Why did Frodo feel he had to leave Middle Earth at the of ROTK?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

I don't think the effects of Frodo's injuries can be underestimated. Sometimes it is having to keep on going that keeps you going. My mother faced her terminal cancer with great courage and the only time she broke down was when she was briefly in remission and not having treatment. She coped so well with facing death it waa awful to see her struggling with life almost, yet when her symptoms returned she coped with surgeries, more chemo, infections stoically. To return to Middle Earth, the only example I can think of of a similar wound (other than Aredhel's fatal one) is Celebrían. Even she, with her great ancestry and knowing that leaving might well mean, definitively parting from her children, can not bear to remain.

Very insightful, Mith. Of course Melian, too, after the death of Thingol, had had enough of Middle-earth and somehow made her way back to Aman, specifically to Lórien. She also left her kin and people behind.

I find it interesting to look at Frodo and Gandalf as opposites in the effect that the trials and wounds, physical and spiritual, of both, ran different courses after the destruction of the Ring and the fall of Sauron.

Gandalf had been bearing a great burden ever since his arrival in Middle-earth: how to bring about Sauron's permanent defeat. The chapter on the Istari in Unfinished Tales describes his ordeal by saying Gandalf "suffered greatly, and was slain". When the War of the Ring was over, Frodo made the remark:

'Pippin, didn't you say that Gandalf was less close than of old? He was weary of his labours then, I think. Now he is recovering.'

ROTK

Frodo is also relieved of his crushing weight when the Ring is gone; yet his spiritual and physical discomfort grows until he feels he must leave Middle-earth to escape it. I think a lot of that really is due to his sense of ultimate failure regarding the Ring: that he had not himself thrown it into the Fire, and still in some level of his mind, wanted it back. In many cases, health follows will: a good outlook and positive emotions can hold physical pain at bay, or at least lessen it. Frodo did not have the benefit of that himself.