[Child of the 7th Age]

I am off on vacation and puttering with a computer in a small library, but I wanted to add just one thought regarding Fordim's interesting comments...

(following Bilbo, if he had known it)

When I read those few words, the image that stuck in my mind was not just Bilbo's specific quest that was outlined in The Hobbit regarding the dragon Smaug and Dale, but the whole series of events that governed the Ring.

In the earlier chapter, we have seen Bilbo presented with his "moment of truth", the instant when he had to decide whether or not to give up possession of the Ring. He was able to do that, but only with help from Gandalf. If Gandalf had not been there, Bilbo would likely not have been successful in giving up the Ring.

Just like Bilbo, Frodo is also going forward to his defining moment, when he will be asked to give up the Ring. The results, of course, will be very different, yet in one way not so different. Frodo too will need help, but from a "higher" source. And one at least wonders how things would have ended if Gandalf had been with him.

If we interpret the word journey in the widest sense as being our life's path, each Hobbit was faced with the same question, although in a very different guise: how to give up this terrible, addictive thing that threatened to take possession of their mind and being. So Frodo was not only following Bilbo's path in a physical sense, but also in terms of his life journey.