[Kalimac]

Mmm...debate. Marilea, that's a really good point about Sam's marriage being something that would make Frodo feel even more cut off. It does get emphasized what a dividing factor that is, especially when Frodo has his illness at the time of Elanor's birth, but conceals it because "Sam had other things to think about." Honestly, even though Sam probably had an extremely hectic March 25th as it was, you can't see him just brushing off Frodo's illness, and Frodo knew him well enough by this point to realize it. You're right, it's as if Frodo felt he didn't deserve the attention - the "Why should I always be complaining to other people?" mentality. Sam doubtless doesn't see his marriage as getting in the way at all, but Frodo is almost deliberately making the gap wider than it has to be, and it does look he does it out of guilt; fearing to take too much of Sam away from Rosie and the children, he ends up giving up his companionship altogether.

One factor in Frodo's feeling alienated by the marriage is that he doesn't seem to really be the marrying type himself; he does seem like much more of a natural homebody than Bilbo does (taking five months to leave Bag End instead of ten minutes, as in "The Hobbit" [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]) and if the Ring had never existed would probably have ended up as the kindly bachelor uncle-figure to Sam's children and the local eccentric to everyone else [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] (well, you know how it is with those Brandybucks!). But of course Sam would not have the same place in his life, and his life would still be his own, not torn away from him by Fate. But he did get the Ring, and if he was unlikely to marry before that then after he returned to the Shire there was no way on earth, there just wasn't enough of him left emotionally. Seeing Sam marry and get into the thick of Shire life would have been like seeing a textbook layout of all the things that Frodo would have had a hard time doing even in the best of times, and was wholly incapable of now (and Birdland, you're right - I've been in the same situation as you, and it's terrible after a while how little you can do, and how much really needs to be done). It would have made him feel like he was incapable of being anything except a perpetual outsider. In which case one can see why he would choose to cut the cords; painful at the time but better for everyone in the end, including Sam - at least that's how Frodo would see it.

If Merry or Pippin had gotten it - well, we've seen how Pippin reacted to the Palantir, if he had the Ring I can easily see him struggling on for a while but giving up in despair on the borders of Emyn Muil; running himself exhausted looking for a way down and never thinking things through, and eventually going to sleep for good. As for Merry - well, as much as it pains me to say it about the original Kalimac, while he was far more set and intent to the purpose, I can't see him ever leaving the Cracks of Doom without the Ring. Once his mind was fixed on having it, he probably would have jumped in after Gollum before letting it go (this is of course assuming that M & P would befriend Gollum the same way instead of simply stabbing him the first chance they got).

All that said though (whew...I do go on sometimes...) Saruman's "prophecy" was probably a sort of bitter thought in the back of his mind; a little stab of poison that helped alter his perspective on Sam's marriage et al a little bit - removing some of the sweet and leaving the bitter. Of course he would know Saruman for the old fraud he was by that time, but that never really helps. How many of you have been told something which was cruel and low and completely vicious and still been unable to get it out of your head for the longest time? And former boyfriends and junior high classmates don't have Saruman's voice, after all.

OK, apologies for the lecture. I do hope it made sense.