The Lord of the Rings: The Council of Elrond (Part Five and Last)

The Tale

 

At last Elrond speaks. The news about Saruman is very serious; he was long in their trust and knew all their counsels. But such betrayals have happened before. What has surprised him more is the adventures of Frodo.

The Barrow-wights are known by many names and the Old Forest is but a remnant of which it once was. ‘Time was a squirrel could go from tree to tree from what is now the Shire to Dunland west of Isengard.’ Elrond journeyed through those lands of old, but he had forgotten about Bombadil, who has had many names over the ages. Perhaps he should have summoned him to the Council, but Gandalf says he wouldn’t have left his land.

Erestor, Elrond’s counsellor, asks if maybe they should call him now? He seems to have a power even over the Ring. Gandalf says it’s better to say that it has no power over him. Bombadil can’t alter the Ring or break its power over others. Erestor asks if he couldn’t take the Ring and keep it safe and the wizard says he might, but such things hold no power over his mind. He’d probably just throw it away. Glorfindel adds that even if he did take it, Sauron would undoubtedly find out and bend all his power to reclaim it, and then Tom would fall, Last as he was First.

Galdor of the Grey Havens asks if any power still remains with the Elves, at Rivendell or the Havens or at Lorien, that could keep the Ring safe, and Elrond says he certainly doesn’t, and neither do they. Glorfindel says there are only two alternatives that remain: to send it over Sea or to destroy it. Elrond points out that none of them possess the power to destroy it, and if they tried to send it over Sea, those there would reject it; it is Middle-earth’s problem to deal with.

Then, says Glorfindel, let us cast it into the Sea, and make Saruman’s lie come true. Gandalf points out that that will not destroy it, and that in time or by strange chance it could return. And Sauron would endure. They must seek a final end to this threat. Galdor points out that, anyway, if they take the path to the Havens, as the Elves have done so many times, it will likely be expected and the Ring taken.

‘Then,’ said Erestor, ‘there are but two courses, as Glorfindel has already declared: to hide the Ring forever; or to unmake it. But both are beyond our power. Who will read this riddle for us?’

Elrond says the road before them is now clear, a road unforeseen. ‘To walk into peril – to Mordor We must send the Ring to the Fire.’

Everyone falls silent again. Frodo notices Boromir fidgeting and frowning. Finally, he speaks up. Why don’t they simply use the Ring to defeat Sauron? It seems it was put into their hands right at the time they need it most. Elrond points out that they cannot use the Ring. An ordinary person cannot wield it, and those who already have power are in graver peril, for even if they overthrew Sauron, they would become a new Dark Lord. Boromir backs down, but doubtfully. Gondor must trust in such weapons as they have, and it would be a comfort to know that others fought with all they have as well.

Gloin agrees, and all must act in league with what they have. Though Gandalf tells him that all the Dwarven Rings are gone, he asks what of the Elf Rings then. Very powerful Rings, they say.

Elrond replies that they are hidden, and that their powers were not made as weapons of war. Though Sauron had no hand in their making, still they are subject to the One Ring. If the Dark Lord gets the Ring, everything that has been done by their power will be turned against them. And even if the One is destroyed, those same things will fade. But, says Glorfindel, the Elves are willing to take that chance, if the dominion of Sauron is broken forever.

Erestor asks what strength have they to get the Ring to the Fires of Mt. Doom, anyway? It seems like a path of despair or folly. Gandalf says it is not despair ‘for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt.’ And if it’s folly, then let folly be their cloak. Sauron will never imagine that they’ll try to destroy the Ring, because it’s something he’d never do himself. If they try this it will put him out of all reckoning, at least for a while.

‘The road must be trod,’ Elrond says, ‘but it will be hard. And neither strength or wisdom will carry us far upon it. The quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.’

Bilbo pipes up, says he sees where Elrond is heading, and volunteers for the mission, although he’d already written the end of his book, ‘and he lived happily ever afterwards, to the end of his days’. Boromir almost laughs until he sees that the others are taking him seriously. Gandalf gently says the Ring has passed beyond him.  But keep the ending of his book: it might still come true. Bilbo laughs and says that was the only pleasant advice the wizard every gave him, so he wonders if it is any good. But who will be sent with the Ring?

The noon bell rings. But all are silent and do not move. ‘A great dread fell on [Frodo], as if he was awaiting the pronouncement of some doom that he had long foreseen and vainly hoped might after all never be spoken. An overwhelming longing to rest and remain at peace by Bilbo’s side in Rivendell filled all his heart. At last with an effort he spoke, and wondered to hear his own words, as if some other will was using his small voice.'

‘I will take the Ring,’ he said, 'though I do not know the way.’

