Have Elf, Will Travel

[Dininziliel]

A bit of left over business from another thread left me wondering why Frodo was the one who carried the Ring to Mt. Doom. At first I thought it might be some unique link to Elves that qualified him to be the pivotal Ring Bearer in LotR. (Case in point--Frodo's dream of Aman his last morning at Tom's house.) Then it occurred to me that, no, Bilbo was considered odd by his fellow hobbits for his fascination & knowledge of all things elven; and honored by Elves for the same. Naturally, Sam then came to mind--he was famous for his passionate love of Elves. Aha! I thought--they were all Ring Bearers and were granted passage to Aman. Thus, if you were a hobbit and had a special penchant for Elves you got to travel with the Ring. (Gollum can be discounted because he didn't try to go anywhere w/the Ring when he had it for 500 years. Also, the Ring dumped Isildur the first chance it got.) I'm not sure Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam were all that much alike in temperament as just hobbits. To me, their elvishness explains how Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam (hobbit par excellence!) were set apart from their fellow hobbits--even Merry & Pippin. What remains unexplained is what the particular qualities are about both Elves & hobbits that produce Ring Bearers. Just what is it about being an Elf or hobbit by themselves that "disquaifies" one from being a Ring Bearer, but having a mixture of both makes it possible? I think we know about hobbits--down to earth, humble, not especially inclined toward personal power or wealth, etc. It is the elvish qualities that intrigue me most, and then how those qualities mingle with the hobbits'. I also wonder if Tolkien consciously crafted these three with this "prerequisite" while writing them.