Frodo Baggins

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Frodo Baggins
First appearance
Company of the Ring
FamilyBilbo Baggins
HomeThe Shire

Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in

Mount Doom in Mordor. He is mentioned in Tolkien's posthumously published works, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales
.

Frodo is repeatedly wounded during the quest, and becomes increasingly burdened by the Ring as it nears Mordor. He changes, too, growing in understanding and compassion, and avoiding violence. On his return to the Shire, he is unable to settle back into ordinary life; two years after the Ring's destruction, he is allowed to take ship to the

earthly paradise of Valinor
.

Frodo's name comes from the

Fróda, meaning "wise by experience". Commentators have written that he combines courage, selflessness, and fidelity, and that as a good[1] character, he seems unexciting but grows through his quest, an unheroic person who reaches heroic stature
.

Internal history

Sketch map of the Shire. Frodo lived at Bag End, in Hobbiton, near the centre of the map.

Background

Frodo is introduced in

Elvish languages, and they often went on long walking trips together.[T 1]

The Fellowship of the Ring

Frodo came of age as Bilbo left the Shire. Frodo inherited Bag End and Bilbo's ring. Gandalf, uncertain about the origin of the ring, warned Frodo to avoid using it and to keep it secret.[T 1] Frodo kept it hidden for the next seventeen years, and it gave him the same longevity it had given Bilbo. Gandalf returned to tell him that it was the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron, who was seeking to recover and use it to conquer Middle-earth.[T 2]

Realizing that he was a danger to the Shire as long as he remained there, Frodo decided to take the Ring to

Elf-lord. He left with three companions: his gardener Samwise Gamgee and his cousins Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took. They were just in time, for Sauron's most powerful servants, the Nine Nazgûl, had entered the Shire as Black Riders, looking for the Ring. They followed Frodo's trail, nearly intercepting him.[T 3][T 4][T 5]

The hobbits escaped into the Old Forest. They were waylaid by the magic of Old Man Willow, but rescued by Tom Bombadil,[T 6] who gave them shelter and guidance.[T 7] They were caught in fog on the Barrow Downs by a barrow-wight and put under a spell. Frodo broke free, attacked the barrow-wight and summoned Bombadil, who again rescued the hobbits and set them on their way.[T 8]

At the

Ranger; his real name was Aragorn. The One Ring slipped onto Frodo's finger in the inn's common room, turning him invisible. This attracted the Nazgûl, who ransacked the hobbits' empty rooms in the night.[T 9] Strider led the group through the marshes.[T 10]

While encamped on

Weathertop, they were attacked by five Nazgûl. The leader, the Witch-king of Angmar, stabbed Frodo with a Morgul-blade, the wound threatening to turn him into a wraith under the Nazgûl's control.[T 11] Reaching Rivendell,[T 12] he was healed by Elrond.[T 13]

The

Eärendil to aid him on his quest.[T 19]

The Fellowship travelled by boat down the

Rauros.[T 20] There, Boromir, succumbing to the lure of the Ring, tried to take it by force. Frodo escaped by putting it on. This broke the Fellowship; the company was scattered by invading Orcs. Frodo chose to continue the quest alone, but Sam followed him.[T 21]

The Two Towers

Frodo and Sam made their way through the wilds, followed by the monster

a hidden cave.[T 26] Frodo allowed Gollum to be captured by Faramir, saving Gollum's life but leaving him feeling betrayed. Faramir provisioned the hobbits and sent them on their way, warning Frodo to beware of Gollum's treachery.[T 27][T 28]

They passed

Endless Stair to cross into Mordor.[T 29] At the top they entered a tunnel, not knowing it was the home of the giant spider Shelob. Gollum hoped to deliver the hobbits to her and retake the Ring after she had killed them. Shelob stung Frodo, rendering him unconscious, but Sam drove her off with Sting and the Phial of Galadriel.[T 30] Believing that Frodo was dead, Sam took the Ring and continued the quest. Soon, however, he overheard Orcs taking Frodo for questioning, saying that he was still alive.[T 31]

The Return of the King

Sam rescued Frodo and returned the Ring.

