Why was Boromir allowed to join the Fellowship?

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Originally Posted by Inziladun

That was Aragorn's thought for the Company as the situation stood after Gandalf's "death", but I was musing on what they would have done if Gandalf had still been with them.

Oh yeah. This has always puzzled me though. I mean, I can't understand his reasoning, why would he prefer Gimli to Legolas? Legolas has all these Elven superpowers, he can move without a sound, even dance across newly-fallen snowdrifts, he can discern individual faces from miles away, he barely needs food or sleep, he sees in the dark and shoots Nazgul from the sky. Whereas Gimli is noisy and afraid of ghosts. And he's short! It could be that Aragorn thinks Legolas a bit delicate and afraid to get his finger-nails dirty over in un-fashionable Mordor.