3. Frodo Baggins: the Martyr and the Soldier

3. Frodo Baggins: the Martyr and the Soldier.

Same as it happens with Gollum, the character of Frodo is approachable from both a spiritual and psychological viewpoint, for both approaches provide motives for his attitude and role in the story. Thus, it is vital to attend philosophy and religion to find the narrative sense of the main characters. And among the major ones, mostly on Frodo, as he is the Ring-bearer. Taking already for granted that his sacrifice carrying the cross of the Ring reminds of the calvary of Jesus Christ, we can find many more aspects to help us sketch the story as well as its author closer. At the end of the book, unlike Sam, Frodo does not stay to enjoy the fruits of his labour. What is more, he will remain marked forever and will have to depart to a place where he can at least rest, if not heal from his wounds at all.

3.1 The Literary Character

'Are you in pain, Frodo?' said Gandalf quietly as he rode by Frodo's side.

'Well, yes I am,' said Frodo. 'It is my shoulder. The wound aches, and the memory of darkness is heavy on me. It was a year ago today.'

'Alas! there are some wounds that cannot be wholly cured,' said Gandalf

'I fear it may be so with mine,' said Frodo. 'There is no real going back. Though I may come to the Shire, it will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same. I am wounded with knife, sting, and tooth, and a long burden. Where shall I find rest?'

Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 967

Frodo unveils his grievest scar: a change within. It will not seem the same; for I shall not be the same Where will he find a cure for missing those good old days when he knew neither about pain nor war? Anywhere, because his view on life has changed after all he has experienced and not even The Shire will be a quiet and joyful place anymore. As every ex-soldier, he will always keep the uncertainty about the comeback of horror and he knows it could start out again wherever, because war knows no frontier. Wounds not only remind of the moment they were made, but also keep one aware that they can be made again. But somehow Frodo is not experiencing a post-war sickness as much as the running of time. He has witnessed the struggle of maturity and has been deeply deceived. The following is an excerpt from a letter written at Verdun by a young confrere, Paul Crépin, to the head of his order, Father Dehon. In it, he makes a reflection on how war turns a child into a man:

All that makes me prone to deep meditations. You wouldn't recognize any more the young shy person of former years! The war changed me quite a lot and made me the right man for the job: each thing has its time. For the moment it is the war; if I suffer sometimes it is because of the war, when I am lucky, it is still the war. Yes, it is tiring at the end, but I have such an aversion for the Germans [Boches] that I will never be able to see them even in a painting. Just in these days I've many occasion to face them, but is on order to avenge me. I am happy to belong to a corps which does not admit fraternization. And I am proud to be called, - because I didn't desire it - to inculcate my feelings in several other comrades. I do not run more risks for that. The experience is helping me and I believe that I am protected in a particular way. The war also helped me to know life and what life is about, in the presence of death.

Paul Crépin. Letter - January 28, 1918

Considering the pragmatism of modern society it is unconceitable that someone bore such a burden and after all starred such a grand finale. Many would consider this end to be unfair for a hero, because heroes always get the castle, the kingdom and the princess (so does Aragorn, and considering someone closer to Frodo, so does Sam: he marries Rosie, makes a family and becomes mayor and chronist of The Shire). And on a major scale they would consider the Valar to be "unfair gods" because as we read in the Silmarillion they "phisically" act twice against Melkor and in The Lord of the Rings, being the disadvantages of the free peoples bigger, they never use their godly abilities to help them. The only reward for Frodo when Middle Earth regains natural order and The Shire is finally scoured is retiring to a place where he can slowly cure from the scars that will never heal. The only goods he takes with him are painful memories (to be left there).

'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, onc. 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. [...] ...you will read things out of the Red Book, and keep alive the memory of the age that is gone, so that people will remember the Great Danger and so love their beloved land all the more. [...]'

Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 1006

But for all of those who never read The Silmarillion nor The Unfinished Tales, such previous considerations would be too much light-hearted. Princess Galadriel asks The Valar to at least grant Frodo a "purge in Paradise", a period of time in the island near the Undying Lands to leave the world without the weight of bitter memories. And such is the mercy and grandeur of her masters that not only Frodo is given the grace to rest his soul, but she is also allowed to come back to the West:

The Exiles were allowed to return – save for a few chief actors in the rebellion, of whom at the time of The Lord of the Rings only Galadriel remained. At the time of her Lament in Lórien she believed this to be perennial, as long as the Earth endured. Hence she concludes her lament with a wish or prayer that Frodo may as a special grace be granted a purgatorial (but not penal) sojourn in Eressëa, the solitary isle in sight of Aman, though for her the way is closed. Her prayer was granted – but also her personal ban was lifted, in reward for her services against Sauron, and above all for her rejection of the temptation to take the Ring when offered to her. So at the end we see her taking ship.

Tolkien, Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth, 122

A prayer for a sacrificed young man. At this point, the question emerges consequently: Is Galadriel a resemblance of Virgin Mary, interceding for the rest of his son's soul? As far as they both behave the same and are finally successful in their begging, we could say so, character-wise (that is to say, considering them just characters within a fiction). But deepening a bit into, the most noticeable argument against the resemblance is that Galadriel is not Frodo's mother. Of course both Galadriel and Virgin Mary share the feeling that their protege has carried a great burden for too long and should be given mercy.

