(dusting off his copy of the Tale of Elder Days [five weeks on the New York Times best-seller list]) note what the Numenoreans are told by the Valar -- if they came to Valinor, they would only "weary and burn out quicker" (nice euphemism, that). How very kind of them to let Frodo and Bilbo partake of such "healing". Frodo was a goner as soon as he set foot on that boat, and the ungifted, er, un_dying_ didn't even have to lay a lily-white hand on him.
Much more for poor old decrepit Bilbo -- and
buddy, did they pull a number on _him_.... Beating the old Took? Phshaaw -- he had a ring that would've kept him going indefinitely! But Gandalf saw early on that Frodo was the right dupe for the job, and talked Bilbo into trading eternal youth for some magic beans.
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The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. ~~ Marcus Aurelius
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