Why was Boromir allowed to join the Fellowship?

[Galadriel55]

This kind of makes me wonder about why they chose people for the Quest who were not going for the Quest - if you're heading to Minas Tirith and the Quest is headed to Mordor, that creates a bit of a problem. And it did too at Parth Galen. Were Elrond and co. so confident of Minas Tirith's stand or of the Quest's route, or maybe they just could not plan that far ahead, so regardless of the crew they knew it would have to improvise beyond a certain point?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

This kind of makes me wonder about why they chose people for the Quest who were not going for the Quest - if you're heading to Minas Tirith and the Quest is headed to Mordor, that creates a bit of a problem.

Technically, none of the Fellowship were bound to the Quest except Frodo. As Elrond said, "on him alone is any charge laid". The others were free to leave at any time and go where they liked. You would think that might be a bit of a security risk, but then again they had Gandalf, Aragorn, and Frodo's kinfolk and dearest friends in the group along with Boromir. The real "outsiders" as I see it were Legolas and Gimli, who were with each step southward going away from their homes, and had no real ties to the Company other than their own senses of loyalty and friendship. In the views of Elrond and Gandalf, that was apparently enough.

[Tuor in Gondolin]

Originally posted by Inzoladun
It makes me wonder which way Legolas and Gimli would have chosen if Gandalf had not apparently died

Didn't Aragorn say that he had thought to go with Gimli and Sam with Frodo to Mordor, and have Boromir take the other hobbits to Minas Tirith. Not sure who Legolas would supposed to go with.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Tuor in Gondolin

Didn't Aragorn say that he had thought to go with Gimli and Sam with Frodo to Mordor, and have Boromir take the other hobbits to Minas Tirith. Not sure who Legolas would supposed to go with.

That was Aragorn's thought for the Company as the situation stood after Gandalf's "death", but I was musing on what they would have done if Gandalf had still been with them.

[skip spence]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

That was Aragorn's thought for the Company as the situation stood after Gandalf's "death", but I was musing on what they would have done if Gandalf had still been with them.

Oh yeah. This has always puzzled me though. I mean, I can't understand his reasoning, why would he prefer Gimli to Legolas? Legolas has all these Elven superpowers, he can move without a sound, even dance across newly-fallen snowdrifts, he can discern individual faces from miles away, he barely needs food or sleep, he sees in the dark and shoots Nazgul from the sky. Whereas Gimli is noisy and afraid of ghosts. And he's short! It could be that Aragorn thinks Legolas a bit delicate and afraid to get his finger-nails dirty over in un-fashionable Mordor.

[Zigûr]

To be fair, Aragorn only states that he would have Legolas go with Boromir to Minas Tirith "if Legolas is not willing to leave us," by which I assume he would have been more or less fine with Legolas accompanying them to Mordor as well.

I always took his choice of Gimli as being due to the simple fact that he was a Dwarf and presumably the most likely of all of them to endure the hardships of Mordor - although as of course we've already discovered by this point Gimli is perhaps more delicate than might otherwise have been assumed: "Hard was my parting from Lothlórien."

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

I always took his choice of Gimli as being due to the simple fact that he was a Dwarf and presumably the most likely of all of them to endure the hardships of Mordor - although as of course we've already discovered by this point Gimli is perhaps more delicate than might otherwise have been assumed: "Hard was my parting from Lothlórien."

But the parting from Lorien has nothing to do with physical toughness, and it is quite the emotional moment for a Dwarf like Gimli. I think he deserves some slack here.