[mark12_30]

Sharon,

I was reflecting on your observation of how important Bilbo was to The Real Frodo (BookFrodo). This always puzzled me and I realize it's because I always focus on Frodo's comment to Sam when Sam is reviewing the victuals supply, where Frodo calls Sam "friend of friends". I always assumed that that meant that Sam was his best friend yet.

But maybe "friend" holds less water than "uncle and friend" combined:

Bookwise: Frodo was adopted and moved into Bag End at twenty-one (but spent much time with Bilbo even before that; he was Bilbo's "favorite nephew". So Bilbo and Frodo lived together at Bag End, aristocratic bachelors (read-- no careers except what they chose to do for fun), until Bilbo left: when Frodo was Thirty Three, coming of age.

That's twelve years together... twelve years of walking and hiking, studying, eating, smoking, chatting, visiting the Green Dragon, and giving parties, not to mention visiting elves.

Have any of us ever spent twelve uninterrupted years (of aristocratic leisure-time, no less, with all our basic needs met by servants) with somebody chosen precisely because they have so many of our own interests? I think that's why Bilbo chose Frodo. Thinking of it that way, I'm amazed they were separable at all. I'm amazed that Bilbo didn't take Frodo with him. I'll have to think that over some more.

After Bilbo left, there was another seventeen years Frodo spent developing other friendships-- most noted are, Folco and Fatty, Pippin, and Merry. Sam is not listed as a "friend", interestingly enough. But none of those friends moved into Bag End, nor (seemingly) lived very close. So Frodo had twelve very close years with Bilbo, and then seventeen years of more casual friendships with Pippin, Merry, Fatty and Folco. Fatty and Folco stayed home.

And Sam was the servant. There was some affection there perhaps, and certainly some loyalty (hence Sam's choking under the window when he realised Frodo would leave) but nothing whatsoever to imply as close a relationship than Frodo had with his uncle.

And there was all that time, during those seventeen years, when Frodo was tempted, in the fall, to be off and following Bilbo, and see if perhaps he could even find him.

I wonder why Gandalf never mentioned, "Yes, Bilbo is safe and sound at Rivendell." Perhaps because Frodo would have been off and running down the road without a hat or pocket hankerchief.

So... "You were very fond of Bilbo, were you not?" "Indeed, yes, I would rather see him than all the (?mountains and towers?) in the world."

To me that makes far more sense now than it did.

Again, the movie leaves all this out. And since Wood had never read the Real Frodo, he had nothing to put into it, and Jackson, being a monster-expert, was more interested in the monsters than the heroes of the light. Too bad. (I gotta stop knocking the movie. For a fan-fiction, it really was superb.)

--Mark12_30