Fascinating questions
The Little Green...nice thread idea.
I think there are several "options" here...the first being perhaps Elrond and Gandalf already knew that Frodo would accept the task. As after he does, Elrond chimes in with:
Quote:
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"I think that this task is appointed for you, Frodo; and that if you do not find a way, no one will."~The Council of Elrond
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Also, you may find this thread (
The Scouring of the Shire) to be a nice read. There was a little discussion about how Tolkien set up a "complimentary balance" between the high, noble characters and the simple, ordinary ones. As he would write to Milton Waldman in
Letter 131:
Quote:
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A moral of the whole is the obvious one that without the high and noble, the simple and vulgar is utterly mean; and without the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless.
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The 'high and noble' are there to do the brunt work like dragon slaying, fighting in epic battles, and perhaps carrying the little hobbits through a blizzard? Yet, without the "simple and ordinary" hobbits (such as Frodo and Bilbo) the heroic feats of the 'high and noble' are meaningless. Because the high and noble will not agree (they might not even succeed) in doing the dirty tasks, like bearing a Ring under tremendous agony and strain across Middle-earth. The high and noble will do the heroic deeds, while the "weak and small hands" will do the dirty tasks, undergoing extreme phsyical and mental pain, that the high and noble won't do.