Great Eagles as Mount Doom erupted, destroying Mordor.[T 34]

After Aragorn's coronation, the four hobbits returned home.[T 35] They found that the fallen wizard Saruman and his agents had taken over the Shire and started to industrialize it. Frodo and his companions led a rebellion and defeated the intruders. Even after Saruman attempted to stab Frodo, Frodo let him go, only for Saruman to be killed by his henchman Gríma Wormtongue.[T 36] The hobbits restored the Shire to its prior state of peace and goodwill. While successful in his quest, Frodo never recovered from the physical and emotional wounds he suffered on the quest. After two years, Frodo and Bilbo as Ring-bearers were granted passage to Valinor.[T 37]

Other works

"

narrative poem represents the despairing dreams that visited Frodo in the Shire in the years following the destruction of the Ring. It relates the unnamed speaker's journey to a mysterious land across the sea, where he tries but fails to make contact with the people who dwell there. He descends into despair and near-madness, eventually returning to his own country, to find himself utterly alienated from those he once knew.[2]

"Frodo the halfling" is mentioned briefly at the end of The Silmarillion, as "alone with his servant he passed through peril and darkness" and "cast the Great Ring of Power" into the fire.[T 38]

In the poem

Grey Havens at the farthest west of Middle-earth, about to leave the mortal world on an elven-ship to Valinor.[3]

"The Hunt for the Ring" in Unfinished Tales describes how the Black Riders travelled to Isengard and the Shire in search of the One Ring, purportedly "according to the account that Gandalf gave to Frodo".[b] It is one of several mentions of Frodo in the book.[T 39]

Family tree

Further information: Tolkien's Middle-earth family trees and Ancestry as guide to character in Tolkien's legendarium

The Tolkien scholar Jason Fisher notes that Tolkien stated that hobbits were extremely "clannish" and had a strong "predilections for genealogy".[4] Accordingly, Tolkien's decision to include Frodo's family tree in Lord of the Rings gives the book, in Fisher's view, a strongly "hobbitish perspective".[4] The tree also, he notes, serves to show Frodo's and Bilbo's connections and familial characteristics.[4] Frodo's family tree is as follows:[T 40]


Baggins family tree[T 40]
Balbo BagginsBerylla Boffin
Laura GrubbMungoPansyFastolph BolgerPontoMimosa BunceLilyTogo GoodbodyLargoTanta Hornblower
BungoBelladonna TookBelbaRudigar BolgerLongoCamellia SackvilleLindaBodo ProudfootBingoChica ChubbFoscoRuby Bolger
Primula Brandybuck
Dudo?
LothoPoppyFilibert BolgerFrodoDaisyGriffo Boffin

Concept and creation

Frodo did not appear until the third draft of A Long-Expected Party (the first chapter of The Lord of the Rings), when he was named Bingo, son of Bilbo Baggins and

Westron was Maura Labingi.[T 45]

Interpretations

Name and origins

Frodo is the only prominent hobbit whose name is not explained in Tolkien's Appendices to The Lord of the Rings. In a letter Tolkien states that it is the

pacifist". And, he writes, as Frodo gains experience through the quest, he also gains wisdom, matching the meaning of his name.[5]

Character

Michael Stanton, writing in the

J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, describes Frodo's character as combining "courage, selflessness, and fidelity",[1] attributes that make Frodo ideal as a Ring-bearer. He lacks Sam's simple sturdiness, Merry and Pippin's clowning, and the psychopathology of Gollum, writes Stanton, bearing out the saying that good is less exciting than evil; but Frodo grows through his quest, becoming "ennobled" by it, to the extent that returning to the Shire feels in Frodo's words "like falling asleep again".[1]

Christ figure

Further information: Christianity in Middle-earth

Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and wrote in his

Christ figure in The Lord of the Rings, but Frodo serves as the priestly aspect of Christ, alongside Gandalf as prophet and Aragorn as King, together making up the threefold office of the Messiah.[9][10]

Tragic hero

Further information: Heroism in The Lord of the Rings

The Tolkien scholar Jane Chance quotes Randel Helms's view that in both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, "a most unheroic hobbit [Bilbo, Frodo] achieves heroic stature" in a quest romance.[11] Chance writes that Frodo grows from seeing the threat as external, such as from the Black Riders, to internal, whether within the Fellowship, as shown by Boromir's attempt on the Ring, or within himself, as he struggles against the controlling power of the Ring.[12]

Verlyn Flieger, a scholar of literature and of Tolkien's works, summarizes Frodo's role in Lord of the Rings: "The greatest hero of all, Frodo Baggins, is also the most tragic. He comes to the end of his story bereft of the Ring, denied in his home Shire the recognition he deserves, and unable to continue his life as it was before his terrible adventure."[13]

