In Defense of Frodo

R

Rachel Port

Well-Known Member
I've been thinking about writing my thoughts about Frodo at the Cracks of Doom, since I'm unlikely to live long enough to get there in this class (I'm 73), and the little aside during this last class gives me an opportunity to do it without coming out of the blue.

Every time that crucial scene gets brought up, with Frodo's failure, though in one instance Corey countered that he didn't fail because the Ring got destroyed. But I can take that further. Frodo's quest is to destroy the Ring - the whole quest, not just those final moments. So everything along the way contributes in some way to the ultimate destruction and victory. And if Frodo wasn't personally able to cast the Ring into the Fire, his actions during the quest made sure there was another way to do it. Gollum was only there because of Frodo. Frodo not only spared Gollum's life, he convinced Faramir to spare him also, which is perhaps the more difficult task. Frodo had a moment's temptation not to intervene, watching Gollum in the pool, but realized that he had taken Gollum under his protection, and rose to the occasion, and argued the defense well enough that Faramir agreed despite grave misgivings. There was a kinship between Frodo and Gollum, a kinship of Ringbearers and their unique experience. And Sam felt enough of it to spare Gollum through pity on the slope of Mt. Doom. So - Tolkien knew early on that Frodo would not be able to destroy the Ring, and that Gollum would somehow complete the task, but the story of how that happened evolved over time as the relationship between the two of them developed.

So, Frodo ultimately did see that the Ring was destroyed in spite of his inability to do it himself.
 
I am late to this post but would like to add that I do not think anyone could have believed Frodo would cast the ring into the fire. Tolkien writes "If you re-read all the passages dealing with Frodo and the Ring, I think you will see that not only was it quite impossible for him to surrender the Ring, in act or will, especially at its point of maximum power, but that this failure was adumbrated from far back." Corey and others joke about "two strikes and you are out" referring to the failure at Bag End and at the Cracks of Doom.

Frodo's stated and explicit role is to be the Ring Bearer and to take the Ring to the Cracks of Doom. That is what he signs up for and agrees to a second time on setting out. Nowhere is it stated that his job is to toss the ring into the fire. It is true that when he gets to the mountain and claims the ring he says he will not do what he was sent to do but it is hard to see Gandalf or Elrond thinking this was his role. I like your reading which gives credit to Frodo not only for carrying the ring but for setting the circumstance for Gollum to destroy it.
 
Thank-you Longtimer - I was listening recently to a discussion of Bilbo showing pity to Gollum, and how Bilbo had very good justification for killing Gollum right then and there, but because he had pity, he saved himself as well. And I wanted to add, and saved the world. The fate of the world was partially decided by a hobbit in a cave under the Misty Mountains. And his heir was left to finish the task by sparing Gollum again.
 
The only problem i have with this is that this implies Frodo to have been expected to thow himself with the ring into the fire - a pure kamikaze mission below Elrond and Gandalf to send him on.
 
My belief is that certainly Gandalf and maybe Elrond believed that if the ring could be taken to the fire fate would take care of its destruction. Gandalf comes close to saying this both at Bag End where he says Gollum is tied up with the fate of the ring and at the Council when he says "Well he is gone. We have no time to seek him again. He must do what he will. But he may play a part yet that neither he nor Sauron have foreseen.
 
Gandalf also says in Minas Tirith that he had thought Frodo and Gollum would meet at some point (after Faramir tells of meeting Frodo and Sam in Ithilien).

The mission always felt like a human sacrifice (using the word human to include the free peoples Frodo represented) and Frodo has recognized this from the first. He always felt it was a journey there and not back again. Standing on a volcano when it erupts can be assumed to lead to death without throwing oneself in.
 
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Rachel Port said:
The mission always felt like a human sacrifice (using the word human to include the free peoples Frodo represented) and Frodo has recognized this from the first. He always felt it was a journey there and not back again. Standing on a volcano when it erupts can be assumed to lead to death without throwing oneself in.
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There is a qualitative difference between dying because the mission dangerous (life generally is and it aways has a fatal end for mortals) and being expected to kill oneself to kill evil.
 
I understand what Frodo felt about it being a one way mission but I find it hard/impossible to believe that Gandalf would have sent anyone to their certain death even to save the world. Why he thought Frodo might make it I cannot believe his code of conduct would have allowed him to sacrifice a life. This is not to say that people could not die following his advice only that it was not a certain one way mission.
Elrond I am not so sure about.
 
Frodo did believe it was a suicide mission, though he may not have realized that at the moment when he volunteered he does later. While traversing the Dead Marshes, Frodo clearly expects to die in completing his mission. (Although he seems oblivious to the critical flaw in the plan, his inability to harm the Ring himself...)

“I don’t know how long we shall take to, to finish,” said Frodo, “We were miserably delayed in the hills. But Samwise Gamgee, my dear hobbit, indeed, Sam my dearest hobbit, friend of friends, I do not think we need give thought to what comes after that. To do the job as you put it, what hope is there that we ever shall? And if we do, who knows what will come of that? If the One goes into the Fire, and we are at hand? I ask you, Sam, are we ever likely to need bread again? I think not. If we can nurse our limbs to bring us to Mount Doom, that is all we can do. More than I can, I begin to feel.”

LOTR, The Passage of the Marshes
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Longtimer said:
I understand what Frodo felt about it being a one way mission but I find it hard/impossible to believe that Gandalf would have sent anyone to their certain death even to save the world. Why he thought Frodo might make it I cannot believe his code of conduct would have allowed him to sacrifice a life.
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Hence the Eagles.
 
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