Elrond raises his eyes and says that if he understands all they’ve heard today, he thinks that this task is appointed for Frodo, and if he does not find a way, no one will.  Would any of the Wise have expected it? But if he will accept the task, Elrond will say he could sit among all the mighty Elf-friends of old.

Then Sam, who has been sitting quietly up to now, jumps up and asks that they won’t send him alone, surely? Elrond smiles. ‘You at least shall go with him. It is hardly possible to separate you from him, even when he is summoned to a secret council and you are not.’

‘Sam sat down, blushing and muttering. ‘A nice pickle we have landed ourselves in, Mr. Frodo!’

Bits and Bobs

Ans so we come at last to the end of “The Council of Elrond". I may say it is a masterpiece of the compression and presentation of information, skillfully interweaving many voices and with enough characteristic interruptions to add to the interest and give rest to the reader, instead of simply presenting great chunks of unbroken stories one after another (like this sentence, in fact). The fact that it is a single chapter but has required so much retelling and so many wholesale quotations is evidence of its compaction.

The phrase about a squirrel leaping from tree to tree without touching the ground for a great distance occurs several times in the Medieval Era. In Tolkien and E. V. Gordon’s edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, they quote: “From Blacon Point to Helbree, a squirrel may leap from tree to tree.” The use of such old folk sayings adds a flavor of age and authenticity to the telling.

Boromir’s willingness to use the Ring as a weapon, and his reluctant acceptance of reasons not to, is a foreshadowing of the struggle that he will have with the Ring later. Simple desire of it corrupts the heart, as it has corrupted Saruman. Elrond points out that they must destroy the Ring because it is a danger even to the Wise, ‘For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so.’ In another of his letters, Tolkien points out that his world is not a simply Manichean universe, a balance between Good and Evil. ‘I do not believe in Absolute Evil, because that would be Zero.’ Evil cannot exist on its’ own in the same way as Good.

When all other possibilities have been considered and rejected, only one remains: to destroy the Ring in Mt. Doom, where it was made. This seems to be foolishness as opposed to the ‘wise’ policies of Sauron, and the weak are as likely to succeed as the strong. This strongly suggests to me the passage from 1 Corinthians, especially “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are”.

Elrond says this is the hour of the Shire folk at last. Tolkien in one of his letters points out that Gandalf chose Bilbo and later Frodo because they had all the better qualities of the Hobbits, while also having a extra ‘spark’ that can lead them to extraordinary virtue. They are, to that extent, chosen, but they had ’lots of chances … of turning back, only they didn’t.’

On this subject, some people have suggested that Frodo is being used by Eru, that when he “wondered to hear his own words, as if some other will was using his small voice,” that that  is ‘the still, small voice of God’, choosing for him. This is contrary to Tolkien’s own philosophy of Free Will. The key words here are ‘as if’. I think the better way to understand this dichotomy of his mind is that his ‘higher self’ is overwhelming his lower desires for comfort and safety, to his own astonishment. In some way this is an even freer choice, since it is above self-interest. There is no compromise with the ‘nagging Flesh’.  

Sam ends the chapter with some of his simple common sense. You can make a list of the times we get Sam’s down-to-earth comments on higher matters that bring things down to brass tacks, and which will flower as the Quest continues. His rather gloomy observations remind me in a certain degree of C. S. Lewis’ Puddleglum; but despite their pessimistic outlooks, still their faith is great. “I'm a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it.” – The Silver Chair. But Sam is, to a certain degree, comic relief sometimes. He even gets to use the word “pickle” (here meaning 'another fine mess'), which most comedians have described as being one of the funniest words in the English language, though few have used it to its best effect.

The Lord of the Rings: The Council of Elrond (Part Four)

 

The Tale

Now comes the time for Gandalf to explain why he disappeared from the Shire so many months ago and why Saruman the White, their ring-expert, is not at the Council.

At the end of June Gandalf felt a cloud of anxiety on his mind, a foreboding of danger. He left Frodo to ride out and beat the bounds a bit and find what news he could. Messages get to him while on the border, of war and defeat in Gondor and of the Black Shadow that appeared at Osgiliath. Then not far from Bree to his surprise, he came upon Radagast the Brown, his brother wizard, never a great traveler.

He is on an urgent errand. He tells Gandalf that the Nazgul are abroad, in the guise of riders in black, seeking a land called Shire. Saruman the Wise has sent Radagast to find Gandalf and tell him to come to him if he needs help, but to come at once, or it will be too late. At that Gandalf feels hope, for ‘Saruman has long studied the arts of the Enemy himself’ and might have found some means to drive back the Nine.

Radagast turns to go, but Gandalf delays him for a moment, telling him to send out messages to all the birds and beasts (one of Radagast’s special areas of lore) to bring news of anything to Saruman and Gandalf at Orthanc. Then the brown wizard rides off like all the Nine were after him.

