The Council of Boromir [FF]

About a month after the Council of Elrond, Boromir invited Elrond,
Bilbo and all the others who were to be in the Fellowship to a meeting
of his own.

"Thank you all for coming," he began, "I have two items on the agenda.
One is the Ring, and the other is Aragorn. With your permission, sir,"
he said, looking at the Ranger, "I'll begin with you."

Aragorn silently nodded his consent and Boromir continued:
"As a direct descendent of Isildur you obviously have a claim
to the throne of Gondor. Being heir to the Stewardship I naturally
have an interest in the matter, but as I'm not in fact the Steward
I can have no official position, especially since you have pressed
no claim.

"However, we have a situation which I believe we can exploit
to our advantage. I suppose the Enemy is well aware of your
identity and your lineage, and my father's probable reaction
were you to step forward. Therefore I make the following proposal:
that you and I feign rivalry; let the Enemy's spies see apparent
enmity and discord between us, for instance for the leadership
of the expedition. But it will be a discord in appearance only;
I am fully prepared to comply with Gandalf as the Fellowship leader,
and with yourself secondly.

"Is this agreeable to everyone? If so we can work out the details
later."

After a pause Gandalf spoke. "It is well thought of, is it not?"

"Yes," replied Aragorn. "I think we can make much of this, Boromir,
and the Enemy will be well disposed to believe it."

"Indeed," said Gandalf, "he will look for a time of strife, ere one
of the great among us makes himself master and puts down the others."

"Of course I have deemed it unwise to press any such claims
in wartime, lest it weaken Gondor with controversy," continued
Aragorn. "And your second item?"

"Ah, the second item. The Ring. I will not deny that I have pondered
deeply about the Ring, to the point where my thoughts became obsessive.
I say this to you all openly, in case it bears some weight in our
councils. 'The very desire of it corrupts the heart,' spoke you,
Master Elrond, with truth.

"Yet who could fault anyone for desiring a power with which to guard
his home and people in such a threatening hour? Of course I expected
the Council to send the Ring to Minas Tirith. Yet to a sensible mind
this is obviously a losing strategy.

"For once the Dark Lord learned of it's presence there, he would
spare no effort to assail us, and at our present level of strength
our defeat would be certain, and probably swift. Where the contest
is so uneven, the weaker side must keep their mobility, and not
allow themselves to become entrapped.

"But this thought was long in coming. It became progressively harder
to think clearly. And yet as a military officer, trained in strategy,
the part of my mind still functioning properly _knew_ the wisdom of
this. Why, I wondered, was I so slow to realize what usually comes
to me in an instant, especially in the heat of battle?

"That is when I realized that this impairment of thought must be
due to the Ring's corrupting influence. How could it be otherwise?"

"Indeed, Boromir," muttered Gandalf.

"Now to return to my point, that at first I considered it only natural
to take the Ring to the City. And so will the Enemy.

"Therefore since he expects us to take the Ring there, we will
accommodate him -- with a false Ring! Let a duplicate be made;
a little larger than the real thing, and therefore more visible.

"Peregrin, you would keep it, bearing the best resemblance to Frodo,
and Meriadoc, you would be "Samwise", his esquire. At a distance
you all look so alike that the deception would be quite feasible."

"An excellent ruse," said Gandalf. "Of course it won't work
indefinitely, as the Dark Lord can sense the real article,
but in keeping the Enemy's attention away from our true plans
it may buy us some precious time."

And so it was settled. The Company set out just after Midwinter,
dividing at once into two parties. One bold, the other furtive.
Of course, the secretive party carried the fake ring. Spies, orcs
and Nazgul pursued them... until one day on combat air patrol
a Rogue Eagle (bred during the Dark Years by the Black Numenoreans,
and now a dutiful servant of Sauron) spied a golden glint
in the mud of the Anduin by the Gladden Fields.

At once the Enemy sent all his Ringwraiths wheeling around in that
direction... until another ring was sighted by a spider near
Dol Guldur. Before the Dark Lord knew what was happening,
golden rings were popping up all over the length and breadth
of western Middle Earth, from the Iron hills to the Isen's estuary.
They hung from trees, glinted out of crevices in rocks, were
flaunted by school children and nailed to the door lintels
of lowly shepherds' cots.

For swift messengers, Gwaihir's kin in particular bearing replicas
had been sent to all the Free People of the West: elves, dwarves,
hobbits, Ents, and Riders of Rohan. Even Tom Bombadil received one,
although since it had no hold on his mind he soon lost it
(or threw it away) in a blackberry bramble.

The Enemy become so frantic in his efforts to track down each false
lead that his attention was scattered in all directions, and Frodo,
dressed as an orc messenger in the livery of the Dark Tower, swinging
the One Ring to Rule Them All around his finger on a chain while
whistling an Uruk-hai marching ditty, was able to stroll casually
right through the Black Gate without challenge or incident.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Epilog: In the end, standing in the heart of Sammath Naur, Frodo
discovered that he just couldn't part with the Ring after all.

But he didn't have to. It was Sam who had the real Ring;
Sam with his plain, unconquered hobbit-sense; happier with
a proper hobbit-sized garden than one swollen to a realm.
Elrond had realized this instantly the day the hobbits arrived
in Rivendell, and had arranged a discreet switcheroo.

And what about Gollum? He had followed Frodo almost to the Black Gate,
when he spied a golden ring in the dust, under a hobbit footprint.
"My Precious, Oh my Precious," he burbled happily as he seized it
and headed north towards Mirkwood. Then a day later in the Brown Lands
he found another Ring, realized he'd been had, and with a wail
of anguish headed back South. But it was too late. He had only reached
the Dagorlad when Frodo put on the Ring and claimed it for his own
(to absolutely no effect) whilst with a flip of his sturdy
hobbit thumb Sam sent the Real McCoy spinning to it's meltdown.

-- Sean --

Sean <no.spam.TakeThisOut@no.spam> wrote:
 > About a month after the Council of Elrond, Boromir invited Elrond,
 > Bilbo and all the others who were to be in the Fellowship to a meeting
 > of his own.

Heh! Maybe that is why they took two months before setting off. Endless
rounds of follow-up meetings!

<snip>

 > "That is when I realized that this impairment of thought must be
 > due to the Ring's corrupting influence. How could it be otherwise?"
 >
 > "Indeed, Boromir," muttered Gandalf.

LOL!

 > "Now to return to my point, that at first I considered it only natural
 > to take the Ring to the City. And so will the Enemy.
 >
 > "Therefore since he expects us to take the Ring there, we will
 > accommodate him -- with a false Ring! Let a duplicate be made;
 > a little larger than the real thing, and therefore more visible.
 >
 > "Peregrin, you would keep it, bearing the best resemblance to Frodo,
 > and Meriadoc, you would be "Samwise", his esquire. At a distance
 > you all look so alike that the deception would be quite feasible."

You missed out the "To sheep other sheep no doubt appear different"
quote from Lindir! Though I liked the way you worked in the "he will
look for a time of strife" quote.

 > "An excellent ruse," said Gandalf. "Of course it won't work
 > indefinitely, as the Dark Lord can sense the real article,

Gandalf, as always, has the truth of it.

<snip>

 > Before the Dark Lord knew what was happening,
 > golden rings were popping up all over the length and breadth
 > of western Middle Earth [...] Even Tom Bombadil received one,
 > although since it had no hold on his mind he soon lost it
 > (or threw it away) in a blackberry bramble.

ROTFL!

<snip>

Difficult to get a good ending there. Have you seen the various animated
GIFs done using stills from the film? Several hilarious alternative
story-lines there.

Christopher

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