"You carry the fate of us all, little one."

[tar-ancalime]

OK, I know this is the Books forum, and that's a line from the Movie, but hear me out:

I've been thinking about Frodo lately, my interest having been sparked by Child of the 7th Age's comments on the "Unstuck in Time" thread. I'd like to share my crackpot theory and invite comments, criticism, or maniacal laughter:

I was thinking that Frodo isn't just a member of the Fellowship; in an important way, he IS the Fellowship. Long after the Fellowship is physically broken, it remains whole in Frodo and the things he carries (much like the Tim O'Brien book): he wears a Dwarvish shirt, carries an Elvish sword and cloak, and of course bears the Ring that controls the fate of the world. In this way he's going forward bearing the standards of not just the hobbits, but also the Elves and the Dwarves: together, these are the three races that will diminish, sail away, and/or hide deeper in the earth after the end of the Third Age. This is why Frodo doesn't carry any tokens of Men: when he destroys the Ring, no Men need to accompany him because he isn't destroying their world or their way of life. This is underscored by Merry's and Pippin's oaths to Rohan and Gondor, respectively: those hobbits who remain "in the world" and fight in the conventional war swear their allegiance to the race that will prevail in the age to come, while Frodo's journey into Mordor need only be accompanied by those races destined to fail.

This ties in with my opinion (posted on the Chapter-by-Chapter forum) that the Fellowship itself is largely symbolic: it works on two levels. First there is the physical Fellowship consisting of the Company of Nine, and then there is the wholly symbolic Fellowship consisting only of Frodo and the items that have been given to him.

It's not until very late in the story that Frodo loses his Elvish and Dwarvish gifts, and even then Sam tries to keep them for him. The end of the journey, in which Frodo is naked and alone, is the part I"m having trouble reconciling with my theory (I told you it was a crackpot idea!). Does the fact that he loses his tokens deflate my theory, or can the journey through Mordor be seen as separate from the rest of the Quest, a time when all Fellwoships must fail and Frodo must look into the Void on his own?

( haven't got time now, but I will post again later with links to the other two discussions I mentioned.)