Tone

[doug*platypus]

Very interesting topic, I'm sorry that it has so few replies (so far). Tolkien's own Fellowship was, I believe, broken by the First World War. The group of four friends (I forget what they were called; this is long before the Inklings) lost two to the war, if I'm not mistaken. Perhaps Tolkien felt it would be naive for the Fellowship to remain together? Most groups of friends tend to come and go over the years, as each moves on towards their own destiny.

If the Fellowship had stayed together, it would have ended up like so many of the trashy fantasy stories that were spawned in the 80s and 90s. Even with the death of Boromir, the unbreaking of the Fellowship would have seemed both unnatural and idealistic. In any case, Aragorn planned to split the Fellowship anyway.