Hisoka, you have a consistent view of
Middle-earth in terms of an organized, centralized military state structure. This, I think, is inconsistent with
Tolkien’s view of Middle-earth. Certainly there were secrets, certainly there were organized militaries, but the idea of “state secrets” is, in my
opinion, for the most part foreign to Tolkien’s approach.
In the case of
Rivendell, it was a place of which, as
Boromir related to the
Council of Elrond, “many had heard, but few knew where it lay.”
Denethor his father knew it was “a far northern
dale, where
Elrond the
Half-elven dwelt, greatest of lore-masters,” but even Denethor, with all his hoarded
books and scrolls never learned its location – though doubtless that was hidden amongst them.
The Northern Dúnedain, the survivors of
Arnor, knew the location of Rivendell, at least their noblemen did. For the
Rangers were the sons of the remaining nobility of Arnor, sent out to ward off
evil from the common folk, the farmers and husbandmen among the Dúnedain, that survived also (David Salo once cited a note that they were in The Angle between the Mitheithel and the Bruinen in what had once been southern Rhudaur; I learned of it in an old post by Michael Martinez), who bore the cost of sustaining them in the field, as well as such scattered settlements as
Bree and
the Shire. The Shire seems to have been the only large settlement remaining in the north, with Bree next in line; Tharbad had been destroyed in floods when
Bilbo was an infant. But the survival of the Dúnedain in the North depended upon the support and good will of Elrond in Rivendell and
Círdan in
Lindon, the largest Elven population besides
Lórien and the kingdom in
northern Mirkwood. In the
ruins of Arnor the Dúnedain and the Eldar worked hand-in-hand as they had during the
First Age, and the Dúnedain remained in contact with such
creatures as
Tom Bombadil,
Gandalf, and perhaps
Radagast. It was necessary for their survival.
In the South, the Dúnedain of
Gondor were estranged from the
Elves. According to “The Ride of
Eorl” in
Unfinished Tales, when
Eorl the Young and the
Éothéod reached
Dol Guldur in their ride to the succor of Gondor when the Balchoth attacked its northern province of Calenardhon and threatened to overthrow its army, the
Rohirrim passed through a “gleaming mist” that flowed from Lórien over
Anduin to
the east side of the river and shielded them from the sight of Dol Guldur. “[A]ll the host behind followed like a great wind, but in a strange silence, as if their hooves did not beat upon the ground.” The Rohirrim had no formal contact with Lórien, though clearly some passed into that land after they settled in what became
Rohan.
The Dúnedain of Gondor likewise lost contact with Lórien. In “Window on the West” (
TT),
Faramir told
Frodo and
Sam that the Dúnedain were “a failing people.”
[I]n Middle-earth
Men and Elves became estranged in the days of darkness, by the arts of the Enemy, and by the slow changes of time in which each kind walked further down their sundered
roads. Men now fear and misdoubt the Elves, and yet know little of them. And we of Gondor grow like other Men, like the men of Rohan; for even they, who are the foes of the
Dark Lord, shun the Elves and speak of
the Golden Wood with dread.
Yet there are among us still some who have dealings with the Elves when they may, and ever and anon one will go in secret to Lórien, seldom to return. Not I. For I deem it perilous now for mortal man willfully to seek out the Elder People.
This estrangement of Elves and Men worked to
Sauron’s advantage, and in some way he and his agents encouraged it, for it weakened resistance to him. Even so, Elrond had to remind Boromir that “Anduin the Great flows past many shores, ere it comes to … the
Gates of Gondor,” by which he indirectly referenced Lórien, perhaps among other
places (such as the land of the
Beornings further north).
