Character Analysis Thread

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

One could actually say that by his death at that particular moment, Boromir saved Gondor and Minas Tirith. If the Fellowship had not broken that day and Boromir had lived, Aragorn would either have gone to Mordor with Frodo or he would have gone to Minas Tirith with Boromir. Though Rohan might have been stirred into action by Gandalf after his return, any road Aragorn took but the one to Dunharrow would NOT have sent him on the Paths of the Dead, to eventually stop the Black Fleet from coming up the Anduin and turning the battle of the Pellenor into a resounding defeat. We are regularly reminded in LotR that chance "as it is called" is not so random a thing as it seems. The board on which the game is set has many pieces in motion, and what seems like the untimely loss of a knight too early in the game can actually lead to the final checkmate. If Boromir had known what would happen as a result of his death at Parth Galen, I suspect he would have done whatever was necessary to achieve that end; if he believed, like his father, that the protection of Gondor was the only hope of the West, he would have laid down his own life to ensure it. That he gave his life in defending Merry and Pippin without any knowledge of a later good that would come of it showed that he was genuinely noble at heart -- moreso, I think, than his father. He could have wallowed in despair but did not; he pulled himself together and did his duty, a test of heart and will with no promise of greater glory, a trial his father could not pass.