Saruman for or against Sauron?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I believe you have made a mistake here - recall the words of Boromir when the Ring was presented to the Council. He desired to use it for the war against Mordor. Also, recall the words of Denethor on his son's role :"He would have brought me a mighty gift".

Boromir's speech at the Council occurs only after he has been told the Ring's history and Frodo displays "Isildur's Bane;" and even then Boromir is at first dubious.

As for Denethor, his tongue-lashing of Faramir occurs after Gandalf has let him in on the secret; and the context of course is What if Boromir had been in Ithilien? Nothing to do with the Fellowship. No-one in Gondor knew about the Ring until Gandalf's arrival in March. Remember, at the Council when Elrond relates that Isildur took the Ring, Boromir is shocked, and says expressly that this 'little' fact was completely unknown in the South. Only in Arnor and Rivendell was the truth known.

The whole notion that Denethor knew about the Ring and about the Council*, and despatched Boromir expressly to grab it for him, is an invention of Peter Jackson and his co-conspirators.


*to which no invitations were sent! Boromir in fact left Minas Tirith several weeks before Frodo ever departed Bag-end.