One day, not long after I'd watched the Fellowship of the Ring, I was remembering Boromir. Not a figure new to my tears. Every time his scene comes around I weep where I sit.
I have of course read the book innumerable times, heard Aragorn call him valiant, and seen the sorrow in Faramir's heart at his loss. Known best for his greatest mistake, he is yet redeemed, and therefore a glorious story, and a familiar one. "Whether he erred or no, of this I am sure: he died well, achieving some good thing. His face was more beautiful even than in life."
He falls farther than he ever thought, and yet does not fully despair, but seizes the next opportunity to lay down his life for his friends, taking hold of integrity once more. And at the last, repenting from his very gut to his king, the king who was never more his than at that moment.
And yet the scene that I thought of was one from the movie, thrown in there no doubt, to make our hearts break. It was of Boromir being tackled by hobbits as he tried to teach them to fight, and his laughter as he wrestled them off. (Thank you, Sean Bean)
And suddenly I saw this scene as if these were his children. As if he had made it home.
Not as if he had never come to grief. But if, having fallen thus, he yet had turned and laid down his life in direct opposition to his sin (which is repentance); and come to bare humility before Aragorn. ...But that death had not then claimed him.
If back from the brink of death he had been saved, a new man, to return to Gondor... he would have spent his days laying down his life for his people. How else can one saved from such a place live?
He would have been like Edmund ("you were only an ass, I was a traitor"/This our traitor's only hope, He can save the dead). Except, I think, with more joviality.
Imagine him embracing Faramir. Known, beloved, and now seen. Imagine him finding a wife. He would think the sun rose and set with her. He would try to impress her, but she would be one he never need pretend with. At the end of the day, she would know, and love. For, and in spite.
And children. He would have kept the laughter, though wiser and less carefree. He would be one to use his laughter as a weapon against the dark. The only way he would have been able to conquer with that kind of past: he knew his place and kept the laughter.
And I weep.
Oh wounded heart
So tempted and so strong
A valiant fighter
Good, at war with wrong
This knight has fallen
Past all thought and hope
Yet undespairing
Seizes sacrifice like rope
At last unto the king
He poured his weight of sorrow
As he poured out his life
And gained tomorrow
"From darkest failure
Through remorse, regret
To full opposing of misdeeds
You've come to honor yet"
So speaking, Strider knelt there
Never more his king than now
Placed his sword in shaking hand
And kissed his sweating brow
Brought humbly thus
Unto death's very brink
What if this shadowed cup
Had not been his to drink?
But called to live again
He cast aside the grave
To give his life for others
And be saved
Once-traitor, now the just and fair
Like Edmund, that beloved king
Yet more disposed to mirth, I think
And more inclined to sing
How else to live
When falling made him softer
Than knowing now his place
To keep the laughter
I see his brother
And a long-delayed embrace
Long known and loved, but now...
To share an honest face
I see him telling tales of old
And playing with the young, his own
Depth of wisdom, unafraid
And full of mercy, known
His wife, a rock of courage
An ocean couldn't part
Full knowing, loves his soul
And holds his heart
These arrows pierce me now
As arrows pierced your chest
What do we prize?
What should we leave at rest
But taking honor in both hands
We'll seize integrity
And giving up ourselves at last
We'll gain the White City
