Verily my compassion overcometh my wrath. Who are YOUR famous five?

[Lindale]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Boromir - He's one of those achingly human characters in the books. Of course it is wrong of him to try to take the ring from Frodo. But you can see his reasons for it and understand him. Something in his personality and charisma greatly impresses me. He's one of those people of whom you could say "he's a great man". He's noble and brave and he has that fault of short-temper that seems to intrigue me. And his death is just something so heroic and beautiful.

The ultimate personification of human nature (the good and the evil) are in him! His breaking the oath to protecting Frodo is just a matter of evaluation--which is more important to him, the Elven advice or his daddy's city? For him, before he fully understood things, or rather when lapses occurred, the Elves and especially Elrond and the bloke Aragorn do not realize the threats of Mordor and the stuff he perceived the boost that the Ring can give. Ah well. Can we really blame him for this? The thing that got me though was that he had to die. Maybe because Tolkien wanted the guys with the stain of "evil" in their hearts to die? look at Feanor, Gollum, Turin, all those tragic heroes.

2. Feanor

The most talented and greatest of the Noldor, but... pride and temper is his downfall. I sympathize with that. Great minds, some blokes at school say, are often misunderstood. True for Feanor. And you see that he's no typical 'good boy'--on the contrary, he's the guy that will go to all ends to get what he wants.

3. Luthien

Love conquers all for this girl, even to the point of challenging Hell. Ah well. She fell in love. Sometimes that really happens. (and the fact that she and her lover were able to do what the forces of the Noldor and the Sindar could not do.)

4. Eowyn

Unlike Arwen who sat at home doing her embroidery or whatever she did to finish the banner, Eowyn chose to ride to death when she got rejected by the man she thought she loved. Despair, and pride. I love characters with pride. But at some point after the end, I got a little wacked because she chose the gentle guy. At first I thought she was going to be a Valkyrie or something.

5. Turin???

But not that much. He's like Oedipus, damned if he does this, damned if he doesn't. Poor bloke. But you got to admit that some of the stuff were his fault. Maybe not the death of Beleg, but the fall of Nargothrond. (And you gotta admit to o that Orodreth was stupid to listen to a mere mortal against the advices of a god's messengers.) Nienor was certainly not his fault, but... hah. He mistook the instinctive love for a sister for a wifely devotion!

Poor Hurin! Watching his kids getting more and more wretched, what could he have felt?