The Fellowship of the Ring is the first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This is itself something of a retcon because all three books were originally conceived and written as one novel, but the author split it into three on the advice of his publisher. It is a story set in one of the latter ages of Tolkien’s sprawling mythological history of Middle-Earth. The villain, Sauron, is a former lieutenant of the world’s devil figure who survived his vastly more powerful master’s failed wars against the divine powers who created the universe. Long centuries before the beginning of the story Sauron made his bid for mastery of the much diminished world left in the aftermath of these wars and was twice defeated and ultimately thrown down himself. As part of this effort Sauron forged a powerful artifact known as the One Ring or Ruling Ring. The One Ring was a weapon that allowed Sauron to exert control and influence over the lesser Rings of Power created or possessed by the leaders of the various mortal races who populate Middle-Earth as well as the people who wore them. This was a great advantage because the lesser rings, which were made with Sauron’s expert advice or direct assistance and given to the rulers of the dwarves, elves and humans (referred to in the story as Men) as gifts, were powerful magical items in their own right and moreover were worn by individuals who were powerful both personally and politically.
Sauron lost the One Ring the second time he was defeated. He survived in large part because so much of his power was bound up into the Ring that he could not be killed so long as the Ring existed. The story proper is kicked off by the realization that the magic ring found by the protagonist’s uncle on an adventure decades before is the One Ring, and that moreover Sauron is aware that it has been found and has begun dispatching agents to retrieve it. The protagonist Frodo is friends with the wizard Gandalf, who puts all of these things together and sends Frodo fleeing to safety in the elven land of Rivendell, where a fellowship is formed to carry the Ring back to the place where it was forged and destroy it once and for all.
One of the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring is a Man named Boromir. He is the elder son of the Steward of the Gondor, a powerful human kingdom that somewhat resembles a Byzantine state in organization and military strength. The kings of Gondor vanished long ago and the Stewards have ruled in their stead for centuries. The office of Steward is passed down hereditarily, which means that Boromir is for all practical purposes the crown prince of Gondor. Boromir has two motivations. One of them is noble and freely admitted: Boromir wants to save his home and his people from the threat of Sauron and his dark kingdom of Mordor. One of them is less noble: Boromir wants to personally be the one who saves Gondor, and to win the glory and honor that comes with that deed. Boromir is a heroic Man and also a proud man. The very first line that introduces him describes him as having “a fair and noble face” and also as being “proud and stern of glance (Tolkien 312). Both of these qualities lead to his ultimate downfall.
Boromir’s desire for recognition is in many ways an outgrowth of his feelings that his family and his people are not appropriately appreciated for their efforts in protecting others. It is hard to read the fact that he is the first to speak after Elrond falls silent any other way, or his comment that “few, I deem, know of our deeds, and therefore guess little at their peril, if we should fail at last” (Tolkien 319). All of this comes to head when he meets Aragorn, the rightful King of Gondor by blood and Frodo, the Ring-Bearer of no readily discernable heroic qualities. This represents a double blow to Boromir’s pride. Aragorn being the rightful king means that the rule of the Stewards will come to an end, despite their generations of work on behalf of the kingdom. Even Boromir’s heroic pouting and desire for praise is threatened by the revelation that Aragorn and his fellow Rangers have been ceaselessly at work securing the safety of regular people in the wild and on the roads between civilization, and that for all their efforts “less thanks have we than you” (Tolkien 323). By itself this is probably something Boromir could have accepted. Aragorn is after all a skilled ranger and a dangerous warrior in his own right beneath the wanderer’s facade. But the revelation of how much depends on Frodo represents a one-two punch to Boromir’s ego, because Frodo is emphatically not a warrior and Boromir can see no reason save “unhappy chance” (Tolkien 520) that Frodo should be the one to carry such an incredibly powerful artifact that could be used as a weapon against Gondor’s enemies.
All of this coupled with the corrupting influence of the Ring leads Boromir to ultimately snap and try to seize the ring by force from Frodo. He does this only a few minutes after declaring that “I am a true man, neither thief nor tracker” and that Boromir has no intention of harming or robbing him (Tolkien 520). This treachery and dishonesty is telling in a man considered an exemplary specimen from a culture that despises both of those things, as we see in the next book when his younger brother is accused of trying to entrap Frodo with a falsehood. On the surface it seems like this is a case of Boromir’s identity and beliefs being tested and found inadequate, proving that under temptation he is not the good and honorable man that he and others thought he was. But another way to look at it is that the temptation of the Ring, the temptation to take the Ring and use it as a weapon to save his people and accomplish great good, is ultimately an affirmation of both aspects of Boromir’s character: nobility and pride. Manipulated by the Ring or not Boromir was acting out of both of those traits, his desire to save Gondor and his desire to be the one who saved Gondor. Thus, Boromir’s character arc and end when he confesses his crime and dies protecting the hobbits Merry and Pippin ultimately affirm all aspects of Boromir’s identity, the good and the bad.
Works Cited
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring. United Kingdom: George Allen & Unwin, 29 July 1954. Ebook. Amazon Digital Services. 15 February 2012.
