The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth

[Kuruharan]

This is a mere technical point to interrupt the flow of this excellent analysis, but Morgoth’s curse is driving me to make it anyway.

But, was Turin's pride entirely a bad thing? Would he have gone to face Glaurung if not driven by his ofermod? How many were spared by his reckless heroics?

I find there to be certain problematic qualities with this.

Even though his excessively heroic actions spared the Haladin (mostly) Turin’s interactions with Glaurung greatly abetted the dragon’s career. Turin’s pride caused him to convince the king that the Narog should be bridged, which allowed Glaurung to lead an army and destroy Nargothrond.

During the sack of the kingdom, Turin’s pride allowed Glaurung to taunt Turin into doing something that can only be called stupid, which also cost many lives.

Many more were lost because of Turin’s reckless heroics than were ultimately spared. If not for Turin, Nargothrond would not have fallen (at least in the way it did) and Brethil would not have been attacked by the dragon (or at least not a dragon in search of Turin).

Even though it did accomplish something useful in the end, I believe that Turin’s heroics were essentially undesirable. Whether or not Tolkien retained any admiration for ofermod I don’t think can be justly determined from the tale of Turin. The problems contained in the tale are too tightly woven together.

Boromir may be a slightly different case. Unlike Turin who (indirectly and over a long period of time) drew Glaurung to him, Boromir died doing something that needed to be done in a situation that was not entirely of his own making. True, he tried to take the Ring from Frodo and his return was what caused the Fellowship to scatter to the four winds. However, the Fellowship might have broken up to look for Frodo. In such a circumstance, Boromir might have died defending Merry and Pippin anyway. I think that Boromir’s death was (to a degree) more noble than Turin’s because Boromir died in a situation that was less of his own making.