It is late in the day so Gandalf stays at the Prancing Pony in the nearby Bree. He writes a letter to Frodo, entrusts it to the innkeeper Butterbur, then starts the next day.

Weeks later he arrives at Isengard, which is a ring of stones enclosing a valley, and in the middle is a tower of black stone called Orthanc, where Saruman dwells. It is near the Gap of Rohan. The one gate is strongly guarded, but they let Gandalf in as one expected. As the gate closes silently behind him, he is suddenly afraid.

Saruman greets him on the tower’s stairs and leads him into his high chamber. There Gandalf greets him as Saruman the White. The title fills him with anger. He mocks him as Gandalf the Grey, and scoffs at him as a cunning busybody, and asks what brings him from his lurking place in the Shire.

Gandalf says Radagast told him of the return of the Nine, so he sought Saruman’s aid. Saruman mocks the Brown Wizard as a simple fool, with just enough wit to lure Gandalf into the former White Wizard’s trap, for now ‘I am Saruman, the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colors!’ There is indeed a ring on his finger and his robes, which had seemed white, is woven of all colors. It shimmers and bewilders the eye. Gandalf says ‘I liked white better.'

Saruman sneers at the thought, then draws himself up to make a speech. The old powers of the Elves and the men of Numenor is dying. The new power in the East is rising. If he and Gandalf can join it and get a place at the table early, they may in time come to direct its courses and even control it. They have so far striven in vain to produce Knowledge, Rule, and Order with all this nasty free will in the West. Joining with Sauron (whom he never directly names) there would not be ‘any real change in our designs, only in our means.’

Gandalf flatly refuses this plan as Mordor-talk. Saruman’s demeanor changes, and slyly he suggests something else. He realizes that Gandalf knows where this ‘precious thing’ is; if they took the Ruling Ring for themselves the power would pass to them. Gandalf bluntly states there is no us in the matter; only one hand can wield the Ring. And he would not give, he would not even tell Saruman anything more about it, now that he has unmasked himself.

Saruman turns cold and imperious. Since Gandalf will not join with Sauron or Saruman, he will stay locked in Orthanc until he changes his mind, on until the Ruler of the Ring has triumphed and decides his doom. Gandalf is taken and set alone on the pinnacle of Orthanc. From there he can see that the valley of Isengard, once green and fair, is full of pits and forges, and inhabited by wolves and orcs. A dark smoke hovers like a pall over it all. He is imprisoned in a small cold place, like an island in the clouds, with no escape.

‘I saw you!’ cries Frodo, remembering his dream of long ago before he left the Shire. Gandalf replies that it was late in coming, for by then he had escaped.

Saruman’s cunning had not counted on the ‘fool’ Radagast, who, though tricked by the White Wizard, had gone ahead and done as Gandalf asked. The Eagles of the Misty Mountains had gathered much information, seeing the Nazgul and orcs and wolves mustering and passing through the lands. They sent a messenger, Gwaihir the Windlord, to bring the news to Gandalf at Orthanc. Landing on the pinnacle where he sees him standing, at Gandalf’s request the eagle flies him away.

‘How far can you bear me?’ I said to Gwaihir. ‘Many leagues,’ said he, ‘but not to the ends of the earth.’

The eagle lets him down in the nearby land of Rohan, at the court of Edoras, where Gandalf asks the king for a horse. The king will not listen to his warnings about Saruman but bids him take a horse and begone. He chooses the best mount in the land, Shadowfax, and sets off for the North. So quickly does the horse go that although Gandalf leaves Rohan when Frodo left the Shire, he had reached the Shire when Frodo was on the Barrow-downs.

He goes to Hobbiton and speaks to the Gaffer (who not pleased with his new neighbors, the Sackville-Baggins) and finds that Frodo left less than a week before, not right away as his letter had bid him. He came to Crickhollow and finding the broken house and cast-off cloak thinks that Frodo has been captured. He thunders off to Bree to have a word with Butterbur, but finding that the hobbits have left with Aragorn, is so overjoyed he exclaims, ‘May your beer be laid under an enchantment of surpassing excellence for seven years!’

He rides off again but cannot find Frodo and his companions in the wild. Instead he encounters the Nazgul on Weathertop, and he does what he can to draw them off. When he enters the Trollfells, Gandalf sends Shadowfax home as the horse can’t navigate the stones of the hills. The wizard arrives at Rivendell only three days before Frodo.

‘And that, Frodo, is the end of my account. May Elrond and the others forgive the length of it. But such a thing has not happened before, that Gandalf broke tryst and did not come when he promised. An account to the Ring-bearer of so strange an event was required, I think.

‘Well, the Tale is now told, from first to last. Here we all are, and here is the Ring. But we have not yet come any nearer to our purpose. What shall we do with it?’

