# How Frodo is actually capable of sailing West



## Yalerd (Jan 6, 2018)

From reading the Silmarillion, one thing was always very clear to me: mortals were NOT allowed to set foot in Aman or The Lonely Isle. I always wondered, however, how it was that Frodo was allowed to go? There was always the possibility he just went anyway and melted the second he got there or something like that, relieving him of his pain, but obviously that would be ridiculous.

One thing hit me recently while finishing Return of the King: that when Arwen meets Frodo, she cuts right to the chase and tells him that (it's a long quote, I'll summarize) she's the daughter of Elrond, but she chose mortality, when his suffering in this world becomes too great, he can take her spot at the Grey Havens.

Now granted, the deeds of the Ring Bearer were great indeed, I'm sure Manwé Sullimo would have had Thorondor himself come pick up Frodo and bring him over to party, but it adds such another level of wonder and comradery that Frodo is going in the stead of Arwen Undomíel, daughter of Elrond, Queen Evenstar.


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## Caneor (Feb 16, 2018)

Mortals all. Bilbo, Frodo, Legolas, Gimli, and the Fairbairns claim that Sam Gamgee, at last, sought the Havens.

Out of all that sailed that one day, only Gandalf intrinsically was permitted to venture further than Tol Eressea. He alone did not bear the weight of the ban of the Valar. Whether Manwe summoned any of the banished to appear before the Valar in the council of doom is not known. No doubt any such summons would have gone against the wishes of Mandos. It is not unlikely that Olorin passed a considerable time in the gardens of Lorien, healing after returning home. He would thence regain forgotten memories and relinquished powers. What influence he would have had in the halls of Taniquetil is similarly unknown. However both Manwe and Olorin were integral with the thoughts of the great eagles of Middle Earth. But it would have been Varda whom decided any further change of fate for the mortals.


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## Alcuin (Feb 16, 2018)

In _Letters of JRR Tolkien_, in a footnote to Letter 246, Tolkien wrote that


> [Arwen] could not of course just transfer her ticket on the boat… For any except those of Elvish race “sailing West” was not permitted, and any exception required “authority”, and she was not in direct communication with the Valar, especially not since her choice to become “mortal”. What is meant is that it was Arwen who first thought of sending Frodo into the West, and put in a plea for him to Gandalf … No doubt it was Gandalf who was the authority that accepted her plea. … [He] was an emissary of the Valar, and virtually their plenipotentiary… He was also in special accord with Círdan the Ship-master, who had surrendered to him his ring [Narya] and so placed himself under Gandalf’s command. Since Gandalf himself went on the Ship there would be ... no trouble either at embarking or at the landing.



Besides Frodo, Sam also sailed West sixty years later when his wife Rose died. When Aragorn Elessar died in after another sixty years had passed, Legolas also sailed into the West, taking Gimli the Dwarf with him. The last note in Appendix A reads,


> We have heard tell that Legolas took Gimli Glóin's son with him because of their great friendship, greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf. If this is true, then it is strange indeed: that a Dwarf should be willing to leave Middle-earth for any love, or that the Eldar should receive him, or that the Lords of the West should permit it. But it is said that Gimli went also out of desire to see again the beauty of Galadriel; and it may be that she, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him. More cannot be said of this matter.


This was likely added by Findegil, the royal scribe, who copied the Red Book of Westmarch at the request of the Pippin’s great-grandson, during the reign of Arwen and Aragorn’s son, Eldarion. _Peoples of Middle-Earth_ dates this copy this copy to Fourth Age 172. Tolkien affects that this is the copy from which he drew _The Lord of the Rings_ and its appendices. 

Outside _The Lord of the Rings_, Tolkien suggests that before the Númenóreans rebelled (Tar-Atanamir, the thirteenth king, “refused to lay down his life.” His son, Tar-Ancalimon, received an embassy from Valinor that tried but failed to persuade him that Men could not obtain the longevity of the Eldar), the Heir of the King was permitted once in his life to sail West with the Elves to Avallónë, the port on eastern Tol Eressëa, spend one night there, and then return with them. This is definitely not canon, and can be found buried somewhere in the last three or four volumes of _History of Middle-Earth_. 

Tol Eressëa was an island in the Bay of Eldamar, separate from the mainland of Valinor. It seems to me that residents of Eldamar could, if they wished, travel to Tol Eressëa, but those in Tol Eressëa were not permitted to travel to Eldamar. Early on, Tolkien wrote about “The Cottage of Lost Play” where the Elves of Tol Eressëa gathered to retell stories of their days in Middle-earth. It sounds to me very sad, a place of regret, a kind of Elvish Purgatory with little (but not no) hope of release. 

Bottom line: Frodo was permitted to sail into the West because he had Gandalf’s permission, not Arwen’s. It was Arwen’s idea, and Gandalf endorsed it. This permission extended to Sam, but he remained in Middle-earth until his wife passed away. 

As a final thought: neither Frodo nor Sam nor Bilbo obtained the life of the Eldar by going to Tol Eressëa. It was for them, especially Frodo, a place of healing both physically and spiritually from the effects of the Ring. They remained mortal and died there, as did Gimli, who by Fourth Age 120 was near the end of his natural life.


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