Gandalf's comment about Frodo

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

Purely hypothetical, but I wonder if he would have been granted passage West if he hadn't agreed to carry the Ring to Mount Doom. He'd still have had to live with an injury for which there was no cure in Middle-earth.

I don't think so. The stain and burden of being a Ring-bearer was primarily what opened the way to Frodo. The Ring had at least for a time wholly conquered him, and in his own eyes he had thus 'failed' in his task. The guilt of that coupled with the aftereffects of longing for the Ring made the West the sole hope for him to find peace. It's notable that Bilbo and Sam, both Ring-bearers too, were allowed to go.