Wk14 Bk6 Ch9: Personal Sacrifice

[Stormrider]

From: Storrmrider (Original Message) Sent: 6/23/2003 10:58 PM

Frodo Baggins by May Bacon of TORN

"But, said Sam, and tears started in his eyes, "I thought you were going to enjoy the Shire, too, for years and years, after all you have done."

"So I thought too, once. But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them."

Reading this was very sad for me. Frodo had loved the Shire so much in the beginning of the FOTR that he most likely would not have left it if he had not been forced to do so. But then again, I think that Frodo, because of his love for the Shire, was the perfect candidate for the task he had to fulfill. Even though it is sad that Frodo had to leave the Shire to live out his life elsewhere, I don't think that Frodo minded so much that he had to leave it knowing that Sam, Merry, and Pippin would carry on and take good care of it.

However, had Frodo known he would claim the Ring, lose it, suffer the reoccurring illnesses, and end up leaving The Shire and Middle-earth completely, do you think he still would have volunteered to take the Ring to Mount Doom?

Or was Frodo placed in a sacrificial position by a Higher Power? Was he put in a situation to do a task that was beyond his own capability?

Was he expected to survive this ordeal? And if he did survive, what consequences would he be expected to suffer and how sever would they be?

As the sacrificial appointee for this task, did it matter to the Higher Powers whether he survived or not? And if he survived, was the Higher Power obligated to provide a method of recovery for his tortured mind and body?

[Stormrider]

From: Storrmrider Sent: 6/27/2003 6:43 AM
I was digging around in Letters and found Letter #246 the Mrs. Eileen Elgar written in Sept. 1963. Tolkien writes about Frodo's "failure". Tolkien said it had become clear that Frodo would be "incapable of voluntarily destroying the Ring". He 'failed' as a hero but he was not a moral 'failure'.

The pressure of the Ring would reach its maximum - impossible, I should have said, for any one to resist, certainly after long possession, months of increasing torments, and when starved and exhausted. Frodo had done what he could and spents himself completely (as an instrument of Providence). His humility (with which he began) and his sufferings were justly rewarded by the highest honour; and his exercise of patience and mercy towards Gollum gained him Mercy; his failure was redressed.

The letter goes on to explain that some people are placed in 'sacrificial' positions: situations or tasks that for perfection of solution demand powers beyond their utmost limits.......in which a body may be destroyed, or so maimed that it affects the mind and will. (Sometimes I surprise myself! I didn't realize I had hit it on the head when I wrote this discussion question!)

The Letter continues: Frodo undertook this quest out of love -- to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could; and also in complete humility, acknowledging that he was wholly inadequate to the task. His real contract was only to do what he could, to try to find a way, and to go as far on the road as his strength of mind and body allowed. He did that.

Going on, the letter indicates that it was more or less expected that if Frodo survived, he would have problems in which he would be allowed into Valinor for recovery. I will go into this more on the "Ticket to Valinor" discussion.

Stormrider