Q: Where Did Boromir Die in the Lord of the Rings?
ANSWER: Boromir’s death in both the book and the movie takes place near Parth Galen, the grassy slope leading from the wooded hill of Amon Hen down to the Anduin, just north of the Falls of Rauros. The river formed a small lake around the island of Tol Brandir at this point and the hills were heavily wooded. Parth Galen seems to have been a place where people traveling by boat could leave the river and venture into Rohan.
Although the Fellowship of the Ring camped beside their boats on the riverbank the night before, they wandered into the trees on Amon Hen the day that Boromir died. Frodo left the party first but Boromir followed him into the trees. It was only after Boromir returned to the party that they scattered into the woods in search of Frodo. Aragorn sent Boromir after Merry and Pippin to protect them. Thus, when the Uruk-hai and other Orcs found the Hobbits, Boromir was close by to help.
Amon Hen was an ancient Numenorean outpost, a place from which Gondor’s border-wardens kept an eye on Anduin and nearby lands. Frodo followed an old road to the crest of the hill, but though the text does not say where the road led my guess is that it probably ran south out of the hills along the shore of Anduin toward the Fens of Entwash. It probably crossed one or more streams there, or else turned west to skirt the marshlands and eventually cross the river in open turf. At some point the road probably would have joined the great highway that ran from Minas Tirith to the Fords of Isen.
Although the details in the film differ from the book (for example, Aragorn does not find or speak with Frodo in the book), Boromir’s death follows the book fairly closely. He comes charging in and slays several Orcs, only to be overcome by archers. If anything, the movie downplays the intensity of the Orcish counter-assault for the book says that as many as 100 Orcs shoot their bows at Boromir. He would not have stood a chance against that torrent of death.
Parth Galen marked the southernmost point on the Anduin where the Fellowship could have crossed the river. The Falls of Rauros were considered unpassable and the travelers had to choose then whether to stay on the west side of the river or cross over to the east side. In the end, everyone but Boromir was willing to cross the river with Frodo and yet he took only Sam with him (and that reluctantly — only because Sam deduced what Frodo was up to and caught up with him).
The hills where Amon Hen was located were situated on Rohan’s eastern border. It is not clear from the text whether the hills were deemed to be part of Rohan:
The ridge upon which the companions stood went down steeply before their feet. Below it twenty fathoms or more, there was a wide and rugged shelf which ended suddenly in the brink of a sheer cliff: the East Wall of Rohan. So ended the Emyn Muil, and the green plains of the Rohirrim stretched away before them to the edge of sight.
Although most if not all maps place the label “Emyn Muil” only on the eastern side of the river, it seems clear from this passage in “The Riders of Rohan” that the Emyn Muil extended to both sides of the river; it may be that the hills marked the eastern boundary of Rohan as well.
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See also:
- Why Did Sauron Need a Road from Barad-dur to Sammath Naur?
- Why Did the Fellowship Not Take any Maps with Them?
- Where Did the Old Forest Road in Mirkwood Lead To?
- How Many Roads Led Into the Shire?
- Why are There So Few Roads in Middle-earth?
- Do the Rohirrim of Rohan Use Boats?
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