[davem]

Firstly, Doug, thanks for what you said, but I find myself undeserving. I am happy if people find anything I post even readable!

Helen,

this failure was adumbrated from far back.... A petition against something that cannot happen is unmeaning.....No, Frodo 'failed'. It is possible that once the ring was destroyed he had little recollection of the last scene. But one must face the fact: the power of evil is not finally resistible by incarnate creatures, however 'good'; and the Writer of the Story is not one of us.

I think these are central quotes. Frodo does 'fail' - because no one could succeed. The power of evil is not finally resistble by incarnate creatures. Frodo cannot resist it. He fails. Because both Good & evil are external realities (at least as far as Middle Earth prior to the fall of Sauron is concerned) and internal responses/reactions to those realities then for an act to constitute a moral failure or 'sin', there must be an internal consent. Frodo 'fails', he cannot finally resist evil, because it seems to him at that point that the result of that final act of resistance will be so terrible he would not be able to live with it.

" a last flicker of pride, a desire to have returned as a 'hero'"... and the second "he was tempted to regret its destruction, and still to desire it." ... "He went {west} both to a purgatory and a reward, for a while: a period of reflection and peace and a gaining of a truer understanding of his position in littleness and greatness..."

This is central, though, isn't it? Pride & desire - pride the great sin, & desire. The fact he is sent not simply to a reward, but to a purgatory, to be purified of his 'sin' implies that he had something to deal with, to take responsibility for. Lyta's point about the addict stands, in that Frodo is not addicted to the Ring as a piece of jewelery, as something with sentimental value, but to what it offers - control, the 'Luciferic' sin - pride, desire, to usurp The Authority, to re-make the world in his own image, to 'put right' what he feels The Authority has got wrong, to stop The Authority doing what he has planned. There is also fear, which comes ultimately from a lack of trust, which comes from a sense of seperation ('My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?). So, Frodo feels alone, deserted & desperate to get back to a time & place when he was happy & things made sense, but this is, harsh as it may sound, not 'the escape of the prisoner' but the 'flight of the deserter'. He is broken, exhausted, desperate for it all to stop. He wants to run away, run back to safety, & at the last moment, he deserts, fails, sins, but cannot be blamed, must be forgiven, because he has done what no-one else could. Only, as we find Tolkien stating in the Athrabeth, can The Authority Him/Her/Itself go the whole way, & not be broken in the end. Frodo sins, finally, because we are all sinners. Frodo cannot be free of sin, because if he was he wouldn't need to be saved. For Tolkien the Catholic we all need to be saved. The Authority must enter into the world He has given being to, because it cannot save itself, because however hard anyone in that world tries, however much they sacrifice, at the end, they will fail, because they're fallen, & cannot stand by themselves.

David (thought I'd give my real name finally!)

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 9:03 AM January 21, 2004: Message edited by: davem ]