I'm sorry to be boring but I think the main question is "why did Tolkien write that?". He knew Frodo was going to take the ring and that might have been just making way to Frodo saying he'll do that - so that it looked literally credible and Frodo didn't have to shout that just out of the blue.
But why was Frodo willing to take the ring in the first place? Was he already then so affected by it that he wouldn't have surrendered it voluntarily? Did he find it his duty?
Given this and Elrond's gift of foresight, I think Elrond and Gandalf knew Frodo was going to take the ring and were encouraging him. I don't have my copy of Lotr with me at the moment, but if I remember correctly Bilbo said he understood where Elrond was getting at with that small hands thing and said he'd take the ring. At least Gandalf knew quite a deal about hobbits, and I think he might well have guessed they would be the ones to volunteer.
I wonder, though, if it meant something that Frodo volunteered to take the ring. My mind connects it to Gandalf's statement that when Bilbo just after getting the ring spared Gollum's life, the ring didn't have as strong influence on Bilbo as it possibly would have otherwise. If someone had told Frodo to take the ring or otherwise put pressure on him so as to make him do that, would he have been more easily tempted by the ring and abandoned his quest?
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He bit me, and I was not gentle.
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