«« Previous Page Next Page »»

COMING OF AGE: CHANGES OF HEART

Growth and enlightenment in "Lord of the Rings"

Boromir is stiff and proud, arrogant even, and change does not come to him easily. He needs to change, however, for the sake of the Fellowship and for his own soul, and in the end he does, though he has fought so long against it that the consequences are dire, most of all for himself. There are, however, several landmarks along the road to his final change of heart. He begins as a man who knows his own prowess, believes his own worth as heir to Minas Tirith, the last bastion of an ancient and honourable race against darkness and chaos. But at Rivendell he discovers he must be subordinate to another heir with higher claims. Not unnaturally, he needs to be convinced that these claims are not false, and even when his intellect is satisfied he finds the fact difficult to accept. Struggling to come to terms with this change in his circumstances, he is then faced with Galadriel, who looks into his heart and creates further disturbance. Boromir blames her for this, though what she has done, as with the other members of the Fellowship, is simply to bring to his conscious attention thoughts and desires that were already there. Boromir desires power, and this is something he now finds incompatible with his position. Believing Galadriel has tempted him with the Ring, he rejects the thought. Again, it is his upbringing which prompts him to the right course, not his own inner conscience. Instead of recognising his temptation and striving in humility to overcome it, as the others do, he refuses to acknowledge it until, matured and armed with plausible arguments, it conquers him utterly.

It takes peril and the loss of the Ringbearer to bring him understanding of what he has done. His defence of the other hobbits, leading to his death, springs this time from true selflessness rather than his hitherto somewhat superficial ‘honour’. Up to now, all Boromir’s actions have been something of a sham, starting with the journey to Rivendell itself; his brother, a more suitable candidate for a mission to the House of Elrond in many ways, had the prompting dream three times, Boromir himself only once. The reader is strongly tempted to wonder if Boromir in fact had the dream at all, but lied in order to go, feeling it was due his position as the Steward’s heir. I think that here we should give Boromir the benefit of the doubt; his honour, that he sets great store by, would forbid him to stoop to such a lie. There is good in Boromir, attested by his having the dream once at least, though it is Faramir who has more comprehension of the spiritual realm of the Elves, and so has it three times. Through shame and remorse Boromir learns the true meaning of honour at last, though his change of heart has for him dire consequences: the Heir of Minas Tirith gives his life— many, such as his father, would judge he throws it away— to save two apparently inconsequential members of the Fellowship, and he does not even succeed. Yet his action is crucial to victory at Isengard, and even though Merry and Pippin are captured, the very fact of their defence to the death by a man of stature no doubt impresses the Uruk-hai with their importance, and helps to keep them alive.

Boromir’s final scene contains much of the penitence, confession and final absolution found in the Roman Catholic faith, Aragorn acting in the role of priest. The changes that this incident promotes have ripples that spread far, certainly to every later turn of the story, and it is Boromir’s own change of heart that prompts one of the most major. Aragorn has been uncertain of his path, torn between further assisting the Ringbearer and going to Minas Tirith, where lies his power and his inheritance. Boromir’s last example of sacrifice shows him his way and he does neither, but chooses similarly to protect the weak, to ‘do the right thing’ rather than the strategically obvious one. Aragorn himself has learned to think of Middle-earth in its entirety, not only of his own lands and people.

Top «« Previous Page Next Page »»

First published in Mallorn [journal of the Tolkien Society] #39