Frodo's Endurance
by FanForever
My take on Frodo's endurance ....
I have said it and I will say it again, Frodo is not a victim. He set
out to save the Shire, reluctantly at first, then with great courage
and in total awareness. First he counted on the wise to tell him what
to do, then when it became clear they (Gandalf, Galadriel, Elrond,
Faramir, etc.), each in their own way, would only emphasize how much he
was on his own (with a fellowship to support him though), he had to
decide whether he would go on or not. And he did. But what was that he
had set to do? He was to try to get into the core of the enemy’s realm
to destroy the source of his power. He did not ‘fight’ using his
enemy’s means, but with arms that the enemy would have never guessed or
imagined, with a clear conscience that what he was doing was for the
good of the many. Frodo’s grace, selflessness, and great understanding
and love for the living gave him the strength to endure (yes!) the
effects of an overpowering, destructive, annihilating mind and will,
long enough anyway to get to Mordor. But in the end it had the best of
him, at least seen from the perspective of the world he was living.
What he sets out to find in the Undying Land is another matter.
I believe that endurance is only a quality when you equate it with
perseverance and some conscience and vision of what you are doing.
Otherwise it becomes more like what we too often glorify, poor
victimized innocent folks who can do nothing but endure without saying
a word what the mighty ‘enemy’ does to crush them down. That was the
whole point of the Scouring of the Shire : Frodo returns to tell his
fellow hobbits that they don’t have to keep being victims and that
together they can make things differently. It is his state of mind, his
look on things that makes the difference.
What Frodo (and the very important notion of fellowship) tells us is
that they. together, had to find another way, something else than
armies, to get to Sauron and destroy what made him powerful beyond
measure. That alone is telling that Frodo was not a victim but the sole
artisan of his own destiny. He chose the other path, he chose to risk
the other way, for the sake of something that he personally valued and
knew was worth fighting for. In fact he had no choice, if he followed
his heart and conscience. Yet on the way Sam came to take over hoping
and keeping on the faith at times, true, but Frodo’s endurance was
unequalled, indeed beyond hope, and only because he was convinced, for
himself and for the world, that what he was doing was the right thing,
the only thing he could do. He took it on himself to do it and just did
it.
Of course Frodo on the way was afraid most of the time, and felt lost
and small and unimportant, and could not have done it without Sam, that
was what the fellowship was about, but he was certainly not a victim or
a martyr enduring his enemy’s hold on him without a word, even if he
could not escape it, in the end. He was the determined and conscious
friend of the Elves, who was carrying a light within, on which he could
draw to go on (as that wondeful scene in Mordor, where in a vision
Galadriel offered her hand, showed). People he met on his quest could
not dissuade him, or make him go back, and a great part, if not all of
his resolve came from the fact that he knew that what mattered above
all was life and love, for themselves, and nothing else.
