LotR -- Book 2 - Chapter 02 - The Council of Elrond

[Tuor of Gondolin]

I've always thought (taking into consideration that I was a history major in college) that two chapters were especially fascinating, crucial, and "grabbers"
(that is, getting one drawn into the long tale)
1) The Shadow of the Past and
2) The Council of Elrond. (Plus also the concept of elves. Upon first reading LOTR
it wasn't until a future chapter and an incident involving Glorfindel and Frodo that
I realized that Tolkien's elves weren't those irritating little leprechaun-like beings. (And I'm part Irish).

Certainly there is more then one "eye-opener" in the chapter.
To cite one bit of allusions to Middle-earth not being abandoned to evil
forces, but done in Tolkien's way of alluding tantalizingly of a universe
not manichaean but with forces aiming to help, while not dominating,
free wills:

What shall we do with the Ring, the least of rings, the trifle that Sauron fancies? That is the doom that we must deem. That is the purpose for which you are called hither. Called, I say, though I have not called you to me, strangers from distant lands. You have come and are here met, in this very nick of time, by chance as it may seem. Yet it is not so. Believe rather that it is so ordered that we, who sit here, and none others, must now find counsel for the peril of the world.

This is, of course, an echo of the observation (by Gandalf?)
about Bilbo being meant to find the Ring, and not by intent of the Ring.

And recall that initial readers of LOTR did so without the Silmarillion, UT, or
HoME. The literary effect is of a world into which one is barely glimpsing, at a
moment of crucial importance. You're almost like the proverbial fly on the wall.
(Perhaps like a certain hobbit sitting in on a secret council to which he was not
invited).

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Careful, Boromir - you're jumping ahead a bit! Let's save the discussion of the forming of the Fellowship for the next chapter. There are plenty of other matters to talk about first.

[Kuruharan]

Aside from the importance the chapter plays in the advancement of the plot, The Council of Elrond is one of the more important chapters for setting the tone of Middle-earth. There are so many other issues touched upon that it lends a great deal of depth to the world.

We also have our first “visit” from Saruman in this chapter. In it Tolkien makes what I think is a rather important philosophical statement that lends a great deal of insight to his way of thinking. I’m thinking, of course, of the, “And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom” line. I believe this may be one of his more important slaps against modern society and “the machine.”

[Aiwendil]

This is the second history chapter in LotR, parallel to chapter 2 of Book I. There we learned enough about the Ring to motivate the story of Book I; the function of this chapter, in terms of plot, is to motivate the rest of the story.

Taking the Ring to Mount Doom is obviously an incredibly dangerous course of action, and if not set up correctly, it would be all too easy for the reader to doubt that such a course is really wise. The risk is that Gandalf, Elrond, and the rest will look like fools - or worse, their actions will not be believable, but will look like manipulation on the part of the author in order to bring about the plot he wants. It is critical, therefore, that the reader understand the necessity of taking the Ring to Mordor. This is part of the reason that we need a whole chapter devoted to the Council.

It's really a testament to his story-telling prowess that Tolkien is able to pull this chapter off. It could very easily have become extremely tedious. But for Tolkien its not just a chapter of exposition to be tolerated; it's powerful and enjoyable in its own right. I think it's interesting to consider just how Tolkien manages this. I don't pretend to have the whole answer but a few ideas are:

1. The exposition is strongly motivated by the need to decide what to do with the Ring.

2. The exposition only partially takes the form of history - there is also much that concerns recent events (Gloin's story, Gandalf's story, Legolas's news about Gollum, etc.).

3. The characters are more than just repositories of necessary information - they each have a distinct personality, which comes through in both the content and the style of their speech. Shippey notes the way that, for example, Dwarves tend to use short sentences and the way Elrond typically inverts his word order to emphasize certain words, or to put the verb second.

4. The backstory is interesting. For Tolkien, the story of the Last Alliance is not merely valuable as a prerequisite for the story at hand; it's valuable in itself, as a story in its own right. It has plot, characters, and suspense of its own.

[Mithalwen]

Tuor touches on one of the things that I find most interesting in this chapter from a plot (it has always been a favourite becasue of the high elf involvement) is the idea of the "Calling" but not by Elrond. I have just rambled on about this in teh role of fate thread and I am loath to repeat myself beyond saying that I think it is interesting that it was Boromir who was most directly "called" by a force beyond the unfolding of events. However the fact that Faramir was "called" first and most frequently suggests that fate wanted him to go - which I feel would have been catastrophic for the quest. Also did fate cause Boromir to lose his horse and so arrive after Frodo rather than long before? I have to check when Boromir set out but clearly it was long before the Hobbits left the Shire.

I will hang fire with my "Why Legolas?" theories, but on a lighter note, I would say that Erestor always struck me as a scholar rather than a warrior (but I rpg-ed him for a while which may have coloured my view).

[davem]

Had Elrond already decided what to do with the Ring? Had Gandalf? Or were they really examining every option here before deciding? They certainly did explore every possibility, from the brave to the reckless via the absolutely inane - 'Lets through it in the Sea! That'll solve our problem!'. Its pretty obvious that some of them are either not the sharpest knives in the drawer, or they are petrified out of their wits.

