A pattern begins to emerge immediatly after Gandalf falls into the chasm of Khazad-dum. The remaining eight are grieving his loss after their fashion. I believe it is Legolas who says "without Gandalf we have no hope", or words to that effect. Aragorn responds, "Then we shall have to do without hope."
As it turns out, Legolas was right, for had Gandalf NOT returned, he would not have been able to engage in the battle of wills while Frodo sat atop Henneth Anun (?) wearing the Ring. He would not have been there to rekindles Theoden's vigor. He would not have been the leader of the War, not able to stop Saruman; thus the Palantir would not have found its way into Aragorn's hands, who would not have been able to use it to draw Sauron's eyes away from his own borders, with the result that Frodo and Sam would never have gotten into Mordor at all (in my last reading I became aware of how close a call it was, as it was).
Be that as it may, from the Bridge through Lorien, a Tolkien weaves a pattern of loss of hope and its accompanying grief. Additionally, we encounter the grief of the Elves, who have no hope either way, as Galadriel explains to Frodo - if Sauron wins, all is lost; if the Ring is destroyed, the Elves still lose all that they have made by the Three Rings.
So I concur with Carinillion (sp?) that there is a hopelessness touched with grief, because though much will be saved and renewed by the destruction of the Ring, much will be lost - forever.
And in writing this Tolkien speaks very much to the human condition. Evil tears much good away from us that can never be renewed. So-called progress, fraught with erring human ways, tears us away from the land, a great loss, even as our lives are eased (I will not say improved) in certain ways. And Tolkien evokes the inevitability of this condition. So we mourn the loss of much good, having no hope of its renewal because those times are past.
Yet there is hope. Though Aragorn says we must do without hope, I suspect he may have been speaking of Amdir, but I am not sure. We DO have Sam's hope when he looks to the stars from the Vale of Morgul and sings or says that they will always be there even if Sauron wins the War of the Ring.
I must admit, that doesn't seem like much hope to me - certainly not for Sam and for many generations to come in Middle Earth, were it to turn out thus; yet that's precisely the ONLY hope left to Sam, and to us. And I must say that if I had to choose between Amdir and Estel, I'll take Estel. Every time.
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