Book II, Chapter 2: The Council of Elrond
Well, my journey has finally made it to one of the big moments in Fellowship -- the Council of Elrond, which strangely has not been depicted much by artists (I guess it’s a lot of people sitting around, in fairness), and this Alan Lee is about the best illustration I could find. http://tolkiengateway.net/w/images/d/d6/Alan_Lee_-_The_Council_of_Elrond_%28detail%29.jpg This is a massive chapter and I have way too many thoughts about it, which is why it’s a day delayed...but it’s also one of the chapters about which I have the most theories/hot takes, which is allegedly what some of you were reading for, so here we go.
The film really does a disservice to the sheer dickishness of nearly everyone at the Council, choosing instead to locate it basically all behind Sean Bean’s sneering demeanor as Boromir (hey, nobody sneers like Sean Bean -- he’s incredible). Everybody else seems to be arguing “hey listen to Elrond” and Elrond seems mostly irritated that once again he’s hosting the social event just because he’s got the best house (this feeling is enhanced by Hugo Weaving’s face at rest communicating this exact emotion constantly). I jest, of course -- there’s a lot to be said for Jackson’s version of the Council, but it’s missing the wonderfully understated and cutting ways that these princes deal with each other, all of them accustomed to being basically the most important person in the rooms they’re standing in. Boromir does, in fairness, say some harsh things about these soft Westerners who have no idea what Gondor does on their behalf, but also in fairness, he’s just sat there listening to Elrond talk about how we’re in this position because of the failures of men. Elrond literally says that Gondor has fallen now that the blood of Numenor “became mingled with that of lesser men”. Most of us would not take kindly to that, and Boromir, a guy who literally just destroyed the last bridge across the Anduin in the face of an assault led by a Nazgul, REALLY doesn’t take kindly to having his family described as “lesser men”. After he talks about how great Gondor is, Aragorn maneuvers into place pretty swiftly -- especially after it’s clear Boromir is totally unimpressed with the heir of Isildur and his broken sword -- and talks about how Gondor has no idea how hard he and the other Rangers work to keep people safe. I mean, I get it, we are sympathetic to Aragorn in part because we love Strider and in part because Boromir is going to really tick us off in a few chapters. But this is the Council of Elrond and Aragorn literally at one point is complaining to Boromir that Barliman Butterbur calls him “Strider” and doesn’t appreciate him enough. Yeah, Aragorn. It’s hard to be king, buddy. Anyway, it’s pretty clear that all of these worthies are going to have a hard time agreeing with each other -- all of them can think of ways in which their service is not adequately respected or moments in which their words have not been sufficiently heeded. Elrond, for crying out loud, is still cheesed off about Isildur not listening to him about throwing the Ring into Orodruin, and that was THREE THOUSAND YEARS AGO. Oof. If you think I’m selling Elrond’s pissiness too hard, just notice this -- Boromir wasn’t invited to this Council. He just happened to show up this morning. Elrond’s Council involved not inviting anybody from Gondor. Imagine being Boromir, showing up and finding out by chance that there’s a party and everyone was invited but you -- and then sitting there and hearing Elrond talk about “the blood of lesser men” in Gondor, wondering to yourself “wait, how do they talk about us when I’m NOT here?”
Into this slightly testy conversation -- and yes, I’m playing up the conflict more than the text strictly demands, but this is how I’m reading the Council this time around -- steps Gandalf, finally, and I love the way he uses the Saruman story. He refused to tell Frodo the story in the last chapter, and it’s clear now why -- at the time the rationale is something like “oh, you’re just waking up and you’re still recovering, let’s take it easy on you, Frodo” but then he drags Frodo to a banquet and then a hall where he sits for hours listening to much longer and less relevant stories in song. Why did he hold back, then? He wanted to make sure this story landed with full impact for everyone gathered -- Saruman is their example of what will go wrong if they decide to try using the Ring. And Gandalf holds nothing back: when he quotes Saruman’s line about how they have been “hindered rather than helped by our weak and idle friends” everyone in that room understands that Saruman is talking about them. It would be natural to get a rise out of that line -- rage, shame, what have you -- and Gandalf knows it needs to hit them by surprise to get it. In Jackson’s film, we get the strong sense that Gandalf’s chief aim at the Council is to protect Frodo -- the look of sudden sadness and acceptance on McKellen’s face when he hears Frodo saying “I will take it” says a lot, I think. Here, though, my sense is that Gandalf’s chief aim is simply to dissuade the gathering from entertaining even for a minute that this weapon can be used in any way -- and that if they are going to triumph in this difficult time, the critically important thing is to prove Saruman wrong about them. I don’t have any sense that he’s maneuvering the Ring into a given person’s hands.
