LotR -- Book 1 - Chapter 12 - Flight to the Ford

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

[Frodo] bitterly regretted his foolishness, and reproached himself for weakness of will; for he now perceived that in putting on the Ring he obeyed not his own desire but the commanding wish of his enemies. He wondered if he would remain maimed for life, and how they would now manage to continue their journey. He felt too weak to stand.

This is one of those really great passages that Tolkien excels at. It looks like a simple description, but there are wonders to be gained from longer attention. My favourite is the telling phrase “maimed for life”. Frodo has been maimed for life, and not just in the sense that he will never fully heal, but that with this wound his ability to live well, to enjoy life, has been maimed. It hearkens to the end where he is too “maimed for life” and must seek healing in the lands and the time beyond life. I think this picks up on the points already made here about this chapter acting as a microcosm of Frodo’s whole journey.

The other aspect of the passage that I find compelling (and confusing – it’s usually one and the same thing) is the ambiguous way in which Frodo relates to his ‘failure’ at Weathertop. He offers us three different versions of what went wrong. First, he “regrets” his “foolishness”, implying that he made simple mistake, but one that he can learn from (like our favourite “fool of a Took” proves, one can overcome folly with greater wisdom and experience). At the same time, though, he “reproaches” – that is, he blames himself, not just “regretting” an unfortunate moment – for his “weakness of will.” So now it’s his fault at a more fundamental level; his will is weak. This is more disturbing than folly, for one can learn from one’s mistakes, but how can one strengthen one’s will? Possible, I suppose, but difficult. The last version is that he “obeyed” the “commanding wish” of the Witch King. So now it’s not entirely his fault, for he was being “commanded” by an outside force. So here we are with the old dilemma in our discussions of the Ring, presented in a compact form here, to be rehearsed at the Cracks of Doom in much more painful detail: is Frodo giving in to an outside force, is he failing in his own will, or is he making a mistake like anyone would? I think that the fact this is happening so early in his journeys bodes very badly for the success of the Quest!

The chapter also strengthens the resonance between Frodo and Aragorn. Aragorn says:

‘There my heart is; but it is not my fate to sit in peace, even in the fair house of Elrond.’

And then later we get:

He [Frodo] lay down again and passed into an uneasy dream, in which he walked on the grass in his garden in the Shire, but it seemed faint and dim, less clear than the tall black shadows that stood looking over the hedge.

For both of them, they are afflicted by their homeless state; more specifically, by the fact that they can find no rest at home, or even in the thought of home. Where their “hearts” are there is only shadow and danger that forces them away. But with Aragorn, this is a current state that can and will be fixed. For Frodo, it is now permanent, with his wounding by the Morgul blade and as is attested by the foreshadowed conclusion between himself and the Ring.

But, the chapter is not all dark, for it also hints at how Frodo will be able to succeed in his quest by highlighting the hobbitish nature that will let him destroy the Ring (or bring the Ring to the point where it can be destroyed). As they hobbits look at the stone that marks where the Dwarves hid the troll treasure:

Frodo looked at the stone, and wished that Bilbo had brought home no treasure more perilous, nor any less easy to part with. ‘None at all,’ he said. ‘Bilbo gave it all away. He told me he did not feel it was really his, as it came from robbers.’

This is the whole point of being a hobbit it seems. We talked a lot about the mathoms and the practice of giving things away as being essential to the hobbit-spirit, and here we find that Frodo greatly admires his uncle for his ability to do precisely that. Just as Bilbo gave away the treasure he brought home from his adventure that “came from robbers” so too is Frodo now out to get rid of Bilbo’s last treasure – one that comes from the ultimate Robber, insofar as Sauron wants to take all of Middle-Earth for himself from those to whom it has been given.