Rivendell was not on the main road through the
Misty Mountains. It was north of the main pass, I think,
the one that Elrond counselled
Thorin & Co. to avoid because of
Orcs, and closer to the High Pass where they met not only the stone-giants, but Orcs (“
goblins”) anyway. Gandalf found Rivendell in
The Hobbit by following a “path was marked with white stones, some of which were small, and others were half covered with moss or heather,” (“A Short Rest”) though surely Gandalf knew the way after 2000 years in Middle-earth. And in “Flight to the Ford” (
FotR), Frodo considered an “escape [from the Ringwraiths] over the long uncertain path from the Ford to the edge of Rivendell” quite impossible.
Returning to
Unfinished Tales in the essay “Concerning
Galadriel and
Celeborn”, we are told that after Sauron destroyed Eregion and its capital Ost-in-Edhil, Sauron turned on Elrond, who had led a force in hope of aiding Eregion, seeking to destroy him, too; but Sauron was attacked from behind by the
Dwarves of
Khazad-dûm and
Amroth of
Lórinand (Lórien).
Elrond was able to extricate himself, but he was forced away northwards, and it was at that time [in the year 1697, according to the Tale of Years] that he established a refuge and stronghold at
Imladris (Rivendell).
The square-bracketed passage is in the text, so I assume it is an editorial comment by Christopher Tolkien.
The location of Imladris was no secret to
Aragorn II, nor, it would seem, to any of his forebears going back to
Elendil.
Isildur when he was attacked across from the Gladden
Fields was on his way to Rivendell to take counsel with Elrond. But distance, time, forgetfulness, and estrangement from the Eldar meant that the Dúnedain of Gondor no longer knew how to get there. I don’t think Sauron or his emissaries, the
Nazgûl, would have more difficulty than they normally encountered trying to move in the shadow-world into which they had faded. Dwarves were by and large not in communication with Elrond, though
Glóin had been to Rivendell at least once and remembered how to get there, since he came a second time.
But as regards Squint-eyed Southerner’s citation, no, none of those attending the Council of Elrond had been “invited” by him. Galdor of the Havens was an
Elf and knew the way;
Aragorn and
Glorfindel called Rivendell home, and they led the
Hobbits; Bilbo lived there; Gandalf arrived on foot after losing the pursuit of four of the Nazgûl;
Legolas was an emissary of his father, and apparently knew or was instructed on how to get there; Glóin and
Gimli we just discussed; and Boromir arrived only hours before the Council.
Gandalf references what happened to gather together the Council of Elrond when he mused upon Bilbo finding and Frodo inheriting
the Ring (“Shadow of the Past”):
It was the strangest event in the whole history of the Ring so far: Bilbo’s arrival just at that time, and putting his hand on it, blindly, in the dark.
There was more than one power at work, Frodo. The Ring was trying to get back to its master. … [N]ow, when its master was awake once more and sending out his dark thought from
Mirkwood, it abandoned
Gollum. Only to be picked up by the most unlikely person imaginable: Bilbo from the Shire!
Behind that there was something else at work, beyond any design of the Ring-maker. I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was
meant to find the Ring, and
not by its maker. In which case you also were
meant to have it. And that maybe an encouraging thought.’
In their discussion of “Many Meetings” in
Reader’s Companion Hammond and Scull cite David Cremona that
it is part of the
schema of
The Lord of the Rings that what seem to be setbacks, blunders and delays, turn out to have been useful shortcuts; though I think Tolkien would have argued that, had they done otherwise, with good intention, that too might have led to the quest’s end, but by a different path.
Ilúvatar … does not compel or predestine, but his plans are far-seeing and the roads to his ends, many.
The rest of the passage Squint-eyed Southerner cites:
That is the purpose for which you are called hither. Called, I say. though I have not called you to me, strangers from distant lands. You have come and are here met, in this very nick of time, by chance as it may seem. Yet it is not so. Believe rather that it is so ordered that we, who sit here, and none others, must now find counsel for the peril of the world.
Elrond is referring to Providence, which has directed Bilbo to find the Ring so that Frodo might inherit it and the various members of the Free Folk take counsel together to best determine how to destroy it.