Both medical and Tolkien scholars have suggested that Frodo, returning "irreparably wounded" from his quest, could be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, making him one of several characters in The Lord of the Rings with mental illnesses.[14][15]

Providence

The Tolkien critic

Eru Ilúvatar, in Bilbo's finding of the Ring and Frodo's bearing of it; as Gandalf says, Frodo was "meant" to have it, though it remains his choice to co-operate with this purpose.[16]

Adaptations

Frodo in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version

Frodo appears in adaptations of The Lord of the Rings for radio, cinema, and stage. In

Leningrad Television's two-part 1991 teleplay Khraniteli (Keepers [of the Ring]), Frodo was played by Valery Dyachenko,[21] while in the Finnish broadcaster Yle's 1993 television miniseries Hobitit, the role is played by Taneli Mäkelä.[22]

Elijah Wood as Frodo in Peter Jackson's film trilogy

In The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) directed by Peter Jackson, Frodo is played by the American actor Elijah Wood. Dan Timmons writes in the Mythopoeic Society's Tolkien on Film that the themes and internal logic of the Jackson films are undermined by the portrayal of Frodo, which he considers a weakening of Tolkien's original.[23] The film critic Roger Ebert writes that he missed the depth of characterisation he felt in the book, Frodo doing little but watching other characters decide his fate "and occasionally gazing significantly upon the Ring".[24] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, however, wrote that Wood played the role with "soulful conviction", and that his portrayal matured as the story progressed.[25] Wood reprised the role in a brief appearance in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.[26]

On stage, Frodo was portrayed by James Loye in the three-hour stage production of The Lord of the Rings, which opened in Toronto in 2006, and was brought to London in 2007.[27][28] Frodo was portrayed by Joe Sofranko in the Cincinnati productions of The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003) for Clear Stage Cincinnati.[29][30][31]

See also

  • Rings of Power – Fictional magical rings in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium

Notes

  1. ^ Although Frodo referred to Bilbo as his "uncle", they were in fact first and second cousins, once removed either way (his paternal great-great-uncle's son's son and his maternal great-aunt's son).
  2. ^ In the fiction, the account survives as Frodo wrote it in the Red Book of Westmarch.

References

Primary

  1. ^ a b c Tolkien 1954a book 1, ch. 1, "A Long-Expected Party"
  2. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 1, ch. 2, "The Shadow of the Past"
  3. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 1, ch. 3, "Three is Company"
  4. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 1, ch. 4, "A Short Cut to Mushrooms"
  5. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 1, ch. 5, "A Conspiracy Unmasked"
  6. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 1, ch. 6, "The Old Forest"
  7. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 1, ch. 7, "In the House of Tom Bombadil"
  8. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 1, ch. 8, "Fog on the Barrow-Downs"
  9. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 1, ch. 9, "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony"
  10. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 1, ch. 10, "Strider"
  11. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 1, ch. 11, "A Knife in the Dark"
  12. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 1, ch. 12, "Flight to the Ford"
  13. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 2, ch. 1, "Many Meetings"
  14. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 2, "The Council of Elrond"
  15. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 2, ch. 3, "The Ring Goes South"
  16. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 2, ch. 4, "A Journey in the Dark"
  17. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 2, ch. 5, "The Bridge of Khazad-Dum"
  18. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 2, ch. 6, "Lothlórien"
  19. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 2, ch. 8, "Farewell to Lórien"
  20. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 2, ch. 9, "The Great River"
  21. ^ Tolkien 1954a book 2, ch. 10, "The Breaking of the Fellowship"
  22. ^ Tolkien 1954 book 4, ch. 1, "The Taming of Sméagol"
  23. ^ Tolkien 1954 book 4, ch. 2, "The Passage of the Marshes"
  24. ^ Tolkien 1954 book 4, ch. 3, "The Black Gate is Closed"
  25. ^ Tolkien 1954 book 4, ch. 4, "Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit"
  26. ^ Tolkien 1954 book 4, ch. 5, "The Window on the West"
  27. ^ Tolkien 1954 book 4, ch. 5, "The Forbidden Pool"
  28. ^ Tolkien 1954 book 4, ch. 7, "Journey to the Cross-Roads"
  29. ^ Tolkien 1954 book 4, ch. 8, "The Stairs of Cirith Ungol"
  30. ^ Tolkien 1954 book 4, ch. 9, "Shelob's Lair"
  31. ^ Tolkien 1954 book 4, ch. 10, "The Choices of Master Samwise"
  32. ^ Tolkien 1955 book 6, ch. 1, "The Tower of Cirith Ungol"
  33. ^ Tolkien 1955 book 6, ch. 2, "The Land of Shadow"
  34. ^ Tolkien 1955 book 6, ch. 3, "Mount Doom"
  35. ^ Tolkien 1955 book 6, ch. 7, "Homeward Bound"
  36. ^ Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 8, "The Scouring of the Shire"
  37. ^ Tolkien 1955 book 6, ch. 9, "The Grey Havens"
  38. ^ Tolkien 1977, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
  39. ^ Tolkien 1980, part 3, ch. 4 "The Hunt for the Ring"
  40. ^ a b Tolkien 1955, Appendix C, "Family Trees"
  41. ^ Tolkien 1988, pp. 28–29.
  42. ^ Tolkien 1988, pp. 36–37.
  43. ^ Tolkien 1988, p. 309.
  44. ^ Tolkien 1988, p. 267.
  45. ^ Tolkien 1996, "The Appendix on Languages"
  46. ^ Carpenter 2023, Letters #168 to Richard Jeffrey, 7 September 1955
  47. ^ Carpenter 2023, Letters #213 to Deborah Webster, 25 October 1958

