Boromir, Gollum and Eowyn

[davem]

Originally Posted by Helen

BTW, if we are counting oathbreakers we must include Merry, who was told to remain behind and disobeyed, riding with Dernhelm instead.

With Eowyn and Merry, is Tolkien making a point that sometimes oathbreaking is neccessary?

But Merry [i]doesn't break his oath to Theoden - Theoden releases him from his oath:

The king turned to Merry. 'I am going to war, Master Meriadoc,' he said. 'In a little while I shall take the road. I release you from my service, but not from my friendship. You shall abide here, and if you will, you shall serve the Lady Eowyn, who will govern the folk in my stead.' 'But, but, lord,' Merry stammered, 'I offered you my sword. I do not want to be parted from you like this, Theoden King. And as all my friends have gone to the battle, I should be ashamed to stay behind.'

Merry actually holds to his sworn oath despite Theoden's attempt to release him from it. It seems Merry, albeit from a society that has no apparent tradition of oath taking, takes his oath of service more seriously that Theoden does. Perhaps. Its perhaps not so simple. What Theoden actually does is to hold Eowyn to her oath of service, but release Merry from his. And the motivation seems the same in each case - to protect someone he loves. So Theoden's concern is not primarily about upholding oaths sworn to him, but protecting those he cares about.

This is different to Denethor's approach -although he too releases Pippin from his service. He does this not to protect Pippin, but to make it easier to carry out his own desires.

But where does Frodo's requiring of an oath from Gollum come into this? Frodo requires an oath from Smeagol in order to ensure his own safety & the success of the Quest.

Perhaps this is a more interesting question - not the simple fact of oaths being sworn, but the reasons they are sworn & more importantly the reasons they are demanded. Oaths are sworn, but they are not only not always held by the ones who swear them they are sometimes set aside by the ones who accepted them.

Frodo requires service of Smeagol, Theoden & Denethor accept service of Merry & Pippin. Frodo never releases Smeagol, so Smeagol in the end becomes an oathbreaker by defying Frodo to achieve his own ends. Merry & Pippin in the end are not oathbreakers as such, as they have been released from service before they disobey.

Smeagol feels bound to hold to the letter of his oath - he will not simply break it - he convinces himself that his oath was sworn not to Frodo but 'to the master of the Precious. Merry seems torn - he doesn't want to be released from Theoden's service, yet he still defies Theoden's will. If he is still, in his own mind, bound by the oath he has sworn, he should obey. If he has been released from it, he is a free agent, yet as a free agent he actually does exactly what he swore to do (he clearly intended to ride to battle with Theoden - that was the 'oath' he swore -whether Theoden understood that or not). Pippin swore his oath of service to Denethor in payment of his debt, but its questionable, at the least, whether he understood what he was swearing to.

But this seems to be the case almost across the board - how many oaths are sworn & accepted in full knowledge of what is involved. I keep coming back to Elrond's words of warning. Oaths do break many hearts & it seems that they are broken as much through ignorance of what was involved as by willfullness.