Quote:
Originally Posted by Mithadan
While it is possible that Galadriel may have "offered" Frodo the Ring (which would have made his offer to yield it to her even more striking as a reaction), my guess, and it is nothing more than speculation, is that Frodo's greatest desire was to settle down again with Bilbo. To do this, Frodo would need to be free of the Ring. The easiest route to his being free of the Ring? Give it to Galadriel. So Frodo's offer back to Galadriel, made appropriately before her Mirror, was a reflection of what she suggested to him and what she, herself, desired.
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I got halfway through disagreeing with this and then changed my mind. ^_^ The key point I missed is that Galadriel's offer wasn't "Give me the Ring and you can go back to Bag-End with Bilbo"; it was just "If you give up, you can...".
What Frodo is saying in his offer to her is "Yes, I would like to give up - but the Ring still has to be dealt with. Gandalf and Aragorn both refused it - will
you take it up?"
But crucially, he's still taking responsibility for the Ring. He's not abandoning the Quest, like she offered, not just dropping the thing and going home; he's trying to pass it on to someone (he thinks is) more suitable.
To extend the guess a bit more: perhaps Frodo's initial response to Galadriel's offer was to go "But who would take the Ring?". Her reply, based on the ' turn aside from the road and leave the Quest... to others' description, would have been, "Don't let that bother you; it wouldn't be your problem any more."
But Frodo couldn't do that. He had to know the Quest was in safe hands, and ultimately, that turned out to be his.
hS