# Frodo's unhappiness at the end of the book



## Mimzy (Aug 21, 2012)

What do you think it was that made Frodo unhappy? Was it really about Weathertop, did he have PTSD and flashbacks similar to what rape victims often experience from the stabbing? Or do you think he was unhappy because of guilt that he didn't throw the ring into Mount Doom of his own will, or just trauma because of all the pain in general he had to bear as ringbearer?

Why was he not happy when he returned to the Shire, why did he need Valinor to heal?


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## Starbrow (Aug 21, 2012)

I think part of it was ongoing physical pains from his wounds. I also think that bearing the ring and all that he endured took away his joy in life.


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## Prince of Cats (Aug 22, 2012)

Hmm, good question. I think part of it has to do with his loss of naivety, which starts probably with the loss of Gandalf and the following betrayal/moment of weakness of Boromir when he decides to leave the fellowship. After the horrors he lived in his journey with Sam to and through Mordor. Being unable to both 1.) share the same light-heart of the hobbits in the Shire and 2.) be useful for the struggle that has become his life, he might feel he's a stranger among his peers. 

In Mythlore 117 (journal for/from the Mythopoeic Society) there's an article titled "Aphrodite on the Home Front: E.R. Eddison and World War II" by Dr. Joseph Young that I believe relates to this (though written about the work of another Inklings member) ... 


> By the end of _The Worm Ouroboros_, however, we have learned that this is what the novel is all about. Juss, his fellow, and their opponents fight not for any conventionally utilitarian purpose, but as a means of testing their courage, skill, and strength in action, gambling their lives and the fate of their kingdoms to ensure that the tests of such noble qualities are undertaken with appropriately high stakes. To do great deeds is reward enough and, when faced with a meaningful, conclusive victory over Witchland, *the Demons are confronted with a new, far more damaging enemy--their own boredom and irrelevance in an age of peace*. They have, after all, robbed themselves of any excuse to perform the deeds they value, and therefore see their victory as an end to "the great age of the world."


_Emphasis added by me_


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## Mouth_Of_Sauron (Dec 3, 2012)

Mimzy said:


> *...similar to what rape victims often experience from the stabbing?*


this totally threw me off at first glance


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## Sulimo (Dec 5, 2012)

I think this touches on a point that most readers of the books do not dwell on. What was the power of the ring? According to the inscription on the ring, it binds. The one ring binds whatever it encounters to it. This is true with all the rings except the three elven rings. That is what happened to the Nazgul. Gollum, Bilbo, and Frodo were bound to the ring. They were each pulled from their natural part in the pattern and given an insight completely unnatural. Both Gollum and Bilbo had unnaturally long lives, and particularly through Frodo the reader sees the subtle changes. Frodo was able to see the other Nazgul as they were, and he was able to see the ring of Galadriel. 



> Yet even so, as Ring-bearer and as one that has borne it on finger and seen that which is hidden, your sight is grown keener. You have perceived my thought more clearly then many that are accounted wise. You saw the Eye of him that holds the Seven and the Nine. And did you not see and recognize the ring upon my finger?


 The Mirror of Galadriel Fellowship of the Ring pg 382

Frodo was perverted. The Morgul blade did not help the situation, but it was the influence of the ring itself that wore Frodo out. The elven rings were made to heal and renew. The others, the one in particular, were made to bind and control. This is why even Sam earned a place in Valinor after his brief period as ring bearer. The Hobbits were not meant to experience this type of insight. It was only there remarkable endurance that allowed them to get through it. After they had been removed from their natural paths they were allowed an opportunity to heal and recover from these wounds. In short the ring had caused Frodo to shift from his natural path. It was the ring's corruption not the wounds or his guilt that prevented him from continuing life in the Shire. He could never fully reintegrate with Hobbit society after sustaining the perversion of the ring. That is why he had to go to Valinor for healing.


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## Eledhwen (Dec 5, 2012)

You're right, Sulimo. Arwen tried to help him - giving him the jewel from around her neck as a focus for his addiction to the Ring. I notice that only Frodo came close to recognising the damage the ring was doing to its bearer (himself); but once bereft of it, blamed being stabbed, stung and bitten for his health problems, not the ring. Yet in the end, there is recognition of the need for healing. Are the 'rescued' ringbearers drawn to Valinor? It seems so. Why else would Sam, at the end of his days, feel compelled to take such a long and dangerous journey?


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## Gollum (Dec 26, 2012)

Frodo was unhappy because I bit off his finger.


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## Gollum (Dec 26, 2012)

I believe a part of Frodo was 'destroyed' along with the Ring. He did not volunteer to throw the ring in the cracks of doom. It was physically torn from him and then destroyed. Imagine what this has done to him.

He has a chance of some peace and rest before he dies by going West, so he follows his beloved Bilbo and departs from the shores of Middle-earth, unfortunately a scarred and broken little hobbit....


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