Tolkien Gateway

The Departure of Boromir

The Two Towers chapters
Book III
  1. The Departure of Boromir
  2. The Riders of Rohan
  3. The Uruk-hai
  4. Treebeard
  5. The White Rider
  6. The King of the Golden Hall
  7. Helm's Deep
  8. The Road to Isengard
  9. Flotsam and Jetsam
  10. The Voice of Saruman
  11. The Palantír
Book IV
  1. The Taming of Sméagol
  2. The Passage of the Marshes
  3. The Black Gate is Closed
  4. Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
  5. The Window on the West
  6. The Forbidden Pool
  7. Journey to the Cross-Roads
  8. The Stairs of Cirith Ungol
  9. Shelob's Lair
  10. The Choices of Master Samwise

The Departure of Boromir is the first chapter of the third book in The Two Towers.


The camp having been attacked by Uruk-hai in The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn finds Boromir mortally wounded. Before Boromir dies, he tells Aragorn that the Orcs have carried off the other Hobbits. The remaining members of the party (Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli) search through the bodies of dead Orcs and find many weapons, as well as the blades of Merry and Pippin. Because they do not have time to bury him or build a cairn, they put Boromir's body on a raft and set it out to sail, Legolas and Aragorn singing a beautiful Lament for Boromir, taking the voices of three of the winds.

Aragorn tells Gimli and Legolas that he thinks Frodo and Sam have gone alone to Mordor and that they themselves should follow the Orcs and not Frodo. So saying, these adventurers continues on their journey, travelling in search of their missing companions.