Did Frodo REALLY volunteer to Bear the Ring?

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Sorry if someone already brought this up, but I had a thought: if Frodo had known the exact nature of the sacrifices being a Ring-bearer would entail, would he still have willingly taken on the burden?
Frodo is singular, in that he was the only one to take on the responsibility of bearing the One Ring with at least a partial understanding of its dangers. He took the Ring, as he told Sam, to "save the Shire". He probably thought at that time though that his physical death would be the worst the Ring would bring him. Had he been aware of what it would do to him on the inside, had he, for instance, seen Gollum before setting out on the Quest, would he still have accepted his task?

Good question. You know, to open it up further, let's look at why *no one else* volunteers (except for Bilbo, whose motives seem clear). Those with little knowledge of ringlore, or at least more knowledge of battle, are probably more concerned with the physical dangers such as death or capture. The wiser ones (Gandalf and Elrond specifically) fear the Ring for its power to twist people to evil. Yet neither one is the worst consequence for Frodo.

But Gandalf has seen Gollum, and so has Aragorn. But I think that Aragorn was too repulsed with him to even consider a comparison, and Gandalf was counting on the sturdiness of hobbit character. And Gandalf has a point - the quest wouldn't last nearly as long as Gollum had the Ring. Or maybe he foresaw Frodo's unhealing, but with the chance of success so small and its manner so flexible, Frodo's future might have been a future river to cross, or a not even guaranteed price to pay for what must be done.

PS: not to open a huge can of worms here, but just a tiny tangent - why is it that people seemed to have volunteered readily for the quest, just not as Ringbearer? The thing that seemed to bother mpst of the Council was the impossibility of the quest, not the Ring's power. So why go at all? Peer pressure?