Like everyone else, I like the manner in which Tolkien moves the story from that of the Fellowship to the fellowships/friendships that will dominate the rest of the tale. To answer
Rimbaud’s question: I don’t have a favourite narrative strand – or, rather, I do but it is always the strand I’m
not reading. Tolkien is a master of getting us hooked on a story, and then cutting away to another. So I rush through the new one, wanting to get to the old one, but by the time I’m nearing the switch I don’t want to switch as now I’m sold in the current story. So as this chapter begins I’m desperate to know what will happen to Frodo and Sam, but I know that by the time I get to the end of Book III and Shadowfax is bearing Gandalf and Pippin to Gondor, I won’t be able to bear switching! Ah well. To return to the current topic.
I think that in addition to a structural change, this chapter marks a thematic shift of no small import. To this point in the tale, the forces of Good have been attempting to counter the forces of Evil point-for-point. The Black Riders are seeking the Ring, get the Ring to Rivendell; Sauron needs the Ring, destroy the Ring. This has been accompanied by a militaristic/strategic kind of thinking: the Nine Walkers against the Nine Riders. They have been reacting to Sauron and trying to defeat him in open combat. This is why Boromir (*groan, not him again*
) has fit in with the Fellowship: he’s all about this kind of action. But with the splintering of the Fellowship into other friendships I think we’re moving into a kind of middle way.
Small groups of friends are neither about rugged individualism and the self-sufficiency of the single/individual hero (Boromir), nor are they dependent upon the kind of mass thinking that lies behind a larger group. The difference between a single hero (Boromir) and a heroic group (the Fellowship) is not all that great: both are in a way singular and linear, unidirectional. Boromir wants what’s good for Boromir: it’s all about the hero. The Fellowship is all about the Quest, and the individuals involved be darned. Gandalf can fall, but Aragorn is there to take over. Boromir can die, but it’s OK because he’s paying back what he owed to the Fellowship and protecting other members of it. But with friendships things are different. With the splintering of the single-issue Fellowship (all Quest all the time), there emerge friendships in which other issues which are as important as the Quest are given room and time for attention. Boromir is given his due: Gandalf was not afforded a proper mourning period and certainly no formal rite by the Fellowship, they had to keep going. Merry and Pippin are not left to torment even though, let’s face it, their fate – so far as they know at the time – is irrelevant to the War. Sam and Frodo are able to join with Gollum and forge a relationship with him.
The ‘breaking’ of the Fellowship is felicitous as it frees up the heroes from the same kind of singularity of thought and intention that shackles Sauron. His one great weakness, and his only strategic error, is never being able to think that they will seek to destroy the Ring. It’s the one eventuality he never prepares for. All he can think about is the Ring. So too with the Fellowship: their sole reason for being, the only thing that forges them into a heroic company is the Ring. Sauron wants the Ring in Mordor; they want the Ring in Mordor. With this kind of imprisoning logic removed, then the friendships become free to work through issues that will prove to be of immense importance, not just because they actually help for the success of the Quest and the War (Merry and Pippin stir up the Ents; Gollum falls into the Fire) but they make that success more meaningful – or, rather, they demonstrate the meaning of that success. Good triumphs over Evil not just because one heroic company manages to defeat another evil company, but because Merry and Pippin learn the value of loyalty and oaths of allegiance, because an Elf and a Dwarf overcome their differences, because Frodo (and Sam) learn the value of Pity toward Gollum, and on.
That’s why I really believe that Aragorn is the focus of this chapter far more than Boromir. Aragorn, alone of the Fellowship, realises that the time for single-mindedly pursuing the Quest is over:
Quote:
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‘My heart speaks clearly at last: the fate of the Bearer is in my hands no longer. The Company has played its part. Yet we that remain cannot forsake our companions while we have strength left.’
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Aragorn is the one who decides that they must rescue the hobbits; he takes the time to give Boromir the funeral he deserves; he is more concerned with comforting Boromir in his last moments than in ignoring the human needs of this person in favour of the “more important” tactical issues of who is where. The story of the Fellowship is over, but the stories of the people are just beginning.