[LúthienTinúviel]

Well said, Halbarad, although calling Sam stupid sounds a little harsh to my ears, but I know what you're getting at. Sam's was a strength of the body and heart. Frodo's strength was that of the will and of the mind.

In regards to the comments made about Frodo "doing nothing:" That is as far from the truth as anything is possible to be. Every moment, even in his sleep, he had to battle the will of Sauron. Can you imagine that? This small hobbit battling the will of the Dark Lord himself, something that Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel all said they could not do. If what Frodo did was nothing, then nobody in LotR did anything, and it is a book about nothing.

But that is clearly not the case. One of the major themes in the book is that of struggle. Frodo struggles with the will of Sauron. Sam struggles to curb his homesickness and remain with Frodo. Aragorn struggles to choose the right path for the Fellowship. Boromir struggles to save his country. The whole of Middle-earth struggles against the might of Sauron. All these struggles are manifested in different ways, but none are less real than the others. Just because Frodo's struggle is internal, does not make it less credible or necessary. His is the ultimate battle. And yes, at the end, he fails, but he fails at something that no one could succeed in. Not even Gandalf the White. At the end, he is overcome, but it is at the end of a long and terrible battle. We cannot blame a hobbit for succumbing to the will of the Dark Lord...on his own turf.