Someone, though, is engineering things, or that’s my reading. Elrond has had plenty of time to think about this, over the years, and it seems that his recent association of hobbits has greatly raised his esteem for them. He already knows what a disaster it will be if a Man takes the Ring -- Isildur all over again. He will be naturally suspicious of any Dwarves serving as Ringbearer, and I think it’s clear by now that he would be just as fearful as Gandalf was to take the Ring himself. Who’s left? Frodo is really the only natural choice, and so I think it’s evident that Elrond steers the Ring into his hands. He says that line “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” and Bilbo thinks it’s a pointed line aimed at him -- this is meant to make us smile, as Gloin does, since the idea is really impossible, but I think old Bilbo is no fool. He was right to read the line as pointed -- it is just an arrow aimed at his nephew and not him. Elrond means for the hobbits to see themselves as called to this task. After all, when Frodo stands up and says he will take the Ring to Mount Doom, it’s Elrond who responds to him first, and not a closer friend, like Gandalf or Aragorn (or even Glorfindel or Gloin, who have at least exchanged words with him so far). Elrond’s immediate reaction is to confirm Frodo’s feeling -- and notice how easily he admits Sam as a traveling partner? I think whatever everyone else’s aims were at the Council, Elrond’s agenda is pretty easy to read -- and he gets the job done.
A couple of more fleeting thoughts, now -- notice that Boromir, in relating the dream that led him to Rivendell, describes it as a dream that came to his brother first, and often thereafter “and once to me”. He doesn’t even name his brother, Faramir, which is probably significant on its own. But notice the sequence here -- if this is Faramir’s dream, which he had first and repeatedly, why isn’t he here too? Or if only one of them was to come, why not Faramir and not Boromir? We can construct plenty of explanations, but this time around it struck me as most plausible that Boromir is simply lying and that he never had the dream. After all, after Faramir had it and described it to him, it would have been trivially easy to claim he’d had the exact same dream. Why would he do it? Two possibilities occur to me -- one is that he did it for slimy reasons, so that he could claim the task of traveling to Rivendell instead of his brother because “he had the dream too”, since he wanted the glory of it. The other is that he might have done it because he knew Denethor would not listen to Faramir -- but if Boromir had a corroborating dream, Gondor might take action. I really want to pay attention to the Faramir and Denethor chapters, when I get there, to see if I can read any deeper into their relationships -- I’m sure this isn’t something the text will resolve for me, but I want to see how plausible my reading is.
Lastly, I do just want to point out the power of that final moment at the Council -- does Elrond assemble a Fellowship for Frodo? No. Does anybody -- literally anybody -- but Sam stand up and say “you have my bow” or “I shall bear this burden with you as long as it is yours to bear”, etc.? NO. Gandalf and Aragorn and the rest of them sit there on their hands. I don’t blame them -- this is a weighty thing. And perhaps all of them needed a breather after a very intense three hour meeting -- any veteran of higher education can relate. But I think there’s something significant here -- in the end, of course, it’s Frodo and Sam who will get the Ring to Orodruin, and so I like the image of just the two of them standing together there, in front of a collection of heroes who will all play important roles in what’s ahead, but none of whom have what it takes to simply walk into Mordor. Gotta love those hobbits.
Well, that’s it for tonight -- tomorrow, the Fellowship assembles and The Ring Goes South in Book II, Chapter 3.