Frodo the Wanderer from the Shire : Self, Elf-Friends, and Community in The Lord of the Rings

In his 1959 Valedictory Address, J. R. R. Tolkien chose to read the famous ubi suni lines from the Old English poem The Wanderer (“Valedictory Address” 239) as Stuart D. Lee notes in his essay “J. R. R. Tolkien and The Wanderer ” (179). The Wanderer , an Old English poem, survives in a single copy in ‘The Exeter Book’ (Lee and Solopova 272). The powerful poem details an individual’s lonely wanderings as an exile from society while touching on more general themes of loss (272). Wanderings have been one of the thematic subjects that Tolkien seeks after, and his fantasy books, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , contain such wanderers in the stories. Most of the protagonists in The Lord of the Rings are wanderers, or in exile. When he first meets Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee, Aragorn, being called Strider then, is a prominent wanderer. In Gandalf ’s letter, Aragorn is described as “All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost” (170; vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 10). The phrase can be compared with the reading from a written scroll, “All that glisters is not gold,” in William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice (2.7.65). Both words imply that the appearance do not always show the truth. Aragorn may appear to “look foul” from his long wanderings (171), but as Gandalf ’s letter shows, “the crownless” and seemingly lost Aragorn again shall be “king” (170). As the letter shows, Aragorn, then “the crownless” again shall be “king” (170). Although he has been “wandering in the Wild” for years, he is made of sterner stuff, and will be king again in the end (171). More convincingly, Aragorn himself recites a piece of Rohirrim poetry followed by his translation into Common Speech (Lee, “ The Wanderer ” 192), reusing some parts from The Wanderer , an Old English poem, which survives in a single copy in ‘The Exeter Book’ (Lee and Solopova 272). Aragorn as Strider is a prominent wanderer, eventually making his return to Gondor, and yet his wanderings and being crowned again are not central to the story. The most significant wanderer in The Lord of the Rings , of course, is Frodo the hobbit from the Shire, who is determined to undertake the dangerous mission to Mordor in order to destroy the Ring. Although he wishes to return to the Shire, Frodo is supposed to be in exile to the West. His wandering is destined because of his wounds both in his body and soul. Roger Sale’s essay “Tolkien and Frodo Baggins” (1973) and John Garth’s essays entitled Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth (2003) and “Frodo and the Great War” (2006) associate Frodo’s predicaments with Tolkien’s appalling experiences in the Great War [The First World War]. Frodo has been repeatedly called an “Elf-friend,” and what seemed at first “a polite form of address, later a complimentary epithet,” can be seen “as the sign of election to a special company” at the Council of Elrond (Flieger, Green Suns and Faërie 75); he is equally ranked with “all the mighty Elf-friends of old, Hador, and Húrin, and Túrin, and Beren (270-71; vol. 1, bk. 2, ch. 2). They are described in Tolkien’s mythology entitled The Silmarillion [published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977]. The term Elf-friend functions as a framework forming the community where the hobbits can be linked with the elves, and thus it gets Frodo to develop his special identity situating him in a unique position between the hobbits and the elves. Sale affirms that Frodo’s forming “the community with Gollum” [Sméagol] “that could destroy the Ring” (252) is to “create his heroism” (225). In The Lord of the Rings , Gollum has been transformed as a more wretched creature than that of The Hobbit . Gollum’s appearance is delineated in the story. Gollum may appear to an eagle to be “a tiny figure sprawling on the ground,” and “there perhaps lay the famished skeleton of some child of Men, its ragged garment still clinging to it, its long arms and legs almost bone-white and bone-thin,” so “no flesh worth a peck” (644; vol. 2, bk. 4, ch. 3). Sale argues that Frodo knows “why Gollum is more an object of pity than of scorn or anger” (225). He maintains that “the natural kinship of similar creatures [hobbits] and the common bondage of those who bear the Ring become one,” and that because they are “outcast,” “Frodo can create the possibility of society” (225). As a hobbit as well as the Ring-bearer, Frodo and Gollum are able to form the community of their own. It is inferred that Frodo’s virtues and empathy for others initiate a change in Gollum’s emotions towards him. In other words, Frodo’s modern heroism can be “lonely, lost, frightened, loving, willing, and compassionateto recognize the otherness of others while reaching out to assert our common livingness” (237). As such it is a heroic construction crucial to the sense of community found in Tolkien’s text. Frodo’s wanderings as the Ring-bearer are not usual ones because he does not seek the object, but destroy it. As Jane Chance observes, Frodo must give up his quest at the end and, in fact, he does not succeed; Gollum as adversary both subverts and achieves the quest (16). Frodo, Bilbo’s heir, is the modern hero of The Lord of the Rings , whose trip to Mordor as the Ring-bearer brings him nothing but suffering. It is blessed that Frodo and Sam meet Boromir’s younger brother Faramir, Captain of Gondor, who helps them in Emyn Muil after they leave the Company (656-58; vol. 2, bk. 4, ch. 4). Faramir’s heroism is as modern as that of Frodo’s, and his ecological pacifism and resilience also align with those of the hobbit. Although Frodo is destined to leave the Shire, Faramir remains in Gondor to preserve the lands of Middle-earth. Frodo being called an “Elf-friend” enables him to perform his mission as the Ring-bearer though it also is a factor in his losing his identity as a hobbit, driving him from his community, and ending up in exile. As a hobbit as well as the Ring-bearer, Frodo and Gollum are able to form the community of their own that could destroy the Ring. In the end Frodo is transformed into a Sauron hobbit. His resilience against the evil power allows him to persevere with his task. Yet the burden of being the Ring-bearer is too much for him and into a tully developed character he ends up in exile in the West. Ultimately it is Gollum, greatly transformed in The Lord of the Rings , and not Frodo, who completes the mission to destroy the Ring, doing his part. This paper explores the construction of Frodo in The Lord of the Rings in order to find the elements of an Elf-friend in him and examine the struggle the hobbit undergoes. It begins with a discussion of the nature of Frodo as an Elf-friend. It next explores Frodo’s role as the Ring-bearer in the story. The paper then proceeds to a survey of Frodo’s self in the story by comparing him with Gollum, the miserable creature made more monstrous in The Lord of the Rings . The two eventually form the community of their own. The final section discusses the significance of Frodo’s wanderings away from his community as he loses his self and finally seeks exile.