Frodo at Sammath Naur

[Gorwingel]

Well this is an amazing thread, with many amazing responses. I will try my best to make a meaningful contribution [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Frodo was feeling very, very guilty about what had happened. I don't think that guilt stems solely from Sammath Naur, although that was obviously the biggest thing. I think the seeds of that guilt were planted on the journey itself as Frodo reflected on the Ring. Some of this reflection stems from the second difference in Frodo's case, which is his particular personality.

I have never thought about Frodo actually being guilty about distroying the ring. That is very interesting. I know that he was affected greatly by this experience, so much that he wasn't able to go on. But I guess it kind of sounds like that at this time (or up until the very, very end) he had some kind of split personality thing going on. I would think that after everything had happened he had a part of him going "oh, why was the ring destroyed? Why didn't you stop Gollum?” and then another part going "Yes, the ring was destroyed, it turned out well, what needed to be done was done." This probably most likely was happening to him before they got to Mt. Doom. But at the moment, the other side took over, and it was completely about the ring.
(I know this sounds weird, and it had already most likely been said before, but I just had to say something.)

The one thing which still puzzles me from the quote is the meaning of the words: "The Ring is mine". Does he decide not to destroy the Ring because he already regards it as his own, or does he decide to claim it as his own having decided not to destroy it?

I think that is a very interesting question, but it is not something that can be answered easily. I personally think that it is a combination of both. But I would lean towards the top one, just because he had the ring for a while, and during the time that he had had it, it was much more powerful than it had been during the time Gollum had had it. And most likely because of his extreme attachment to it, he believed it belonged to him. This ring had become everything, and everything had to do with it. He did most likely think that it was his own.