Bits and Bobs

Saruman’s name and of his fortress are all translated Rohirric (the language of Rohan) words, which are feigned to be the equivalent of Anglo-Saxon. Saruman is the Old English Searu-man (‘man of skill or cunning’); Isengard is ‘the iron yard/enclosure’); and Orthanc is ‘a skillful work’. It is logical that these are local names; the place lies near to Rohan.

Saruman himself was originally one of the Maiar of Aule the Smith, as was Sauron in the beginning. He was at first the strongest of the Wizards, which made him too proud in time. His study of ‘the arts of the Enemy’ led him to make his own ring; what its powers might have been is unknown. It almost certainly lost any it might have had with the wizard’s defeat.

Radagast has already briefly appeared in a mention in The Hobbit; he lived at Rhosgobel on the borders of Mirkwood. Beorn considered him a decent fellow, as wizards go. Ruth Noel in The Mythology of Middle-Earth (and later, Douglas Anderson) note the similarity of his name to Radegast, a Slavonic deity ‘whom Grimm associated with Odin.’ (Note the bird.) Radagast gallops his way out of the story and, though mentioned, is never seen personally again.

Saruman remains ‘the White’ throughout the Jackson movies, though his robes get grimier and grimier. The ‘many colors’ are suggested by purple and red in the Bakshi film. The shimmering, changing patterns of the weave suggests Saruman’s own shifty, slippery nature. Both films show some kind of ‘wizard’s battle’ between Gandalf and Saruman; here Gandalf seems to just accept the fact that at the moment Saruman is more powerful than he and is simply imprisoned.

In a later, previously unpublished account, Gandalf escapes just at the moment that the Nazgul come knocking at Saruman’s door, seeking information. In fear, Saruman goes up to release Gandalf, hoping to change sides again and that he will then help him withstand the Nine, only to see him flying away. Thus he loses another chance of redemption, though who knows if he wouldn’t then turn yet again?

Gwaihir himself gives the reason for ‘why they can’t just fly the Ring straight to Mt. Doom.’ We are given a brief introduction to the king of Rohan and to Shadowfax, Chief of the Mearas, noble horses believed to have been brought to Middle-earth by the Vala Orome the Huntsman. We are given an account of Gandalf’s conflicts with scattered members of the Black Riders, explaining the strange marks left at Weathertop.

And now that we’ve had the story of the Ring up to date, they have to decide what to do with it. One small slice of ‘The Council of Elrond’ remains.

The Lord of the Rings: The Council of Elrond (Part Three)

 

The Tale

Galdor of the Havens takes up Frodo’s words, asking for more of Gandalf’s proof that it is the Ring. And what about Saruman? He’s an expert in Ring-Lore. Where is he and what does he say? Elrond calls on the grey wizard to tell his tale.

Gandalf says the fact that Sauron is seeking for this ring is a fairly good proof. They know the Dark Lord holds the Nine Rings, and so he has power over the Ringwraiths. The Seven Rings of the Dwarves are taken or destroyed. The Three Elven Rings are hidden and accounted for.

Years ago, Gandalf himself infiltrated Dol Guldur (‘Hill of Dark Sorcery’), the Necromancer’s hold, and discovered that he was indeed Sauron returned. Saruman had advised the White Council (a group of Wizards and High Elves) to watch and wait a while. But finally, as Sauron’s shadow grew, even he yielded and they attacked and drove him from Dol Guldur in the very year that Bilbo found the Ring – ‘a strange chance, if chance it was’.

‘Sauron also had watched us, and had long prepared against our stroke, governing Mordor from afar through Minas Morgul, where his Nine Servants dwelt, until all was ready. Then he gave way before us, but only feigned to flee, and soon after came to the Dark Tower and openly declared himself.’

Although Sauron seemed to be intensifying his search for the ring, Saruman still said there was nothing to worry about; it had long rolled down the River Anduin where it was lost and into the Sea. For a while Gandalf was lulled by Saruman’s words, but he still wondered about the hobbit’s ring. He set a watch out for Gollum, guessing that he would leave the mountains in search of his Precious. Gollum came out, but his tracks were lost, and there the matter lay.

Gandalf’s fears were awakened by Bilbo’s actions on the night of Birthday party and by the increase of spies that were gathered around the Shire. He called for the Dunedain Rangers to double their watch, ‘and I opened my heart to Aragorn, the heir of Isildur.’ Aragorn advises that, late though it seems, they hunt for Gollum. They tracked him to the very borders of Mordor, but never found him.

Then in desperation Gandalf remembers the words of Saruman, of a test that a ring might be put to, to determine if it was the One. He told no details, but how would he know? The only hand that held it beside the Dark Lord was Isildur. Gandalf goes to Minas Tirith to look for records there, for it was known to the Wise that Isildur stayed there a while before heading North, to his doom.

