, they thought of it as a mystery, they couldn't understand, so it must have been under the power of some dark Witch and should be avoided at all costs.