[Marileangorifurnimaluim]

Entling sinks its roots into the soil, and reviews the question with the patience of its kind.

Hm. If we don't speak of 'delays' but rather reluctance of the heart, then I agree with you. That reluctance is most certainly there, and it underlines the poignancy of both what Frodo has to lose if he goes on, and what he stands to lose if he doesn't. No argument there.

Since the 'Last Homely House' is from the Hobbit and not the LotR I think it's a bit of a stretch to draw it into the mix. The two stories are so different. But I leave the subject be.

I'm not sure I know what you mean by Frodo's attraction to Arwen or Goldberry or forsaking the company of women. For that to be an issue there would have to be some past relationship with women in the first place, to contrast with what he was going to lose.

Frodo is 50 and a confirmed batchelor already. He may appreciate women as he appreciates the beauty of his garden, but if he set great store in a possible relationship with a woman (or Hobbit lass) he would have found one, and at least one, by that age. (One gets the impression young Pippin and yes, Sam, has more success with the ladies.)

He's quite a catch after all.
Bag End.
Youthful vigor of a 30-year-old. (!)
Related to both the Baggins And the Brandybucks, and more distantly the Tooks.
Well-liked by his neighbors.
The mystique of the famous Baggins' history to draw in the curious and adventuresome lasses. (Read: Tooks.)

Oh, I am having fun with this, imagining the damsels dashing themselves on the sheer abstract nature of Frodo's mind and personality. If he's a Libra he has Aquarious rising.

Certainly some of the girls tried.

No doubt a relative or two attempted playing matchmaker for the eccentric and conspicuously wealthy batchelor, no doubt with an ulterior motive of getting the inside scoop on those tunnels of 'jools.'

But that is just the problem, isn't it?
Frodo is too sensitive to an ulterior motive, can smell one a mile away, and it doesn't seem likely to find a single lass in the Shire who doesn't have at least one none-too-pure motive hiding under a rock somewhere.

Bilbo was a batchelor because he couldn't be bothered with the interference and complications of a woman in his life. His dramatic personality filled Bag End in such a way there was no room for anyone else, save someone as introverted as Frodo.
Meanwhile, Frodo, his very success (by Shire standards) precluded his meeting or being persued by any who would suit; while his sedendary abstract calm made it improbable he'd ever lift a finger to look on his own. If he had any hopes of finding someone, there's no sign of it.

There. The ent found something to argue with at any rate. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]