Lord Denethor begrudgingly lets him into the archives where Gandalf finds a document in Isildur’s own hand, describing the Ring. He transcribes the fiery letters that are even now fading on it, missing perhaps ‘the heat of Sauron’s hand, which was black yet burned like fire, and so Gil-galad was destroyed’. The inscription uses Elvish letters, but in the language of Mordor. If it is heated it might shine out again.

 Gandalf leaves immediately, but even as he heads north messages come to him that Aragorn has found and captured Gollum. The wizard turns aside to Mirkwood to hear his tale in Thranduil’s kingdom.

Aragorn tells the Council that he had given up and started to head home when he found Gollum’s tracks, not leading into Mordor, but out of it. He caught him on the edge of the Dead Marshes, gazing into a pool, covered in green slime. Gollum bit him, and Aragorn was not gentle with him. He drove him with a halter on his neck and gagged, until he delivered him into the care of the Elves in Mirkwood, where he and Gandalf had agreed beforehand he should be kept, if found.

Gandalf questions Gollum long and wearily. He finds out that Gollum found the Ring near the Gladden Fields, where Isildur was lost, and that he had possessed it for ‘many lives of his small kind’, proving that it was indeed one of the Great Rings. But Gandalf has also performed the final test of placing the Ring in the fire and has read these words of the Ring-spell in the Black Speech of Mordor:

‘Ash nazg durbataluk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakataluk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.’

As Gandalf recites the words, his voice becomes harsh and menacing and a shadow seems to pass over the sun. The Elves stop their ears at the evil sound.

And though Gollum was evasive, it is clear to Gandalf that when the creature went to Mordor that he was captured, tortured, and all he knew about the Ring was wrung out of him. Thus, Sauron knows that the Ring is found, that it was long in the Shire, and, since the Nazgul chased it almost to their doorstep, he probably already knows that it is in Rivendell.

At that grim thought, everyone grows silent. Then Boromir asks what did they do with Gollum? ‘To what doom did you put him?’ Aragorn says that he is imprisoned by the Wood Elves but no worse. Even he, though bitten by him, pities the poor tortured creature. Still, he’s glad he’s safely put away, for Gollum is full of malice and was obviously let loose by Sauron on some evil mission. At these words Legolas, the Elf from Mirkwood, cries out. The news that he has come to tell is that ‘Smeagol, who is now called Gollum, has escaped’!

The Elves also felt sorry for him and feeling that if kept ever in a dungeon that he might fall back into his old dark thoughts, let him out on nice days to visit the woods, where he would climb up a high tree to feel the free wind, though they guarded him underneath. One day he refuses to come down even until it grew dark, and a party of Orcs attacks his guards. When they are finally driven off, it is found that Gollum has gone with them. The Elves track the attackers, but they lose the trail as it grows close to Dol Guldur at the lower end of the forest. Gollum is gone again.

Gandalf regrets the news, but there is no time to seek him again. Gollum must do what he will, though the wizard’s heart tells him that the creature may play a part yet that no one foresees.

‘And now I will answer Galdor’s other questions. What of Saruman? What are his counsels to us in this need? This tale I must tell in full, for only Elrond has heard it yet, and that in brief: but it will bear on all that we must resolve. It is the last chapter in the Tale of the Ring, so far as it has yet gone.’

Bits and Bobs

We learn a little more about the rings; that all the other Great Rings have a jewel, that the One Ring was unadorned, and that wearing a Great Ring extends the wearer’s life (a feature that would not affect, say an Elf or a Maiar, who are already effectively immortal).

Gandalf has been in Dol Goldur twice – first when he found the dying Thrain and received the map and key that started the quest for Erebor, and then again to find out the Necromancer’s identity. And he was part of the White Council that drove the Necromancer out – in the same year the Ring was found, another ‘chance’.

There has been both a card game and a short film titled “The Hunt for Gollum”, based on the episode of Aragorn’s quest, and a yet-to-be released video game “The Lord of the Rings: Gollum” is said to deal heavily with parts of Gollum’s story only hinted at here. Although it becomes apparent that Gollum was let loose on purpose so that his search for the Ring might lead Sauron’s spies to the Ring, Gollum himself seems to think he escaped on his own.

In Gandalf’s visit to ‘the hoarded books and scrolls’ in Minas Tirith, we are giving a glimpse of the proud and summary nature of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor. Isildur’s Scroll is portrayed in this ‘translation’ as being in an archaic mode, by using words such as ‘seemeth’ and ‘fadeth’, and obscure words like ‘glede’ (an ember or live coal). Isildur also uses the ominous term ‘precious’ to describe the Ring.

Although Gollum’s escape from Mirkwood appears to be coordinated, it is never quite revealed how. But dark things have been creeping back into the woods. Despite his later-shown affinity for spiders, it is unlikely that the Elves would allow one near the tree. The most likely agent was a spy-bird of some kind, but I’m rather amused by the idea of Gollum chattering with a black squirrel.

