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Ilandir
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Post Was it Frodo's choice?
on: September 27, 2011 09:47
It seems very straight forward in the books, but when Frodo accepts to take the Ring to Mordor, during the Council of Elrond, was it purely because he wanted to take the quest upon himself and become the Ring-Bearer?

For my part, I believe that one of the major reasons was also because he didn't want to hand over the Ring to anyone else - since its influence had begun to have an effect on him.

What does everyone else think?
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LadyBeruthiel
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Post RE: Was it Frodo's choice?
on: September 27, 2011 03:22
I don't know. I think it was the same impulse that made him realize he had to take the Ring out of the Shire. It was to save those he loved at first, and no one else could do it. I think he realized that at the Council, and also realized that more than the Shire was at stake.

I think Tolkien wanted to show what happens when seemingly insignificant people, people who might otherwise be overlooked, simply stand up and do what's right.
cirdaneth
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Post RE: Was it Frodo's choice?
on: September 28, 2011 04:08
In a letter to Eileen Elgar in 1963 Tolkien says "Frodo undertook his quest out of love - to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could; and also in complete humility, acknowledging that he was wholly inadequate to the task."
tarcolan
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Post RE: Was it Frodo's choice?
on: September 28, 2011 12:13
The silence in the Council was growing heavier and it became clear to Frodo that no-one was going to volunteer. He would have claimed the task much sooner if he was obsessive about the Ring, and when asked to show it by Elrond he was ashamed and felt 'a loathing of its touch'.

Last year we discussed how many times he had used the Ring in the Shire and it was suggested that ownership alone was more important. I didn't and still don't agree, in fact I've changed my mind and now I think he only used it once or twice. He was more a guardian of it than Bilbo, who was only able to give it up in the end with so little hurt because he held it without desire to use it maliciously.

Frodo had little trouble in giving the Ring to Gandalf and none in giving it to Tom. At Bree he had no conscious desire to use it, it being more the will of the Ring itself to be revealed. All the other instances before Rivendell were influenced by the Ringwraiths, so all in all I don't think Frodo was very far gone by this point, and would have been relieved for some other to take the burden from him. So I agree with Tolkien here. That's big of me isn't it?
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Ilandir
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Post RE: Was it Frodo's choice?
on: September 30, 2011 07:53
Thanks everyone for the comments ... I guess cirdaneth's post seals the topic hehe ... a shame though because I always thought there was this slight sense of unwillingness from Frodo's part to leave it to someone else ... but anywho ...
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Andowen
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Post RE: Was it Frodo's choice?
on: October 02, 2011 03:06
I think that's maybe a slight difference between the books and the films. In the book I can accept Tolkien's reason for Frodo taking the ring, I think in the film it was hinting that perhaps there was more to it - the influence of the ring beginning to take him over.
estelamarth
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Post RE: Was it Frodo's choice?
on: January 04, 2012 07:40
I think it was the power of the Ring over him in part. The Ring might have wanted Frodo to try to destroy it because it predicted that Frodo would fail and become corrupted and end up taking the Ring back to its master. By the time Frodo got to Imladris, especially considering his run in with the Nazgul and the Morgul blade stabbing, the Ring definitely had some hold over him.
wolfbladequeen
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on: June 16, 2013 05:26
I think that Frodo realized that he was a sort of go-between, as the dwarves and elves had enmity so could not agree to the other race taking it. Hobbits are sort of neutral.
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