Did Frodo fail?

yes we all know that frodo did not in the end cast the one ring into the cracks of doom so he failed but why was j.r.r tolkien so adamant that frodo didn't fail are we missing something important hi everyone this is robert welcome to in deep geek on this channel we cover lord of the rings a song of ice and fire and many other great fantasy books and tv shows if you're interested in that please click on the subscribe button in the bottom right of your screen frodo often gets a lot of flack for ultimately failing in his mission he had one job to destroy the ring and he didn't do it at the last he decided to put on the ring and tried to escape rather than throw it into the cracks of doom an open and shut case you might think frodo failed but let's dig under the skin of this a little bit because although we assume that he was tasked with personally destroying the ring that's not exactly the case it's true that at the council of elrond only he was technically charged with a mission to do with the ring the rest of the fellowship were merely asked to go with him and support him as long as they wanted to elrond says this by way of a commission to frodo the ring bearer is setting out on the quest of mount doom on him alone is any charged laid neither to cast away the ring nor to deliver it to any servant of the enemy nor indeed to let any handle it save members of the company and council and only then in greatest need although the clear implication was that frodo was going to mount doom in order to destroy it at no point was it agreed at the council of elrond that he would do that boromir for example pushed strongly for it to be brought to minas tirith instead and used frodo is never charged to personally destroy the ring or even to ensure that it is destroyed so technically frodo didn't fail in his mission he did all that was asked of him to take the ring to mount doom not throw it away give it to any servants of sauron or even let others handle it except in great need so technically frodo didn't fail in what he was asked to do and the ring was destroyed and all was well but of course the spirit of what he was supposed to do was very clear and frodo knew it he had to destroy the ring but he changed his mind at the end and didn't do it i've set out in another video why i think that gollum falling into the cracks of doom wasn't just chance there's uru louvitar's ineffable plan for one and then there is frodo cursing golem with the power of the ring just moments before to fall into the flames but you can check out that other video if you're interested in that for now though i think it's worth asking why frodo wasn't tasked with destroying the ring yes there was the potential political fallout with boromir and gondor but i don't think that was enough reason to sway people like elrond and gandalf now i suspect that the reason frodo wasn't tasked with actually destroying the one ring just getting it there is because the wise and foresighted knew that he wouldn't have the strength to do it once he got there it's noticeable that no one ever tells frodo that he can destroy the ring himself or encourage him saying he has the strength needed or anything like that no elrond simply tells frodo that the task was meant for him and if that he didn't succeed no one else could and gandalf tells him that he was meant to have the ring in other words they are both stopping short of telling him that he could complete the task just that the task is his to do to the best of his ability taking this thought even further there seems to be an implicit understanding among the wise that frodo wouldn't be able to do it on his own there's the creation of the fellowship of course but sam's importance is also repeatedly noted and gandalf rather foresightedly ruminates on the likelihood that gollum will have a role to play before the end no one seems to think that frodo will be walking up to the cracks of doom and throwing the ring in there without some sort of outside intervention which brings us back to the point we made some moments ago not only did frodo do all that he was charged to do by elrond he did all that was expected of him no one expected him to destroy the ring on his own so perhaps we shouldn't either perhaps most importantly tolkien was of this very view he seemed taken aback that anyone might consider frodo to have failed when one or two people wrote to him suggesting that they thought frodo failed he wrote back at great length to explain why that wasn't the case here's one example i do not think that frodo's was a moral failure at the last moment the pressure of the ring would reach its maximum impossible i should have said for anyone to resist certainly after long possession months of increasing torment and when starved and exhausted frodo had done what he could and spent himself completely as an instrument of providence and had produced a situation in which the object of his quest could be achieved his humility with which he began and his sufferings were justly rewarded by the highest honor and his exercise of patience and mercy towards gollum gained him mercy his failure was redressed tolkien didn't see frodo's having failed quite the opposite he thought that frodo did all that could possibly have been expected of him getting the ring to the point at which its destruction was possible to do more would have been in tolkien's words impossible tolkien goes on to say why he doesn't blame frodo for breaking at that point his real contract was only to do what he could to try to find a way and to go as far on the road as his strength of mind and body allowed he did that i do not myself see that the breaking of his mind and will under demonic pressure after torment was any more a moral failure than the breaking of his body would have been say by being strangled by gollum or crushed by a falling rock morally a word tolkien uses a lot in relation to this moment frodo did his best and was absolutely blameless in his inability to finish the job so we cannot blame him everyone perhaps literally everyone would have done the same as him we see how the ring affects boromir say gandalf and galadriel fear to even touch it lest they fall under its power you or i would have fared no better at the cracks of doom instead of criticizing frodo for something he was blameless in tolkien would want us to credit him for what he did achieve in getting that far his humility and love and fortitude and mercy were rewarded in the last moments we would do well i suspect tolkien would further encourage us to look for that in our fellow humans to recognize and reward love mercy and goodness rather than to criticize failures especially when we ourselves would have fared no better in the same circumstances if you'd like to see more lord of the rings videos please click on the link on the left of your screen or if you'd like to support this channel or get access to some content i produce exclusively from my patrons please click on the link on the right of your screen that's all for this time thanks for watching and i'll see you again soon

Channel: In Deep Geek

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Keywords: in deep geek, deep geek, lord of the rings, lotr, the lord of the rings, frodo destroys the ring, frodo of the nine fingers, frodo, did frodo fail, did frodo die at the end, destroy the ring no, destroy the ring lord of the rings, destroy the ring, cracks of doom, mount doom

Id: KOUtB1LYiLw

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 05 2020