Everyone seems to pity Gollum, even though they agree that he is a nasty piece of work. It is not just the pity of Bilbo, but the pity of many, that spares Gollum for his ultimate purpose.

Rock and roll bands, especially heavy metal groups, love to reference Tolkien’s work, particularly its darker elements. In the satirical animated series Metalocalypse there is even a burger franchise called ‘Burzum’s’, among other names that they use from the Legendarium.

And on that note, I reveal that my brothers and I used to use the term ‘Bataluk’ for any Ragnarok-like playing we would stage with our action figures.

The Lord of the Rings: The Council of Elrond (Part Two)

 

The Tale

The man Boromir takes up the tale of Gondor and its chief city, Minas Tirith, for it is from there that he is come to seek counsel of the Lord of Rivendell. He says that though Gondor may not be as great as once it was, so that Minas Tirith’s sister city of Minas Ithil has fallen long ago to the Enemy and become Minas Morgul, the Tower of Black Sorcery, still the blood of Numenor is not wholly spent. The White City stands as a shield to all lands behind it.

But the time that that shield may be removed may not be far away. Sauron has returned to Mordor, and smoke rises again from Mt. Doom. Gondor had been driven from Ithilien, the fair land between Minas Tirith and Mordor, though it long held a foothold there through strength of arms. But they have now been driven even from that this very June.

This was partly because they were outnumbered by the forces of Mordor, now allied with Men, ‘with the Easterlings and the cruel Haradrim’. But also ‘a power was there that we have not felt before’, like ‘a great black horseman, a shadow under the moon’ that filled men with fear and the horses with terror. It drove their forces over the last bridge in Osgiliath, so that it had to be destroyed behind them. Only Boromir, with his brother, and two others, escaped from the last company holding the bridge.

But Boromir has come to Rivendell not to ask for allies in war, but for wisdom. On the night of the assault, his brother had a strange dream, and the same dream many times after, and at last once to Boromir himself. ‘In that dream I thought the eastern sky grew dark and there was a growing thunder, but in the West a pale light lingered, and out of it I heard a voice, remote but clear, crying:

“Seek for the Sword that was broken:

In Imladris it dwells;

There counsels shall be taken

Stronger than Morgul-spells.

There shall be shown a token

That Doom is near at hand,

For Isildur’s Bane shall waken,

And the Halfling forth hall stand.”’

Their father Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith, can only explain that Imladris is the old name of Rivendell, and at first Boromir’s brother is eager to go. He has had the dream, after all, many times. But Boromir took the task upon himself and has sought Rivendell in a journey of a hundred and ten days, and the answer to the strange words of the dream.

Aragorn stands and says that Boromir shall find a part of the answer to his riddle and he casts his broken sword on the table. ‘Here is the Sword that was Broken!’

Boromir looks at him in wonder and asks who he is and what has he to do with Minas Tirith?

Elrond reveals that Aragorn is the last descendant of Isildur Elendil’s son, and Chief of the Dunedain of the North. Frodo jumps up, exclaiming that the Ring must then be Aragorn’s, and not his at all. Aragorn gently says that it belongs to neither of them, though Frodo has been ordained to carry it a while. Gandalf solemnly tells Frodo to hold up the Ring so that Boromir might understand the rest of his riddle. Frodo does so reluctantly, though the Ring seems not to want to be seen.

Boromir’s eyes glint as he gazes at it. ‘The Halfling! Is then the doom of Minas Tirith come at last?’ Aragorn says the words were not ‘the doom of Minas Tirith’. He asks that now that he has seen the Sword that he sought, if he wishes for the House of Elendil to return to Gondor? Boromir says that he asked for no help, but if the Sword should return to the South, they could use it. He looks askance at Aragorn. If indeed such things can come again out of the shadow of the past.

Bilbo, much annoyed, jumps up and recites the poem he composed for Aragorn, if the word of Elrond is not good enough for the man of Gondor. Aragorn smiles at the old hobbit, and says he forgives Boromir’s doubt; he little looks like the statues of his forebears in the White Tower, after his hard life and many journeys. He explains that he and the so-called Rangers are the last of the Dunedain in the North, and if Gondor has protected the lands behind them, the Rangers have protected them from the evils that slip past their watch. And as they walk in secret, they have even less thanks than Gondor.

‘Travellers scowl at us, and countrymen give us scornful names. “Strider” I am to one fat man who lives within a day’s march of foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town in ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly.’

But now the world is changing, and war is at hand. The sword shall be reforged, and Aragorn declares that he will go to Minas Tirith.