Creation, making, is of course present in a work whose starting point, The Silmarilion, is a 'genesis'. If this is another key to Tolkienian philosophy, it can be said that he who makes is a divine being, chosen, gifted, of course as long as he doesn't want to fancy and take (material) advantage on the results of his creation. Eru is the Supreme Maker and the best example: he sets his creations free. When Frodo talks about someone losing something so others may keep it he shows himself being more a saviour than a creator. Frodo saves the canvas from burning, the stone from crumbling, the paint from evaporating... without the world the hobbit saves, there is NOTHING to be created. God was the Maker, and so was Eru Ilúvatar. Christ was the Keeper who sacrificed his body hanged in a cross, and so was Frodo, being wounded time and again for keeping the One Ring of Power. The only slight difference between Frodo and Christ (seen as fiction characters from a story) is that Jesus seemed to be completely aware of being the Chosen One, even though at the end he feels his Father has deserted him (which in fact is no repent from being chosen but complain for being left alone after all the pain and sorrow). Frodo, as the story goes on, is continuously bound to failure, prey to fear and exhaustion. Frodo can stop the pain and keep himself alive by claiming the Ring. He may doubt and turn back. Though continuously proving to be a homely feeble creature, the last to think of for such a challenging crusade, Frodo gets over every task quite naturally so as the story goes by he turns more and more into the proper main character to feature a bitter but concerned sacrificed

But at this point, the 'salvation' of the world and Frodo's own 'salvation' is achieved by his previous pity and forgiveness of injury. At any point any prudent person would have told Frodo that Gollum would certainly betray him, and could rob him in the end. To 'pity' him, to forbear to kill him, was a piece of folly, or a mystical belief in the ultimate value-in-itself of pity and generosity even if disastrous in the world of time.

Tolkien & Carpenter, Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 234

Pity the cursed (the Fallen Ones) and turn the other cheek. What about Frodo taking advantage on Gollum to enter Mordor? Does he believe the creature is worth a try-and-fail chance? Is giving Gollum a chance for redemption when Frodo offers him to be the guide through the Dark Steps of Mordor? Or is it just the thought of what Gandalf told him on the ultimate role of Gollum? The conclusion is that the aim of all the 'intermediate' struggling Frodo gets through with Gollum/Sméagol is unconsciously securing the success of his mercy. Initially, even though by the time The Hobbit was written there was no notice of it not even for the author, a chance was given to a fallen creature dwelling on the shadow of evil, by letting him live. Later on, Sméagol is tamed, and as he is continuously observed, at the same time he is being kept alive by the hobbits (although for Sam it would be more a safety-measure for not being backstabbed by Gollum)

3.2 The Character on the Screen

The biggest contrast in the movie concerning the "death of the hero" is that Frodo, at the end, keeps the same looks as at the beginning, and his size and physical appearance have hardly changed, and to the eyes of the audience it looks even more cruel that a poor child was sent to oblivion with his eyes full of tears. When leaving for the Grey Havens Frodo is about 52 hobbit-years. A human being, from 50 onwards has enjoyed a more or less complete existence, and in spite of not being too old his disappearance wouldn't be as dramatic as that of a child. Whatever it is, both readers and audiences take for granted that Frodo leaves for 'Heaven', though a lot more emphasis is made on the departure rather than on the destination.

Wouldn't it be fair, as we see through the eyes of Sam, that Frodo's reward was staying to enjoy the world he saved? For Tolkien's elvish view on existence, staying and contemplating time going by in the place where sorrow lives on for long is a punishment more than a reward. Frodo lived shorter, but on the other hand he will enter the Grey Havens and inhabit Paradise for some time. What's the use for a moral reflection at this point? Otorgarle una lógica a final del relato How come a hobbit enter the elvish Paradise if we are never told whether hobbits are children of the Gods or not, and consequently they wouldn't have the literary right for poking around the intratextual context of the elves? As it happens in Christianism, by extension, all the creatures of Middle-Earth are in the songs of Eru Ilúvatar and their fate is a part of them. So all of them are ruled by the same divine Law. If the Gift of Ilúvatar, 'shaping existence freely' has been sacrificed because of an end fair enough, it is logical that Eru granted something in exchange (it is morally unconceitable that, even in a fantastic world, a god betrayed his own word). If Frodo has sacrificed his life to defeat the enemy of the gods and has consequently arisen to the height of forces above, it is obvious he has to be rewarded anyway, and more exactly by being chosen for Heavenly Glory.

Thus we can conclude that in the outcome of the story Tolkien keeps faithful to his creation as well as to his beliefs. If Frodo had remained on Middle-Earth, the "Genesis" of The Silmarilion would have crumbled: if the gods reward Frodo by letting him 'live', they are lengthening his suffering and consequently intervening his earthly activity, so Tolkien would gainsay the freedom of choice 'to shape life' granted by Eru. Whatever to be done with Frodo must take place in the Blessed Realm, to be coherent to Tolkien's universe.