Boromir's route home

[Heathertoes]

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I don't entirely understand why the Fellowship had to make a decision at Rauros. If Boromir was so keen to get back to Minas Tirith why couldn't they just carry the boats down to the river and carry on? The Anduin passes close to Mordor and Minas Tirith.

[Sharkey]

Perhaps the lands further down Anduin were too populous, and the Fellowship, whose main strength lay in secrecy, would be up for observation by both friendly and unfriendly eyes.

[Arthur_Vandelay]

That's a damn good question. I'll give it a shot . . .

For starters, if it isn't clear which direction Gandalf intended to take after Rauros (assuming that he too had that place in mind as a point the Fellowship would visit on their journey), it certainly isn't clear which route Aragorn had in mind, had things turned out differently. We know that he was resolved to go directly to Mordor--if that was the route Frodo wished to take--but we never get to find out if he had any clear idea about the best way to get there.

Well, that's not exactly true. We know that he had a mind to traverse something called the "North Stair"--which I guess is some kind of portage-way just to the west of the falls. From there, to "the water again," which would have taken the Fellowship past the Wetwang marshes to Ithilien. Alternatively, at a safe enough distance from the falls (and assuming the Wetwang marshes don't reach as far north as the skirts of the Emyn Muil), they could have crossed the River and passed east between the Emyn Muil and the Wetwang, and then between the Wetwang and the Dead Marshes (assuming they don't "join up" at some point). In any case, Aragorn was not going to make up his mind until he had sat upon the Seat of Seeing and gauged the lie of the land. I have no idea from which direction he purposed to enter Mordor.

[Grond]

Perhaps the lands further down Anduin were too populous, and the Fellowship, whose main strength lay in secrecy, would be up for observation by both friendly and unfriendly eyes.

Ithrynluin now Gorthaur... your disposition has taken a markedly evil turn.

[King Aragorn]

Also, didn't Boromir try to take the ring? I don't think Aragorn would have wanted to lead the fellowship to Minas Tirith because of the possibility that the ring might be stolen.

[Nenya Evenstar]

I believe the decision of which direction to go had to be made at the Falls of Rauros simply because of the geography of the land. Take a look at a map of the area and you will see that it would have been impossible for the Fellowship to simply sail down the river. First of all they would have had to go down the Falls of Rauros . . . suicide. Second of all, they would have had to get through the area of Wetwang, which was filled with marshes and numerous tributaries. Not exactly the best place to try and sail a river.

They could not have simply decided to walk down the side of the river until they got to a navigatable part of it because on one side of the river was Wetwang and on the other side were the numerous tributaries of the Entwash.

So, the decision had to be made at Rauros, or else many, many days would have been wasted attempting to navigate a swampy river or trying to go by foot around the Wetwang or the Entwash tributaries