[HCIsland]

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I think the real question is, who are the Men sitting around Boromir? I remember a suggestion that they are from Dale, but I suspect the real reason why they were there was that PJ thought it would be more distracting for the casual reader of the book to have Boromir there by himself while the elves and dwarves and companions.<P>The film really doesn't give a good reason why all these people are there, just Elrond's "this problem belongs to all Middle Earth, they must decide how to deal with it" (or something close to that) and later, "Friends of old, you have been gathered to answer the threat of Mordor" (like all these people were just a hop, skip and a jump away). There was good reason to do this because going into all the reasons everyone is there would be unbearable in the film.<P>Once it's out that these people have been gathered to deal with the Ring (which isn't the true reason, but oh well), you need to add weight to the scene and adding extra bodies is a good way to do that.<P>Certainly don't try and attach names to most of these people.<P>H.C.