Why was Boromir allowed to join the Fellowship?

[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.