Boromir still has doubts that this is the Ring lost by Isildur long ago. Elrond calls on Bilbo to tell his tale of its finding. And if he keeps it short, the sooner he can have refreshment. Bilbo looks sideways at Gloin, and says he will tell the true story now, even if others have heard it otherwise. He speaks of his encounter with Gollum, their riddle-game, and his finding of the Ring.

Elrond explains how the Ring then passed to Frodo as Bilbo’s heir, and calls on Frodo to tell of all his dealings with the Ring, from the day he received it to the time he crossed the Ford of Bruinen. All his steps are considered and closely questioned, especially his encounters with the Black Riders. When he finally sits down, Bilbo said his telling was not bad. ‘You could have made a good story of it, if they hadn’t kept on interrupting.’ Frodo says that the full story still has holes he’d like filled in, especially about Gandalf’s part in it.

Bits and Bobs

We are given some history of Gondor here and its continuing struggles with Mordor. “The Easterlings and the cruel Haradrim” are just simple terms for the Men from the East and from the Far South, ‘where the stars are strange.’  The name of Mount Doom in Elvish is ‘Amon Amarth’, meaning ‘Hill of Doom’. The word ‘doom’ means not only disaster or deadly ending. It also carries the meaning of judgement or fate, not always of a catastrophic nature.

“The great black horseman” encountered at Osgiliath is the Lord of the Nazgul, working Sauron’s will even before leaving to hunt for Frodo. If he seems more powerful in this encounter it may be because of the closeness to his Master, lending him strength, or because in his journey to the West he was told to move more secretly so as not to arouse Sauron’s enemies there.

It should be noted that the dream comes to Boromir’s brother (as yet unnamed) first, and many times. It seems clear that he was the one who was meant for this quest, though often denied it. Boromir ‘takes’ the mission after the dream comes to him at last. How different the whole story might have been if it were otherwise, for better or worse. Boromir was a ‘back-up plan’ for those who sent the dream. It worked, but it would have been healthier for him if he hadn’t gone.

Boromir’s answer to Aragorn’s question about his return is rather cagey, as he says that the ‘Sword’ of Elendil would be welcome, if not necessarily the ‘House’ of Elendil, i.e., his heir.

The first line of Bilbo’s poem about Aragorn reverses the old Shakespearean rubric, “All that glitters is not gold” (The Merchant of Venice). While that phrase warns against taking glittery objects for gold, Bilbo’s points out that even real gold does not always shine. The point in both cases is not to judge by outward appearances.

Bilbo’s explanation and his look towards Gloin when he begins to tell the real story of his finding of the Ring is a nod to the original version first published in The Hobbit, where his encounter with Gollum is told differently. Gandalf later says that this ‘lie’, made to better his claim on the Ring, was one of the first clues the wizard had that something wrong was afoot. Bilbo’s judgement on Frodo’s recounting as a narrative goes to show that the old hobbit is now deeply involved in the events as a tale and how it will be told.

The Lord of the Rings: The Council of Elrond (Part One)

The Tale

The next day Frodo and Sam go walking in the morning, reveling in the beauty of Rivendell. They come upon Bilbo and Gandalf talking, and Bilbo asks if Frodo is ready for the great council today? A single clear bell rings out, summoning them to the gathering. Gandalf ushers Bilbo and Frodo along as they are wanted at the Council. Sam follows along unobtrusively.

They find most of the Council already gathered on a large porch, facing East, loud with the sound of falling waters and bathed in the light of the clear autumn morning. There are many that Frodo already knows, including Elrond, Glorfindel, Gloin, and Aragorn, who is dressed again in his old travel-worn clothes. Elrond sits Frodo at his side, then introduces him to those he does not know. There is Gloin’s son Gimli by his side. Of the Elves there is Erestor, Elrond’s chief counsellor, Galdor, on an errand for Cirdan of the Grey Havens, and ‘a strange Elf clad in green and brown’, Legolas, son of Thranduil the king of the Mirkwood Elves. There is also a tall man with a fair and noble face if stern of glance. His clothes are rich but travel-stained and on his knees rests a great horn tipped with silver. This is ‘Boromir, a man from the South’. He looks at the Hobbits with wonder.

Many things are debated at the Council. Gloin reveals that a shadow of disquiet has fallen on the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain. Nearly thirty years ago Balin left with a group to re-colonize the fabled Mines of Moria, their ancient home of Khazad-dum and the only place in Middle-earth to find mithril, a fabled metal of strength and beauty. At first things seemed to go well, then Moria fell silent and there has been no word since.

Then a year ago a messenger came to Dain from Mordor. The Lord Sauron the Great, he said, wanted Dain’s friendship. In return he asked for news of Hobbits, especially of a thief who stole ‘a little ring, the least of rings’, a ‘trifle that Sauron fancies.’ Return it, and Dain will have back three rings of the Dwarf-sires and Moria again forever. Dain puts the messenger off twice, but he will return for the last time, soon. The Dwarves will never fall for Sauron’s tricks again, but Dain fears King Brand might fold under the pressure. Gloin has come to warn Bilbo that the Enemy is seeking him, and to ask counsel of Elrond.

