We'll be honest: there is absolutely no way that Frodo can succeed in throwing the Ring into Mount Doom. Frodo Gets By With a Little Help From His Friends Which means that his ending will probably be correspondingly greater (and more tragic). He's obviously starting off from a nobler place than Bilbo ever did. So Frodo is an "Elf-friend" and a psychic. Later, we discover that this must have been Gandalf at the top of Orthanc, escaping from Saruman. While he sleeps, he sees a white figure at the top of a tall tower, soon carried off by a great eagle. What is more, while Frodo is staying with Tom Bombadil, he has psychic dreams. For example, he addresses High Elf Gildor Inglorion in his own language, and Gildor responds in awe: "I name you Elf-friend and may the stars shine upon the end of your road! Seldom have we had such delight in strangers, and it is fair to hear words of the Ancient Speech from the lips of other wanderers in the world" (1.3.171). But despite these parallels, Bilbo's is a comic story and Frodo's is rather tragic.įrodo doesn't follow in his uncles comic footsteps because he's respected much more. (Keep in mind that Hobbit ages run a little differently from human ages, so Frodo at fifty is not as old as a human would be at fifty). Frodo sets out for his grand adventure when he is fifty years old, just as Bilbo did at the beginning of The Hobbit. The two of them share birthdays (September 22nd) and dubious reputations in the neighborhood (since most Hobbits think they are both crazed). In a lot of ways, Frodo is a double for Bilbo. Everyone in the area thinks he and his uncle are nuts. ![]() So even though Frodo may seem like a little guy in front of noble heroes like Elrond or Gandalf, he doesn't really fit in at the Shire, either. If that's where you get your news from, you'll never want for moonshine" (1.2.29). The miller, Ted Sandyman, tells Sam quite frankly: "Leastways old Bilbo was cracked, and Frodo's cracking. ( Drogo? Seriously? Hobbit names are so bizarre.) He gets adopted by eccentric wanderer Bilbo Baggins (see our Hobbit learning guide for more on this guy), and he actually seems to believe Bilbo's wild stories about the trolls and dragons of Middle-earth. First of all, he's an orphan, the son of Primula and Drogo Baggins. Just because Frodo is "ignoble" in The Fellowship of the Ring doesn't mean that his life is ordinary by Shire standards. If Frodo didn't start out from a position of ordinariness, his transformation over the course of the three novels would be harder to observe. Frodo is exceptional for a Hobbit in The Fellowship of the Ring, but by the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he is just going to be plain old amazing, full stop. To "ennoble" them means to make them greater, to make them more noble. The "ignoble" are the lowly, ordinary people. After all, as we discuss in " What's Up With the Ending?" Tolkien wants these books to be about "the ennoblement of the ignoble" ( source, 220 in a letter to the Houghton Mifflin Co). Peter Jackson may make Frodo more beautiful than he is in the books, but Tolkien has a definite purpose in mind by keeping Frodo homely. So why pick a Hobbit hero as the center of the Lord of the Rings trilogies? At the same time, he's not as obviously heroic as many of the other people in the Fellowship, say, Aragorn or Legolas. We don't see any of the Boffins, Bolgers, or Proudfoots volunteering to carry Sauron's One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. Oh sure, he may also be " taller than some and fairer than most cleft in his chin: perky chap with a bright eye" (10.34) but Frodo is still a Hobbit, and that means he's short, plump, and a bit plain.įrodo is an extraordinary Hobbit, that's for sure. In Tolkien's vision, poor Frodo is completely unromantic: " A stout little fellow with red cheeks" (10.34). Frooo ~ oodo!" – absolutely do not appear in the original novel. ![]() Those huge eyes – so often looking on the edge of tears, especially when Sam is imparting some piece of wisdom to "Mr. Probably the biggest change is Frodo's giant baby blue eyes. When Peter Jackson directed his film version of The Fellowship of the Rings, he made a lot of changes to the story line of the book. (Click the character infographic to download.)
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