In the latest editions of The Lord of the Rings, there appears to be a chapter missing – whether by mistake or misguided editing decision, I do not know. But I can find no detailed account of the mortal slaying of Boromir!

It has been 15 years since I last read The Lord of the Rings. With the pending arrival of the movie, I purchased a new set of the trilogy recently and set about reading it again. Imagine my shock and disappointment to discover a grievous omission between the first volume, "The Fellowship of the Ring," and the second, "The Two Towers."

Unless my imagination has merely filled in the gap over time, or my memory is playing tricks on me, I remember quite clearly reading about Boromir’s defense of Merry and Pippin against a sudden onslaught of orcs. But in the new editions I purchased this week, I can find nothing about the battle, but a few paragraphs recounting Aragorn’s discovery of Boromir, and their final conversation, seconds before Boromir dies.

This strikes me as a huge error. Furthermore, I cannot understand why there has been no other talk of this. I can’t find any mention of this deletion in any chat groups or posts anywhere. I in fact began to doubt my discovery, and thought perhaps, since I had stayed up late reading, I had merely read over the chapter without noticing the passage in question.

But that is not the case. I have the books in front of me as I am writing this. I have gone back and forth between the two books, and the chapter is simply not there.

I ask all fans of the books to check. Dig into your memory. Am I making up a chapter that does not exist? If so, then the books seem to me to be seriously flawed in the handling of this important plot twist. However, I am sure I am right. This chapter did exist. But it seems to have been inadvertently left out.

Let me explain in detail. Perhaps I have a copy of the books that were incorrectly printed. But this is how the story unfolds in the current editions distributed by Ballantine Books.

The first book, "The Fellowship of the Ring," ends with a chapter entitled, "The Breaking of the Fellowship." The chapter opens with the Company trying to decide where next they should go. The original nine, reduced to eight with the loss of Gandalf the Grey in the Mines of Moria, have arrived at the end of their river journey. After camping on the west bank of the Anduin, they are rested but indecisive about their direction.

Frodo seems intent on heading east to Mordor, to destroy the One Ring in the fire in which it was made. But others in the Company would like to head west to the walled city of Minas Tirith. The decision sits heavily on Frodo’s shoulders, as the ring bearer. He asks for an hour to think before rendering his decision, and goes off for a walk. Meanwhile, the others stay by the bank of the river, discussing the matter. No one notices right away that Boromir has slipped off, following Frodo.

Boromir has been tempted by the power of the Ring. He attempts to persuade Frodo to bring the Ring to Minas Tirith. When that fails, he tries to seize the Ring by force. Frodo slips on the Ring and runs away, invisible. Boromir’s will returns, and he is overcome with grief at what he has done, yelling after Frodo, "What have I done? Frodo, Frodo! Come back! A madness took me, but it has passed. Come back!"

Frodo, however, is out of ear shot. He runs to the top of a great hill, the summit of Amon Hen, and sits upon the high chair located there. He looks out upon the world, seeing many visions. And suddenly, he feels the Eye of Mordor looking for him. He takes the Ring off his finger, and returns to the normal world. With that, his mind was made up. He resolves to go off into danger by himself, rather than risking the lives of any of his friends and to guard against the possibility of someone else being tempted by the evil of the Ring.

As he approaches the river, Frodo hears the sounds of his friends calling out for him. "They’ll be hunting for me," he thinks. ... "What can I do? I must go now or I shall never go. ... I hate leaving them, and like this without any explanation. But surely they will understand. Sam will. And what else can I do?" He slips the Ring on his finger again, and creeps silently down toward the boats.

Meanwhile, the others of the Company realize Frodo has been gone quite a long time. Sam then notices that Boromir is no longer around. Sam he is worried, as he has noticed Boromir’s strange looks at Frodo in recent days and remembers Boromir’s speech at the Council of Elrond, in which he suggested it was folly to destroy the Ring, which he thought should instead be used as a weapon against the Enemy.

Boromir reappears. Aragorn asks him if he has seen Frodo. Boromir hesitates, then replies "Yes and no." He explains they had talked, but that after he urged Frodo to return with him to Minas Tirith and not to go east, "He grew angry and left me. He vanished. I have never seen such a thing happen before, though I have heard of it in tales. He must have put the Ring on. I could not find him again. I thought he would return to you."

Aragorn is concerned. He suspects there is more to the story than Boromir has told. But, first things first. Boromir says it may have been a hour since he last saw Frodo.

"An hour since he vanished!" shouted Sam. "We must try and find him at once. Come on!"

Aragorn tries to counsel caution. "We should divide up into pairs and arrange ... " Too late. The hobbits have gone running off in different directions. Aragorn urges Boromir to follow Merry and Pippin and guard them. Legolas and Gimli had ran off in another direction. Aragorn took off after Sam, who was running up to the hill where Frodo was thought to be.

