"You carry the fate of us all, little one."

[Boromir88]

Tar-Ancalime:

Boromir88, interesting idea about Frodo taking on the sins of others. Do you think of this as having a Christian resonance? In other words, are the Cracks of Doom Frodo's Crucifixion? Is the ship from the Grey Havens his Ascension?

I think that is a good possibility, thanks for bringing that up. I can see how the cracks of doom would be Frodo's crucifixion, there he doesn't physically die, but he is mentally dead, at this time probably thinking he's failed there is no hope left. The Grey Havens would be the only logical choice for Ascension, he's been wounded and needs to seek healing, to do that he goes to the Grey Havens. It's not like he doesn't love middle-earth anymore, but he isn't happy there, and he wants to be healed from his morgul wound. Similar to Celebrian.

Elladan, first off GREAT POST! I enjoyed reading it.

Obviously Frodo is incomplete in that he fails in the end and his Quest is only allowed to succeed through divine grace.

I think Tolkien deals a lot with divine grace and a lot with fate. On the fate note, look at the Istari. Radagast represents Yavanna, so he of course, likes nature and birds. Saruman and Sauron (I know he's not an Istari, but might as well add him in too), are from Aule, they greed for money/power. Also, the Dwarves and Noldor are from Aule, they greed for riches and adore the items they make from their own hands. Gandalf was said to not really represent any Valar, but he was most like Manwe, so it is he who stays loyal to his quest and complete's the Istari's task. I believe that has something to do with fate, sort of like, you don't have control of what you do, it's who you are from, or who you represent, and that's who you end up in becoming.