Success through Failure

[doug*platypus]

Over the last couple of years I have become increasingly interested in the phenomenon of Success through Failure. Many times in our lives we appear to have 'failed', but by taking advantage of new circumstances manage to make the best of it, and can eventually recognise the positive side of that perceived failure. The Dare to Fail website is one source of information on this subject. On several occasions, Success through Failure is present in Tolkien's world.

The corruption of Boromir, though tragic in itself, forced Frodo and Sam to leave on their own. Aragorn was thus free to pursue his own course, eventually defeating the Corsairs as only he had the power to do. If Boromir had not scared Frodo, Gondor may ironically have been destroyed.

The events leading up to Gandalf's encounter with the Balrog (defeat on Caradhras, Pippin's mischief at the well) resulted in the death of a great wizard. However, this allowed Gandalf to be reincarnated as the White, and return in what was almost certainly a more powerful form. It is possible that he may not have been able to succeed in his task if he remained Gandalf the Grey.

Gandalf himself points out that if Merry and Pippin hadn't gone and gotten themselves captured by Orcs, they would never have come to Fangorn, where they acted as a catalyst to rouse Treebeard and the Ents.

Most noticeably of all, if Sam had not abandoned the unconscious Frodo in Cirith Ungol, and of course if Frodo himself had not been stung, the two could never have hoped to make it past the Orcs of Shagrat and Gorbag.

Are there any other examples in Tolkien's work? If the 'failures' mentioned above had not occurred, would other solutions have been found? Were these failures beneficial, necessary and sometimes even predestined? And is Tolkien trying to tell us something?