“The Ring! What shall we do with the Ring, the least of rings, the trifle that Sauron fancies?” Elrond exclaims. “That is the doom we must deem.

“That is the purpose for which you are called hither. Called, I say, though I have not called you to me, strangers from distant lands. You are come and are here met, in this very nick of time, by chance as it may seem. But it is not so. Believe rather that it is so ordered that we, who sit here, and none others, must now find counsel for the peril of the world.”

He begins by telling of the Elven-smiths of Eregion and their friendship with Moria, and how they were snared by Sauron by their eagerness for knowledge. For then he was not evil to behold and few suspected his new guise. The Elven-smiths and their lord Celebrimbor grew mighty in their craft but Sauron learned all their secrets, and forged at Mt. Doom the One Ring to rule all the other Rings of Power. But becoming aware of him Celebrimbor hid the Three Rings of the Elves, and there was war.

Then Elrond tells of how Elendil and his sons came out of the ruin of Numenor with their people and established a kingdom in Middle-earth, made of Arnor in the North and Gondor in the South. But in time Sauron attacked them, and the Last Alliance of Men and Elves was made with Gil-galad, High King of the Elves. Their hosts were mustered in Arnor and were brave and fair to look upon.

Elrond pauses and sighs. He remembers the splendor of their banners. ‘It recalled to me the glory of the Elder Days and the hosts of Beleriand … when Thangorodrim was broken, and the Elves deemed that evil was ended forever, and it was not so.’

Frodo exclaims in astonishment. The fall of Gil-galad was a long age ago. Elrond tells him he was alive even in the days before the Second Age. He was the herald of Gil-galad and was there when Gil-galad and Elendil together overthrew Sauron, though they perished in the attempt and Elendil’s sword Narsil broke beneath him. Elrond was there when Isildur, Elendil’s son, cut the Ring from Sauron’s defeated hand and took it for his own, though Elrond and Cirdan advised against it.

Boromir speaks up. They do not know this tale in Gondor. So Isildur took the Ring! That is tidings indeed.

Elrond sighs and says yes, but he shouldn’t have; it soon betrayed the King’s son to his death. ‘Yet maybe death was better than what else might have befallen him.’ Of his company only three returned with the shards of Narsil to Rivendell where Isildur’s own young son Valandil stayed.

So in that war Gil-galad was slain, and Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anarion, but Sauron was not destroyed but only diminished. The Ring was lost but not unmade, and the Dark Tower was broken but its foundation remained, for it was made by the power of the Ring. The North Kingdom dwindled and vanished, though Isildur’s line endures in exile, while in the South, Gondor remains, but has lost their kings and are ruled now by stewards.

That is the end of Elrond’s tale, for in that part of the history of the Ring he played a portion. It is now for others to take up the story, to speak of how the Ring was found again.

Bits and Bobs

As I said before, this chapter is so lore-heavy that even to sum it up would be to practically just write it down again. And it will definitely need to be taken in smaller slices.

In an early draft, the young dwarf that accompanies Gloin is not his son Gimli, but ‘Burin, son of Balin’, and the Mirkwood Elf who would become Legolas son of Thranduil was named ‘Galdor’ first.

Once more the concept of ‘chance, if chance you call it’ is emphasized. Elrond has not summoned this council himself, but this meeting is in ‘the nick of time’, in the last possible moment that it could have occurred, and with just the right people. There is a special providence at work here.

In looking for a good picture of Celebrimbor I found mostly pictures of him in an uncanonical wraith-form from the game Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, in the knurled image of the actor from The Rings of Power, and an inordinate amount of fan art shipping him with Sauron in his fair form of Annatar, Lord of Gifts, which take the seducing of the Elven-smiths in a far too sexual direction. This is all part of dragging down the Legendarium from High Fantasy to the level of erotic fantasy which, I suppose, must be expected when any ‘franchise’ enters into the common mind.  They did it to Kirk and Spock in Star Trek. The Fair Folk dwindle into ‘Hot Elves’ in popular mentality.

It should be noted that Isildur uses the broken Narsil to cut the Ring from Sauron’s already dead body. Ever after, even when he ‘re-forms’, Sauron cannot grow back that lost finger. Gollum later reveals from personal knowledge that the Dark Lord has only nine, ‘But they are enough.’ Isildur takes the Ring as ‘weregild’ (literally ‘man-gold’) as the price for his father’s death, an idea and word based on an old Anglo-Saxon law about compensation for taking a human life.

Hm. A land without a king. A king without a land. How can we possibly resolve this situation?

Toffee, another finger-missing 'Big Bad', from Star vs. The Forces of Evil. Cultural influences?