Shell-shocked Frodo .... or .... PTSD in LOTR - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 12-21-2006, 10:42 AM

Many of us are familiar with some of the latest thinking that much of Tolkien's World War One experiences were translated into the War of the Ring.

Frodo and Sam went through many of the same experiences as did foot-soldiers involved in trench warfare. Sam seems to have come through it all relatively unscathed, but Frodo is a mess. Did he come down with Ring-induced "shell-shock"?

The Vietnam era created a new term for the same thing: "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder". Is this what Frodo had?

What did Frodo and Sam experience that was like trench warfare?

What symptoms of PTSD and/or shell-shock did Frodo (and perhaps Sam) exhibit afterward?

Is the Ring responsible? Solely? In part? Not at all?

12-21-2006, 10:42 AM	#1
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	Shell-shocked Frodo .... or .... PTSD in LOTR Many of us are familiar with some of the latest thinking that much of Tolkien's World War One experiences were translated into the War of the Ring. Frodo and Sam went through many of the same experiences as did foot-soldiers involved in trench warfare. Sam seems to have come through it all relatively unscathed, but Frodo is a mess. Did he come down with Ring-induced "shell-shock"? The Vietnam era created a new term for the same thing: "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder". Is this what Frodo had? What did Frodo and Sam experience that was like trench warfare? What symptoms of PTSD and/or shell-shock did Frodo (and perhaps Sam) exhibit afterward? Is the Ring responsible? Solely? In part? Not at all?