It's funny how oaths made this chapter reveal much.
Quote:
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[Elrond: ]The Ringbearer is setting out on the Quest of Mount Doom. On him alone is any charge laid: neither to cast away the Ring, nor to deliver it to any servants of the Enemy nor indeed to let any handle it, save members of the Company and the Council, and only then in gravest need. (LotR II 1)
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(Oh yeah, my book's back!
)
It doesn't mention anything about actually destroying the Ring, which is just as well, as he is not the one to accomplish the mission. But he did take the Ring to Mt. Doom.
But how come Elrond did not mention the destruction of the Ring as part of Frodo's charge - after all, that's what they talked about in the previous chapter, right? Was he given some super-foresight to see that the Ring will not be destroyed by this Hobbit? Or perhaps he thought the whole affair undoable from the beginning, and like Frodo, he only thinks that they could go as far as their strengths could carry them before the Enemy overwhelms them.
Hope in Middle-earth is a crazy concept. But it does make for great stories.
Nine.
Might not the number nine represents a totality of sorts? The Aratar, the nine ships of Elendil the Faithful, and the Fellowship all represent a consummation of one sort or another.
I don't know about the Nazgūl though. Can anyone help me here?