Boromir's search for Imladris

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Rumil

Legate and Mith I think your ideas that Boromir stuck to the roads is very sensible. But if so this surely means that Boromir went through Bree. Was he there before or after Frodo &co. ? (I'm almost tempted to ask whether he'd joined the party of Southerners that were at the Prancing Pony, but I think JRRT would have mentioned him if so). However, he seems surprised to meet Halflings, so maybe he didn't go to Bree?

I would think Boromir's reaction to Frodo at the Council alone would speak against his having gone to Bree, but another point against it for me would be this: who in Bree would have known where to find Imladris?

First of all, I doubt any Bree-landers, even if they'd heard of Rivendell, would have had a clue what Boromir meant by Imladris, which was how Boromir would have referred to it. Of Men, only the Dúnedain (Northern and Southern) seem to have used Sindarin for place names.
If Boromir had asked someone, Butturbur, perhaps, of Elrond, I can almost hear him say "Who"? Never heard 'o him, Sir! Oh! One o' them Elves? I heard they lived away to the West by the Sea. and there's supposed t' be some more close to the Mountains to the East, but that's all I know."
The only ones there who could reasonably have known the way were the Dúnedain themselves, if one happened to be in Bree at that moment. And would they have talked to Boromir? Maybe, but I think it's questionable, unless he had some way of proving his identity.

At any rate, I think it's far more likely that after losing his horse crossing the Greyflood at Tharbad, Boromir simply continued north along the line of the Greyflood, and then the Mitheithel to the Last Bridge.