We learn quite a lot about a number of characters - Aragorn has a nasty side - he was 'not gentle' with Gollum, & in fact virtually admits to 'taming Smeagol' by beating him & depriving him of food & water. Gandalf shows for the first time his mastery in a battle of wits, twisting Saruman's arguments, tearing them apart. In a sense he actually does break them to find what they are made of, & shows Saruman up for what he truly is. Bilbo's offer to take back the Ring shows both his courage & that the desire for it has not left him. Frodo, while wanting desperately to remain in rivendell with Bilbo suddenly finds himself speaking words which seem to come from someone else - the 'other half' of him, which Gildor spoke to him of in the earlier draft.

And Boromir - certainly not the Boromir of the movie! This Boromir is so full of himself, so certain of his superior wisdom - as far as he's concerned he's the warrior - he's been on the front lines & knows what these 'armchair generals' don't - that there's something very powerful & very nasty heading right for their comfortable little world that's going to pounce & gobble them all up. And what do they do in the face of that? Why, start heating up the forge to turn their most devastating 'sword' into a ploughshare!

The Dwarves are confused - Gloin virtually admits that Dain hasn't decided what to do about the Messenger's offer - well, if all the dwarvish hoards of wealth had at root a Ring, how tempting would the offer of one of them be? Yet, the Dwarves themselves claim to be 'concerned' only about what the men of Dale might do. The Elves of Mirkwood seem pretty careless in their custodianship of Gollum - they effectively fall asleep on watch, allow him to escape, & then end their pursuit of him because they get a bit too close to Dol Guldur, &, well, they don't go that way, so they just had to forget the whole thing.

What we have is everyone caught up in their own concerns, & looking to pass the buck. They gather in Rivendell to ask for counsel, & it basically takes Elrond & Gandalf, with a little help from Aragorn, 30 odd pages to snap them out of their self obsession, & get them to wake up, stop being stupid ('No, really, we could throw it in the Sea, walk away & pretend it never happened!' - 'Why, I'm sorry, but that's not a very intelligent suggestion! What we should do is hand it over to that looney prancing about in the Old Forest, walk away & pretend it never happened!' 'No, This is foolishness! The intelligent thing to do is give it to me, let me total Sauron, & then, er, well, we can cross that bridge when we come to it' etc, etc, etc).

What we're seeing is a bunch of people who really haven't got a clue, being guided to agree on the only possible sensible option - take it to the Fire & destroy it. I think Elrond knew what the descision would have to be all along, & was almost sitting back & letting everyone get their stupid ideas out of the way, so that they could be shown to be silly, & in the end, hopefully, they would all come to see what he knew was the inevitable course. Perhaps we have a play on words in the title of this chapter - not simply the Council of Elrond, but the counsel of Elrond, because in the end, its his show, he steers it where he knows it must go.

[Boromir88]

Davem:

What we're seeing is a bunch of people who really haven't got a clue, being guided to agree on the only possible sensible option - take it to the Fire & destroy it.

First off I want to say what a well thought out, well put post, I think you nailed it on the head with the dwarves, elves, Boromir etc. And the whole "throw it in the sea" LOL!

Anyway with the quote of yours that I have posted, I think we see a lot of that throughout this book. We see of a lot of people who desire the same goal, but want to deal with it in their own way, or in a totally different way to reach that goal. As a quick example, Frodo and Gollum both want to keep the ring away from Sauron, but Frodo wants to throw it in the fire, destroy it. Gollum wishes to take it for himself. I think you see that a lot here in LOTR, but I don't want to get ahead of myself just yet. And because they desire the same goal, they are able to help eachother out eventhough they might not intend of helping out the other person.

[Firefoot]

Do you remember your experience when reading it for the first time?

This chapter is one of the ones I remember most vividly reading for the first time. Like Frodo, I was amazed when Elrond does his "Well I remember the glory of the Elder days..." speech. I must have picked up 3018, 3rd Age somewhere because I was thinking along the lines of "Wait a minute! Just how old is he, anyway?" Another thing that originally confused me was sending it over the Sea. Send it to where? Then something was said about sending it back. Who would send it back? There are several of these hints in the chapter, though most of the history portions are more explained. As a person who had prior to this only read the Hobbit, it was these little things that added to the allusion of depth to the book, one of the many things that made feel it was "fantastic" at the end, rather than just a good book that goes back on the shelf and is never read again. What made me smile, though, was Glóin's line "You were less tender to me!" when Legolas was explaining Gollum's care. It is a sense of connection that only readers of the Hobbit can really feel. Perhaps it was satisfaction at really understanding something that was going on that wasn't flat-out explained in the text.

It confuses me a little how people can skip this chapter. Several people I have talked to skimmed through it or just completely skipped it, calling it boring. Granted, it is not very action packed, but very interesting nonetheless. There is a great deal of the subtle humor that Tolkien excells at, and the introductions and insights to characters such as Boromir are crucial. I do not understand how anyone can skip this chapter and understand what is happening later on.