[Child of the 7th Age]

I agree with Helen on this. I do think that Frodo actively desired the Ring, and that he fought that desire all the way from Bag-end to Mordor. When he reached Sammath-Naur, the point where the Ring was forged, its power became so overwhelming that he could no longer resist the temptation. Most of us would have caved in far back along the road.

The more interesting question is the one Mister Underhill raised: that of Why? Why did he claim it? Did he desire it for its own sake, as the glittering golden band which held a fatal attraction, with no other intention or thought in his mind? Or were there goals he desired that he could clearly see could be accomplished only by owing the Ring, and hence he wanted it...?

It's clear there were hobbits who desired the Ring as the Ring. The three that come to mind are Smeagol, Deagol, and Bilbo. None of them really understood the power of the thing, so they could only respond to its intrinsic pull rather than desiring to create or take over something with it. OK, maybe Smeagol/Gollum wanted to be king of a pond with a lot of fish, but I don't think that was his chief desire! He simply wanted to hold the thing in his hand. But that temptation for the Ring alone was strong enough to cause a hobbit to murder another hobbit, the only such incident of murder among the hobbits that we know about.

Frodo's case was different. And I also think Frodo's personality was very different than the three other hobbits. First, he does understand that the Ring has power and that it could allow him to do 'impossible' things he desired. If I had to guess (which is all it is), this is what I would say. First, judging from the severity of his attacks, and the manner in which he withdrew from other people in the Shire, Frodo was feeling very, very guilty about what had happened. I don't think that guilt stems solely from Sammath Naur, although that was obviously the biggest thing. I think the seeds of that guilt were planted on the journey itself as Frodo reflected on the Ring. Some of this reflection stems from the second difference in Frodo's case, which is his particular personality.

Let me explain. My guess is that both issues were involved -- the desire for the Ring as an object, and the desire to accomplish something with that Ring. All those days of trudging across the face of Middle-earth! Surely at some point he asked himself "what if". We are rarely let into Frodo's head the way we are in Sam's or even Merry and Pippin. We see Frodo largely through their eyes (also Gollum's). But we do know certain things about Frodo; he was very reflective for a hobbit and a little more withdrawn, polite, and formal than some other hobbits. Not totally, mind you -- he could still dance on tables, sing bath songs and had rosey cheeks. But by the end of the tale, even this cheerful behavior would fade, to be replaced by a kind of gentle formality.

Moreover, Frodo strikes me as the kind of hobbit who would run things through his head more than once. And for a hobbit, that would indeed be unusual! For example, the kind of questions he poses to Gandalf about "why me" must have spun through his mind a thousand times before. And what other hobbit would have looked at Faramir's men facing the West to honor Numenor and what lay beyond and wished that his own people had such a custom?

To be quite blunt, Frodo is a hobbit who, on occasion, looks and acts more like an Elf! He has a light growing in his eyes, and Gandalf speculates that it will ultimately shine through his whole body like the Phial of Galadriel. Samwise speaks of his wisdom, hardly a typical hobbit trait! He is called "Elf-friend" early in the book and can even speak a bit of the language. And what other hobbit, one of the people with "no religion", would wish that his own kind had a custom like that of Faramir's men, a custom which comes mighty close to "worship" in my eyes.

This Elf-like nature of Frodo probably made him more resistent to the evil of the Ring, but it may also have opened him up to some of the same shortcomings that the Elves had.....specifically, the desire to preserve and embalm.

How many times did Frodo lie awake at night thinking what he could do if he had the Ring? I think that is a real possibility. What did he want? I think Mithadan nailed it on an earlier thread. I am paraphrasing his words...

1. The one thing we know is that Frodo loved Bilbo more than anyone.

My comment - Bilbo was getting older, and he was going to die soon. The fact that Frodo had no wife and that he had lost his parents at the age of twelve (and Tolkien had also lost his!) makes this desire to cling to Bilbo even more understandable.

2. Frodo loved the Shire; he wanted it to be the same for him as when he left.

My comment - That's not possible, of course. The Shire, at least the book Shire, had changed slightly. More importantly, Frodo had changed vastly.

There is, I think, a third option. Part of Frodo expected to die, and in a sense wanted to die. This would be the crowning glory of his sacrifice. I think there are two things Frodo can be "faulted" on (and only two!): he was sometimes reluctant to rely on others (i.e., running off from the Fellowship and later withdrawing from people in the Shire), but wanted to do things his own way (maybe he got some of this from Bilbo's stubborn example!), and I get the sense part of him not only accepted his sacrificial role as Ringbearer but even welcomed it a bit. Dying would have put the cap on that sacrifice.

But if Frodo did not die, what "future" would there be? My guess is that, according to his Elf-like nature, he wanted to preserve things: just as Mithadan said, he wanted Bilbo to be with him forever, and he wanted to have the same happy relationship with the Shire he'd had before. Indeed, Frodo, like many of us, wanted to stop the world from whirling forward so fast! And the Ring was one way to do that.

In the Fourth Age, which was the beginning Age of the Dominion of Men, the hallmark would be change because that is Man's true nature. Old ways inevitably faded and new ones came in. Perhaps Frodo could even see this? After all, later he would tell Sam about how many children he would have, so he might have known a thing or two he kept to hiumself.

How could Frodo ever fit into such a world given his internal hurts and his Elf-like proclivities, causing him to cling to past people and places? Sam, yes; but Frodo, no. So perhaps Frodo chose to say "It is mine" in hopes of regaining control and preserving what had existed in the past. But providence intervened, and he was ultimately afforded entry to Elvenhome, the place where nothing changes, so he would have the time and setting to deal with his hurts.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 3:58 PM January 15, 2004: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]