Frodo, at the ultimate moment of the Quest of the Ring, chooses to
claim the Ring for his own.
I remember still, after more than 30 years, the shock I felt when I
read that passage. What! Frodo, after all he suffered to get there,
raises his weary head and announces in a loud, clear voice that the
Ring is his! Before him, the molten rock boils and the black fumes
rise, and the very stones under his feet shake. His face is lit with
the red glare of the bubbling lava, and that glare shadows his thin
face, making his pleasant Hobbit features into a mask showing his pain
and torment.
For a few heartbeats’ time, Time stands still. The Mind in the Black
Tower suffers a horrible shock --- that Mind must tear itself away from
centuries of plotting and scheming and face the bitter truth that
Another wields the Ring of Power. Another stands at the centre of the
Universe of Evil, and that other now is plain to the Eye.
Until that moment, Frodo had become wearier and wearier. The long,
arduous journey had told upon him. He was worn to the bone. He could
scarcely put one foot in front of the other, and then at the last he
had to be carried like a child. Into the tumultuous shadows of Mt.
Doom, through the cavern’s opening, into the fumes and reeks at the
edge of the Crack of Doom.
His burden had become heavier, so heavy he was bowed to the ground by
its weight. His body was exhausted.
But what was in Frodo’s mind?
The Ring. The Ring, as it came near the place where it was forged, had
become wilder and more unmanageable. The Ring drew strength from the
very atmosphere, some kind of dreadful radiation poured from the
volcano and the Black Tower and was drawn as if by magnetism to the
simple gold band that Frodo wore hung on a chain around his neck. The
Ring must have been glowing with Power at this point, red-gold, the
Elvish letters sharp and bright. It might have been turning, spinning
on the chain, seeking a way of escape.
Frodo could hear the Ring singing to him of power. Could the Ring hear
Frodo’s heart, whispering of his longing to be free of his burden? Did
the Ring know in some metallic way, some alignment of atoms spelling
its fate?
It is hard to understand the connection that the Ring has with Sauron.
Sauron calls and the Ring hears. The Ring has been working its way home
for a long, dark time, like some fish of wickedness returning to home
waters. At the end, when the Ring was at its zenith of power and Frodo
at the nadir of his, Frodo stopped fighting. He could endure no more.
Had the Ring awakened the lust for Power in Frodo’s heart? Was he
claiming the Ring as Ringlord?
Can we ever know for certain what was in Frodo’s mind and heart at that
moment? Will any of us ever feel what I think he felt? I think he was
defeated by the Ring and the Fire and the emanations of Power from
Sauron’s nearness, that when he claimed it and put it on he felt a
surge of strength and power---and I think he felt dismay and terror as
well, and shame, for his defeat. I never say Frodo failed, I can’t say
Frodo failed. He was defeated, that’s all. Defeated by an enemy
infinitely strong, an enemy with no conscience, no scruples, no
existence beyond the mindless urge to be once more with its Master.
We all know what happened next. Gollum, the embodiment of ring-lust,
maddened by fear, single-minded with the fury of desire for his
Precious, leaps out of the shadows and takes the Ring. No longer
anything approaching human (for Hobbits are human in this sense),
Gollum is savagery personified, blind uncaring Need, and he bites the
Ring from Frodo’s hand.
Had he put the Ring on, who knows what might have happened next? But he
didn’t.
Gollum had, in his last frenzy, found the strength to attack and
overpower Frodo. But he spent himself in that effort. Tolkien’s words
about Gollum on Mt. Doom: “… whatever dreadful paths, lonely and hungry
and waterless, he had trodden, driven by a devouring desire and a
terrible fear, they had left grievous marks on him. He was a lean,
starved, haggard thing, all bones and tight-drawn sallow skin………” No,
Gollum was not strong with “his old griping strength”. Holding up poor
Frodo’s finger, Gollum, delirious with delight, dances too close to the
edge, and he and his Precious go into the Fire.
Frodo himself, the Ringbearer, promised Gollum: “If you touch me ever
again, you shall be cast yourself into the Fire of Doom.”
So then the Quest ends, and after a time Frodo returns to the Shire and
Bag End. Now Frodo can rest, and enjoy the fruits of his labours.
Alas, poor Frodo. For there is no end to his suffering.
Had he thought there would be? Had he hoped there would be? Did Frodo
look for “happiness”? What did “happiness” mean to Frodo? Content?
Peace and quiet?
I suspect that Frodo knew, all his life, that he was never going to be
like other Hobbits. Marked early by pain, he always walked his own
path. Every description of him, every passage about him, makes plain
his uniqueness.
Frodo was always lonely, always the outsider, always watching from the
shadows while other Hobbits lived their gregarious lives. Not that he
was a figure of woe and sadness. He could be merry, he could enjoy life
as it was. Yet he was drawn to the edges of Hobbit life, wandering the
woods and communing with Elves, given to reading, and watching the
stars.
So when he returned, marked by blade, claw, and tooth, what was he
returning to? What he had ever had, in many ways.
He had his friend Sam, that is true. But Sam “was meant to be whole”.
Sam was never meant to spend the rest of his days in servitude to
Frodo’s pain. What a friend could do, Sam did. But he could not heal
Frodo.
There was no end for Frodo except the road he took to the Grey Havens.
There was no cure for his suffering in the Shire or anywhere else in
Middle Earth. He had become what Gandalf had said, “A vessel filled
with light………” But burning with the fire of his being, he was wearing
away. The candle gives light, but is consumed. And so it was with
Frodo.
