You have unlocked a LINGUISTIC SUBTEXT of LOTR which is very dear to my heart, Estel vs. AmdĂr. Lemme explain.
Estel is the alias Elrond gave to Aragorn in the books when he was a child to protect him until he came of age. Itâs Sindarin Elvish for hope. But itâs a specific kind of hope. I donât have my linguistic notes handy, so I canât remember where Tolkien wrote out the full definition in his own notes, but itâs basically:
estel, n. hope, faith, trust, belief.
But thereâs another Elvish word for hope.
amdir, n. hope, expectation, extrapolation. from prefix am to, toward + verb tiro look. Same root as in palantir, far-seer.
amdir is rational hope: you look at present circumstances, and look ahead to see whatâs coming. It means calculating likely possibilities, outcomes. Whatâs the best you can expect to happen?
estel is irrational hope. You know thereâs just no way to win. Amdir says youâre screwed, and you say, âI know, but Iâll keep going anyway.â
estel is a FOOLâs HOPE.
Ring any bells? Because youâre absolutely right. There are a lot of people who fail in LOTR because they only had amdir. Saruman was entrapped because he saw no hope of victory, so he threw in his lot with Sauron.
Boromir had been fighting a losing battle of defense against the forces of Mordor and knew there was no chance of defeating the overwhelming forces of Sauron save by some extraordinary means. He saw in the Ring a hope of saving his city by using it as a weapon. He knew âone does not simply walk into Mordorâ⊠itâs too well-defended. Deep down, he wanted to try the amdir option, not the estel option.
And then thereâs Denethor. Denethor, most of all, is the epitome of amdir. In the books he is a proud man, but rational. Heâs the Steward of Gondor, and he takes the job damn seriously. His people are the bulwark defending Middle-Earth from being crushed by Mordor, which is visible from his window. Heâs done a good job of marshalling forces and stockpiling resources for this battle â in the books, he does light the beacons to summon ThĂ©oden â and he actually has a palantir he uses to spy on Sauron.
His mind is strong enough to resist Sauron controlling him. So instead, Sauron controls the palantir, making sure it only shows off the greatness of Mordorâs armies, allies and weapons, and every last loss and setback of Denethorâs side. He knew very well ThĂ©oden had been held up at Helmâs Deep and would arrive too late. He knew Aragorn was coming to claim the throne, which didnât thrill him: he thought Aragorn was just Gandalfâs puppet. And when he finds out Faramir had done what Gandalf wanted and sent the Ring into Mordor with a hobbit instead of bringing it to him flr safekeeping, he rails at Gandalf for risking everything on a âfoolâs hope.â
The final straw is that, after Faramir is injured, Denethor looks into the palantir one more time to see if thereâs any hope left⊠and he sees the fleet of black ships coming up the river. He thinks itâs more armies from Mordor. In fact, itâs Aragorn bringing a spare army to save the day. But Denethor thinks to himself, âcheckmate. Weâre toast.â And he decides to kill himself and his dying son rather than let them be seized as trophies by Sauron (or in his case, as a prisoner.)
Denethor gives into despair, but he is not a total madman in the books. He just has a meltdown because he only has amdir, not estel, and only a foolâs hope could win against impossible odds.
Also? Samwise is basically old English for âhalf wit.â Heâs a wise Fool. ThĂ©oden and Aragorn do what they can to help, and in the and Aragorn leads his armies to the gates of Mordor to divert Sauronâs attention from Frodo and Sam as much as he can. But itâs Samâs dogged determination to keep going even if itâs hopeless (amdir-less) that saves them all.
Note that I think Tolkien may have come up with the Elvish word amdir and written out its definition after LOTR was published. But the concept was obviously burbling around in his subconscious already. The more you look, the more youâll see how the different flavors of hope show up in his writing
So yeah, @itspileofgoodthings , Iâm tempted to say youâve hit on the hidden meaning of LOTR. But like all the great stories, LOTR is a tapestry with multiple threads of meaning. Suffice it to say youâve hit on a golden thread.
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