Failure and Punishment

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Lotrelf

Actually, what Carter said is that those people other than Frodo, who were scarred or died in the battles were heroes. Their wounds (or deaths) were the proof of their bravery while Frodo's wounds were deserving, i.e. he deserved them because of folly,over-confidence and weakness rather than bravery. An inherently flawed theory this is!

The idea of Frodo deserving his pains and misfortunes derived from his experience with the Ring is rubbish.
It was a burden too great for him, as indeed for any in Middle-earth, or any whose innate spiritual power was inferior to Sauron's. Frodo's "failure" was really in his own mind, and no guilt was ever laid on him by anyone in the books: least of all Gandalf, surely the spokesman for for the Valar (and by proxy, the One). Gandalf, in Rivendell, did not judge Frodo for using the Ring on Weathertop, and nothing was ever said about his refusal to throw away the Ring into the Fire. Gandalf understood. If Frodo's "failure" really was due to his own moral weakness, and he had not utterly expended his body and will in resisting the Ring's power, then surely his sojourn into the West would have been disallowed.