Aragorn quickly overtakes Sam, running up to the Seat of Amon Hen. Sam stops to rest. Suddenly, he comes to the realization that his master, Frodo, has most likely made up his mind to go east. Then he thinks, "Not without Sam? Yes, without even his Sam. That’s hard, cruel hard."

Sam takes off running back to the river bank. He arrives just in time to see one of the boats sliding down the bank into the river. He flings himself in the water, missing the boat and nearly drowning. Frodo pulls him from the river. They speak, and Sam refuses to go along with Frodo’s suggestion that he should stay behind and go with the others, rather than following him into danger. Frodo relents, and Sam retrieves his backpack, including his cooking gear. They then head off together, Frodo and Sam, "down the western arm and past the frowning cliffs of Tol Brandir."

The book ends with:

Thus ends my edition of "The Fellowship of the Ring."

I’ve reread the last chapter twice. Nowhere is there any detailed account of the attack of the orcs. The only possible reference comes as Sam is approaching the river, before he sees the boat being taken out by an invisible Frodo:

"He came to the edge of the lawn of Parth Galen by the shore, where the boats were drawn up out of the water. No one was there. There seemed to be cries in the woods behind, but he did not heed them."

"The Two Towers" carries on the account of the search for Frodo. But my edition also contains no detailed account of Boromir’s battle with orcs or the abduction of Merry and Pippin.

Oddly, however, the Synopsis that opens the book includes this passage:

That suggests that the account of Boromir’s fight should have been at the end of the first book. Again, I’ve read, reread and re-reread the final chapter of "The Fellowship of the Ring." The book ends without any reference to an attack by orcs.

So there is an obvious mistake there. That mistake could be forgiven if the chapter in question had instead been included in "The Two Towers." But it cannot be found in this book, either. My edition of "The Two Towers" opens with Aragorn still searching for Frodo. He finds Frodo’s tracks headed down from the top of the hill. He looks longingly toward the top, thinking to himself that he would have liked to sit in the chair high on top of the hill, "hoping to see there something that would guide him in his perplexities; but time was pressing."

Aragorn quickly decides and runs up the hill, where he sits briefly in the chair. But then, "his quick ears caught sounds in the woodlands below, on the west side of the River. He stiffened. There were cries, and among them, to his horror, he could distinguish the harsh voices of orcs."

That is the first reference we have to the orc attack.

"Then suddenly with a deep-throated call a great horn blew, and the blasts of it smote the hills and echoed in the hollows, rising in a mighty shout above the roaring of the falls."

Aragorn recognizes the horn of Boromir. He springs down the steps leading away from the great chair, down the path and toward the sound of the still-blowing horn.

"As he ran the cries came louder, but fainter now and desperately the horn was blowing. Fierce and shrill rose the yells of the Orcs, and suddenly the horn-calls ceased. Aragorn raced down the last slope, but before he could reach the hill’s foot, the sounds died away; ..."

The very next paragraph reads:

"A mile, maybe, from Parth Galen in a little glade not far from the lake he found Boromir. He was sitting with his back to a great tree, as if he was resting. But Aragorn saw that he was pierced with many black-feathered arrows; his sword was still in his hand, but it was broken near the hilt; his horn cloven in two was at his side. Many Orcs lay slain, piled all about him and at his feet."

With his last breath, Boromir tells Aragorn that the Orcs have taken "the Halflings." He also admits he had tried to take the ring from Frodo. "I am sorry. I have paid," he said. He bids that Aragorn go "to Minas Tirith and save my people."

Aragorn tells him not to fear. "Minas Tirith will not fall!" he says. Boromir smiles. Only then does Aragorn think to ask whether Frodo was with the others. But it is too later. Boromir has died.Then, Legolas and Gimli arrive. The three set Boromir adrift in one of the remaining two boats. They figure out that the missing boat, combined with the fact that Sam’s pack is gone, must mean Frodo and Sam went off together. The three remaining members of the Company then resolve to trail the Orcs and try to save Merry and Pippin.

Thus ends the accounting of the Fellowship’s division into two parties: Sam and Frodo, continue the quest into Mordor, a tale which is not picked up again until the mid-point of "The Two Towers." The first half of the book surrounds Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas: the tracking the orcs, their reunion with Gandalf, their journey to the land of Rohan and the great battle at Helm’s Deep, ending with the encounter with the defeated wizard Saruman.

Now, I can’t remember how long the missing chapter was. It seems that there is at least two or three pages of text that should have been included, either at the end of "The Fellowship of the Ring," or at the beginning of "The Two Towers."

I am certain I read this chapter long ago. I remember reading how orcs began to rush Boromir, until he pulled out his horn. As the horn sounded, the orcs pulled back, aghast, looking around in fear as though they expected hundreds of other warriors to suddenly appear in answer to the summons. When nothing happens, they sneer and rush Boromir again.

If this recollection is only my imagination, I apologize to all Tolkien fans everywhere. But I’m quite certain I’m right.

Lowell Vickers

Creston, Iowa