[Sophia the Thunder Mistress]

I've been reading this thread, and though I'm vastly unqualified to answer, I have a few thoughts on the subject of Frodo's elvish tendencies and his ultimate journey to the West.

Belin made a comment that reflected what I've been thinking while reading the discussion, and I don't think that it got much notice in the thread. He(she?) mentioned that due to the influence of the Ring, Frodo slips out of the foreground of life and almost becomes part of the background. The quote that refers to him being unable to taste and smell and touch the world around him is a poigniant expression of how detatched he had become.

I have to agree with Belin that the exaggerated observer effect that Frodo was feeling late in the quest was due to the influence of the ring, but I think that the tendency to step back from the event and just watch was there in Frodo's character all along. We see him watching Bilbo's birthday party almost more than he participates. He is always more content to sit and listen to storytelling (Bombadil's house, Rivendell) than the other hobbits, he is the often the first to notice people (Strider at the Prancing Pony, Gollum in Moria).

I have this lingering image of Frodo as someone who watched life more than he participated in it. When called upon to take the ring to Mordor he responded, but even on the quest he seems to still observe the world keenly even as he becomes more and more caught up in the ring.

This quality is something that has identified Frodo with the elves when I read LOTR. (I have trouble making it all the way through Return of the King because Frodo's growing despair is too hard to read) The elves also are sharp observers with a sense that Middle Earth is only their home as long as they choose to be there. As the world changes their involvement with it lessens, until their absence is inevitable. I think Frodo's departure was inevitable in the same way, he'd dropped out of the world too far to stay there any longer.

Also, I wanted to comment a bit on the concept of the West. Someone, (mark12_30 perhaps?) mentioned that they didn't think highly enough of the West, that Frodo whould wantto go there. There's an element of truth in that too. Middle Earth is bittersweet and fading, but Valinor wasn't a bright, cheerful, and joyful place either. Half the Valar are tearful, the two trees are dead, and the Halls of Mandos are not underpopulated. Valinor is also a place of great sadness, greater even than that of Middle Earth, maybe. Great Beauty and peace, yes; but great sadness too...