[Aratlithiel]

Ooh! A Frodo thread! (claps hands) My favorite!

These are all very interesting theories and fabulously well-written. However, I tend to go more for the simpler explanations and so must subject you all to my version...

I've always felt that Frodo had a sense of what fate lay ahead for him should he ever attempt to return to his home and claiming the Ring may have been his last attempt at negating that fate. Everything had already been stripped from him - he could no longer taste food, he saw nothing but the wheel of fire, he felt nothing but fear and despair and indeed, he was finally robbed of any memories that might have given him solace in his misery. He had been chased, stabbed, attacked by a guardian, pursued constantly, stung, captured, whipped - geez, I'm getting tears in my eyes! Through every step and every torment, the one thing Frodo wanted above all else was to simply go HOME. He wanted to go home and for all those he loved to be unharmed and untouched and to go home with him. The Ring, perhaps, offered him a way to do that, if he would just claim it.

Would he have known that it lied and that whatever visions it may have shown him were certainly false? Of course he would. Frodo, more than anyone else in ME knew the nature of the thing and would have known nothing it showed him or promised him would be delivered...but who, in that weakened condition, could have possibly withstood such an onslaught at the very end of things? Besides, he must have know for some time that he was not going to be able to actually toss the Ring in. He couldn't even bare to have it out of his sight - surely he didn't expect that he'd be able to drop it in the fire? Perhaps this appeared to be the only solution.

But here's another thing, something that's perhaps a bit darker than most viewpoints - I've always viewed Frodo as a bit suicidal towards the end and I view his final act to be very akin to those stated in some suicide notes: 'this is the only way I could have any control over my own life.' He never believed, from the very beginning of his journey that he would ever make it to the fires, and if he did, he certainly never thought he would be able to go home again. He had spent so many months of his life being used and manipulated by those he saw as stronger and greater than himself, perhaps this was his final effort at having some sort of say in his own destiny. I think toward the end, he no longer INTENDED to go home. How many times did he speak of hopelessness and his expectaion of death? He knew the changes the Ring had worked on him and it seems to me that he would have sighed in relief if Gollum had dragged him into the fire with him. The melancholy and illness that envelops him in his last two years in ME speaks to someone who expected to die, planned to die, made peace with his decision and then was finally even stripped of his ability to do that as he wished.

I know those two views are a bit contradictory, but that's what I've always felt Frodo's wishes to be at that particular time: to either go home and have everything unchanged or to die on the mountain. And since he knew already that he was so changed, what other choice remained to him?

I've never viewed Frodo's actions on the lip of the Crack of Doom as a failure, although he certainly did and punished himself relentlessly for it. No one could have thrown it in when it came down to it - not even Sam (although I do believe Sam had enough love for Frodo to push him into the fire rather than allow him to be overtaken by evil, but that's another thread). As stated above, Tolkien knew before he wrote the first sentence that Frodo would not be able to throw the Ring in so we can't blame the character for how the author drew him.

Whew! This turned out very long and I STILL have more to say. I'll behave for awhile and let you all 'twock amongst yaselves.'