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Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man
I understand your reasoning, Fordim, but I am not sure if the Amon Hen 'effect' can be deduced from the experiences of the characters that you refer to because I do not see its influence as affecting its surroundings. As I see it, its effect only impacts (if at all) on those who visit it at the time that they visit.
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My apologies, but I think I was a bit unclear in the first post on this. When I drew my (brilliant
) conclusions about Amon Hen I was applying them to the whole locale and not just to the Seat of Seeing. (Amon Hen is the hill itself upon which the Seat is situated, after all.)
So, while I agree with your observations about people who sat/did not sit & when they endured their 'trials' my point is not directly about the Seat anyway.
Hills are important for Tolkien and it seems they mark far more than just a physical geography but a moral one as well. Frodo's moral journey begins in Bag End (beneath a Hill), takes him to his first trial at Amon Sul (which he fails in a way) and then culminates (in FotR) at Amon Hen (in which he succeeds). His journey is itself a path from blindess-beneath-a-hill to obscured-vision-or-mis-seeing-on-a-hill to a moment of vision and clarity upon a hill. I suppose this makes sense when we consider that his journey will end at the summit of a mountain. Although it won't end there, will it? But back beneathe a hill. . .but not even there. . .will it end upon the hill of Westernesse??
So I stand by my point: Boromir, Aragorn and Frodo all find exaltation of a sort at Amon Hen (the hill, not the Seat of Seeing).