Posted on 01/27/2002 6:18:35 PM PST by John Farson
| New Zealander builds Hobbit hole A New Zealand man has built a Hobbit house. Carl Gifford, a stonemason from Wellington, says he used a 10-tonne digger to make the hole. He's put rocks either side of the front door and plans to install a chimney and lantern on top. He told the Evening Post he was embarrassed as he was constructing the home. He said: "I must admit I was hiding as the cars were driving past. I thought, 'These people think I'm an idiot'." The house is part of a series of stonework mounds, designs and sculptures dotted around his land. "I'm just having a bit of fun. Things that were built by those ancient people like caves have always fascinated me." |
I've been thinking about the Frodo jumping into Mount Doom scenario (there wasn't anything good on the radio on the drive home today. :) ) Mabye he could have done it if he was facing the Nazgul: throw it in or the Nazgul will take it. I don't know if he could have chosen the ring over life...even Gollum didn't have to make that choice.
As Gandalf says to Denethor:
Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your death. And only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair...If Frodo jumps, Tolkien might as well scrap the whole hope theme and make Denethor the main character.
Did Frodo realize at some point along the way that he wasn't going to be able to actually throw the ring into Mt. Doom? Or was that a surprise to him when it finally came down to it?
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The first was based on the "what if Gollum had repented" theme. If that had happened, Gollum would still have taken the Ring, but not for himself entirely. Partly it would have been out of love for Frodo. We were discussing Boromir a while back and how he went through his whole life spiritually blind, if you will (the line he has about 'forgive me, I did not see' really hit me today) but at the end was granted just enough vision to know what he had done, and what he had to do. Similarly Gollum would have seen what he had done, and that the same horrible fate or worse awaited Frodo. Then he would have taken the Ring and thrown himself in willingly, redeeming himself in some measure at the last.
The second option was the utterly depressing 'Frodo throws himself in'. Again, this would be because in the moment after Frodo's great (and ineviable) failure, he would have seen what would happen - to himself, to Middle Earth, whether he succeeded in keeping the Ring from Sauron or not. In this situation I think we can be pretty certain that Sam would perish too, perhaps throwing himself after Frodo, perhaps simply too shocked to get away.
The third scenario is based on the question of could Frodo have become the new dark lord. The answer is no; the Ringwraiths are still Sauron's. Tolkien suggests that they would have lured Frodo out of the Cracks of Doom with whatever means necessary. Then they would have destroyed the entrance and carried him off for Sauron. Even with the Ring, Frodo did not have the capability to defeat Sauron.
Penny, as for the question of whether Frodo expected to succeed or not -I don't know. I think that all he was trying to do was get there. Tolkien implies that that was Frodo's duty - to get there, and not to claim the Ring at any point along the way. That would have caused Sauron to know instantly where he was, and what he was up to, and there would have been no escape. When it came to the final moment, the choice was no longer to claim the Ring or to put it off a while longer. The choice was to claim it, or destroy it. Frodo was not capable of destroying it and this is not a failing. It was to be expected. The lure of the Ring was too strong for anyone, even Frodo. He had succeeded in the only thing it was possible for him to succeed in - getting the Ring that far. That's when he was given, well, Divine mercy, in the form of Gollum.
Again, Tolkien was quite clear that Frodo was not to be held guilty for his 'failure'. (I believe someone wrote to him a letter to the effect that Frodo should have been lined up against a wall and shot, as a traitor. He was quite shocked that anyone could have such an idea!)
Frodo fully deserves the praise he recieves, and so does Sam. The fact is, they got the Ring to the fire, which is more than anyone else could have done.
Thank you for helping me out with that...I had heard all of those scenarios, I think, but I had no idea where.
I have been thinking all day about the fact that in the movie Frodo says "I will take the ring to Mordor." He doesn't say, "I will throw the ring into Mt. Doom" or "I will destroy it" just that he'll take it to Mordor. I can't remember if he said the same thing in the book, but I thought it was a nice detail--that Frodo did indeed do what he said he would do, he took the ring to Mordor. I also found it quite interesting that in the history of The War of the Ring in The Silmarillion, he is still recognized as being the one who destroyed the ring, regardless of how it was actually accomplished.
It is nice to know about those scenarios, thanks for clueing me in. I'll save that post of yours for future reference. ;)
-penny
PS: I had pretty much figured Sam would have followed Frodo right into the fire himself, too. Now that would have been a REAL downer of an ending!
Does this mean I don't have to read all the Letters this weekend?
And ultimately it couldn't happen that way, because no one would have been left to write the story, right? ;)
That's why I don't remember much of the Silmarillion. Too many depressing stories. Can't he have included a few happy hobbit songs?
...making you a smart leathery-skinned hard-drinking pylon-armed tattooed quintagenarian.
Dan
(c8
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