[Formendacil]

Despite an absolutely fascinating fourteen-year-old discussion about Boromir (of all characters for this chapter!), and some promising comparisons to be made between Moria and Lórien, I'm going to go far more Reader Response than analysis with this chapter than usual, because its final paragraphs were referenced back to me of late by a friend (and a non-Downer friend at that!) and have been on my mind and I realise that Cerin Amroth has had something of a strong effect on me.

Specifically, the line: "here is the heart of Elvendom on earth," and the sadness this engenders upon rereading knowing that it is about to be said of Aragorn that "he left the hill of Cerin Amroth and came there never again as living man."

Although Cerin Amroth is not even in the top twenty moments or scenes I think of first when thinking of The Lord of the Rings, these two coupled lines, which bracket this moment for me, are chiselled into my understanding of this book and retain their shapes in the leafmould of my own mind.

Since 2010 I have been an immigrant--not, perhaps, from one very different culture to another, but I am 3000 miles as the wolf runs from what was once my home "and [t]here my heart dwells ever," if I may be so bold as to apply the words of Aragorn to myself.

Like Aragorn coming into this chapter, I will likely revisit "the heart of Elvendom on earth" (very much redefining "Elvendom" here to mean something more like "home"--but that is, I think, still in keeping with the mood of Aragorn's speech here), but inevitably there will be a last visit and I will come "never again as living man."

I bring all this up not to evoke some sort of pity for me, but because I think these two snippets of text, shaded in by the narrative around them, form one of the great examples of how Tolkien's writings have helped me process and understand my own life. Aragorn still has Gondor and marriage and Eldarion and plenty other great things in his future--but he will never revisit this moment. And consider what "the heart of Elvendom on earth" means as a statement coming from someone who was raised among the Eldar!

This scene, which is close to essential to understanding the character of Aragorn (and the essence of many things in the book) is almost impossible to imagine in Peter Jackson's movies. This isn't exactly a question of faithfulness, though it draws that in, as of dimension: this transcendant otherliness of things like Lórien (and, for that matter, the sinful wretchedness of somethings at the far end of the same continuum) are lacking in the movie--whether they CAN'T be portrayed in movies, like depth in a 2-D picture, is a question I leave for other minds to ponder.