Secondary

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1
    .
  2. ISBN 978-0-87338-699-9
    .
  3. ^ Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2017). The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion. Vol. 2 (Second ed.). New York City: HarperCollins. p. 158.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-415-96942-0
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0261102750
    .
  6. ^ Kreeft, Peter J. (November 2005). "The Presence of Christ in The Lord of the Rings". Ignatius Insight.
  7. ISBN 978-1-61147-065-9
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1
    .
  9. ^ Schultz, Forrest W. (1 December 2002). "Christian Typologies in The Lord of the Rings". Chalcedon. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  10. OCLC 1000050834
    .
  11. Houghton Mifflin
    . p. 21.
  12. ISBN 0-333-29034-8
    .
  13. ISBN 978-1-60413-146-8
    .
  14. JSTOR 45320550
    .
  15. ^ Leonard, Bruce D. (2023). "The Posttraumatic Stress Disorder of Frodo Baggins". Mythlore. 42 (1). article2.
  16. ISBN 0140038779
    .
  17. ^ "Actor and musician Christopher Guard appoints Palamedes PR". SWNS. 15 October 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2020. He is perhaps best-known for voicing Frodo Baggins in the animated version of The Lord of the Rings
  18. ^ Hoffman, Jordan (8 February 2020). "Orson Bean, Legendary Character Actor, Killed in Accident at 91". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  19. ^ "Obituary: Ian Holm". BBC. 19 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020. he took the part of Frodo Baggins in BBC Radio 4's massive adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, which featured Holm alongside a host of other stars including Michael Hordern and Robert Stephens.
  20. ^ "The Tolkien Library review of the Lord of the Rings Radio Adaptation". Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  21. ^ Vasilieva, Anna (31 March 2021). ""Хранители" и "Властелин Колец": кто исполнил роли в культовых экранизациях РФ и США" ["Keepers" and "The Lord of the Rings": who played the roles in the cult film adaptations of the Russian Federation and the USA] (in Russian). 5 TV. Archived from the original on 13 June 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  22. ^ Kajava, Jukka (29 March 1993). "Tolkienin taruista on tehty tv-sarja: Hobitien ilme syntyi jo Ryhmäteatterin Suomenlinnan tulkinnassa" [Tolkien's tales have been turned into a TV series: The Hobbits have been brought to live in the Ryhmäteatteri theatre]. Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). (subscription required)
  23. ISBN 978-1-887726-09-2. Archived from the original
    on 23 September 2009. Retrieved 23 June 2009.
  24. The Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 1 August 2020 – via RogerEbert.com
    .
  25. ^ Travers, Peter (19 December 2001). "Movie Reviews: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  26. ^ Grossberg, Josh (18 October 2012). "New Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Pics: Elijah Wood Returns as Frodo; Martin Freeman's Bilbo Gets His Sword". E!. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
  27. ^ Brantley, Ben (24 March 2006). "Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings,' Staged by Matthew Warchus in Toronto". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  28. ^ ""LOTR" In London". www.cbsnews.com. 19 June 2007. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  29. The Chicago Tribune
    .
  30. ^ "J.R.R. Tolkien's The Return of the King". Clear Stage Cincinnati. Archived from the original on 9 October 2007. Retrieved 24 August 2006.
  31. Playbill
    . Retrieved 5 April 2020.

Sources

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