Did Frodo REALLY volunteer to Bear the Ring?

[Firefoot]

Ivriniel, the word you use repeatedly that really stands out to me is "creepy." Frankly, I'm just not following this one. I hope this isn't terribly offensive to suggest, but how much of your early readings of LotR do you think was influenced by the movies? Because I could see how one might get "creepy" from Elijah Wood's Frodo, always falling down with his eyes rolling back in his head. (Honestly, this is one thing I have always thought the movies got terribly wrong, in making Frodo get far too weak and corrupted far too quickly - he's not terribly admirable even in the beginning of the movies, while I think book-Frodo is far more noble and courageous.)

If I'm totally off base here, let me know - are there other particular scenes than with Bilbo in Rivendell that you got the creepy vibe from early on?

THEY ALL KNEW--Frodo was creepi-fying.

I mean, of course the Ring is going to have gotten some hold on Frodo by now - he's had it for 17 years already, plus gone up against the Black Riders. On the whole, though, he's really still doing a pretty excellent job of resisting the Ring's hold on him. I'd say it doesn't truly get bad until he reaches Mordor. I think the real question is, who would have been better to send? I think it's pretty well established that Hobbits exhibit a remarkable resilience to evil/the Ring. The obvious counterpoint to Frodo is Boromir, who doesn't even bear the Ring but becomes corrupted by desire for it in a matter of months.

Seeing as Frodo literally does as well as it was possible to do and gets as far as anyone can get, I hardly think that you can say covetousness for the Ring is his motivation.