Frodo at Sammath Naur

[Carrûn]

Since the topic's been revived I'll add some more of Shippey's comments and my muttered ramblings.

The phrasing of "I choose not do do" vs. "I do not chose to do" could be nothing more than just a particular way of saying the same thing. Assuming it's more it raises additional questions for thought. Shippy ponders whether Frodo has given into temptation or simply been overpowered by evil. Since his words make more sense then mine, here's another segment from page 141:

If one puts the questions like that, there is a surprising and omnious echo to them, which suggests that this whole debate between "Boethian" and "Manichaean" views, far from being one between orthodoxy and hersy, is at the absolute heart of the Christian religion itself. The Lord's Prayer...contains seven clauses or requests...

'Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.'

Are these...saying the same thing? Or do they have different but complementary intentions, the first asking God to keep us safe from ourselves (Boethian), the second asking for protection from outside (Manichaean)?

Shippey writes that, based on a letter to David Masson, the last three clauses of the Lord's Prayer, especially "Forgive us our trespasses" were on Tolkien's mind when he wrote the scene at Sammath Naur that that it was meant to be a "fairy-story exemplum" of them.

Shippey then raises the final question of whether the danger of the Ring is internal and sinful, or external and hostile. Since, according to Shippey, one can never tell for sure when reading the Trilogy, this is one of its greater strengths. We all see (for the most part) the amount of harm we can do to ourselves and others and at the same time see disasters happening that no one can feel any responsibility for.