[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Really just time for a quick post, but I hope to have more later today (RL willing).

SpM, that scene with Galadriel passing round the cup is taken straight from any number of Anglo-Saxon poems. In the A-S world, the woman of the hall would be the "cupbearer" who took the flagon to each man. It was an important, and specifically feminine role.

As to the gifts. Esty has already made the point about Galadriel's gifts as being directed toward the final fate of the heroes, but I would like to expand on that a bit and connect it to Celeborn.

Galadriel seems to be all about endings. Her gifts to Frodo, Sam, Aragorn and Gimli all are directed toward what will happen to them after the quest, in addition to being useful during it. Frodo is given the light of Westernesse, where he will eventually go to find healing. Sam is given the dust that he will need to heal the Shire, where he will live out (most) of the rest of his life. Aragorn is given the gem in token of Arwen and his marriage to her. And Gimli is given the hairs that will cement his new bond with Legolas/Elves and that will lead to his co-operation with them and his travels with Legolas. Merry and Pippin are somewhat left out of this, I realise, but I still think it significant that they are given the same sorts of gifts as is Boromir -- and again they seem to have something to do with their endings: Boromir ends his journey in battle to proect the Halfings, Merry and Pippin will go on, after the quest, to defend the Shire in battle, and to become the closest things that the Shire has to military leaders.

So Galadriel is all about endings in her gifts, but Celeborn is all about the present. The boats and counsel he gives them are meant for the here and now: for the road. So perhaps this is a way of looking at the Celeborn/Galadriel relationship (and sorry, but I do not have as convincing or hilarious a post as Saucy does in Crazy Scenes to make this point)? Celeborn, the powerful Elf lord of this world, is committed to the practicalities of this world, while Galadriel, the last of the Noldor and thus of the 'other world' is all about that -- she is about what comes after or at the end, he is all about the present. Both are necessary for the success of the Quest, but in the end, we are more 'enchanted' by Galadriel and the endings/fadings that she represents than we are by the present task. This is interesting, for Tolkien is able to drag us into a very Elvish state -- by valuing Galadriel and her gifts over Celeborn's we, in effect, think like Elves insofar as we value the gifts that are -- all of them -- relics from the past that are meant to be preserved into the future.

Boromir and Aragorn: wow, never really thought about them in this way, but it occurs to me that perhaps they are shadowy reflections of each other? Or, perhaps more properly, Boromir is a shadowy reflection of Aragorn? Boromir is a model or type of the hero that Aragorn can (and maybe even wishes to be) but with the passing of Gandalf he is willing to continue on in a more 'hobbit' like mode (creeping toward Mordor rather than riding to the defense of his city). It's interesting that with Boromir's death, Aragorn takes upon himself the tasks that Boromir was fulfilling (protecting Merry and Pippin, then Gondor). It's almost as though at the breaking of the Fellowship, Aragorn is given the choice between Boromir-hero and Frodo-hero and he makes the choice for Boromir?? The big difference between himself and Bor, though, is that he is self-aware to the extent that he is aware of the bind that he is in, and this explains why he is so happy to accept the boats and delay the decision. It's not the Fellowship that he is having trouble splitting up, but himself. He is torn between two heroic models/two heroic journeys and he knows that by taking one he will lose something of the other.

(Hmm. . .just occuring to me for later chapters: perhaps Faramir and Boromir are two halves of an 'Aragorn'?)