"If you re-read all the passages dealing with Frodo and the Ring, I think you will see that not only was it quite impossible for him to surrender the Ring, in act or will, especially at its point of maximum power, but that this failure was adumbrated from far back. He was honoured because he had accepted the burden voluntarily, and had then done all that was within his utmost physical and mental strength to do. He (and the Cause) were saved - by Mercy: by the supreme value and efficacy of Pity and forgiveness of injury." [Letter #191]
"Frodo was in such a position: an apparently complete trap: a person of greater native power could probably never have resisted the Ring's lure to power so long; a person of less power could not hope to resist it in the final decision. (Already Frodo had been unwilling to harm the Ring before he set out, and was incapable of surrendering it to Sam.)
The Quest (therefore) was bound to fail as a piece of world-plan, and also was bound to end in disaster as the story of humble Frodo's development to the `noble' sanctification. Fail it would and did as far as Frodo considered alone was concerned....It arose naturally from my `plot' conceived in main outline in 1936. I did not foresee that before the tale was published we should enter a dark age in which the technique of torture and disruption of personality would rival that of Mordor and the Ring and present us with the practical problem of honest men of good will broken down into apostates and traitors.
But at this point the salvation of the world and Frodo's own salvation is achieved by his previous pity and forgiveness of injury. At any point any prudent person would have told Frodo that Gollum would certainly betray him, and could rob him in the end....He did rob him and injure him in the end - but by a "grace", that last betrayal was at a precise juncture when the final evil deed was the most beneficial thing any one cd. have done for Frodo!"[LETTER #181]
Au delà de toute interprétation, il apparaît clairement :
- que la mission de Frodo était ,dès l'origine, impossible, vouée à l'échec,
- que celui-ci a fait bien plus que personne d'autre n'aurait pu faire, se sacrifiant corps et âme pour elle,
- que le sauvetage de la Terre du Milieu n'est finalement permis que par la compassion et le pardon dont Frodo a fait preuve à l'égard de Gollum ("Grâce" accordée par Iluvatar ?)
...choses déjà abordées par Cédric dans un ancien fuseau tout en bas de la (longue) liste et que j'aurais mieux fait de consulter avant de vous abreuver de ces mots (cf. "Frodon à Orodruin" 22-12-2000) !
...Quoique... Voilà qui me fait "ajouter une petite couche" à mes développements antérieurs, sur la soi-disant "faute" de Frodo au Mont Doom !
De longues discussions sur le fuseau "Affaire de volonté" ont tenté de montrer une possible intervention ou inspiration d'Eru dans la décision de Frodo de se charger de son impossible mission. Il est, à mon sens, beaucoup plus aisé de trouver des arguments prouvant que, lorsque Frodo revendique l'Anneau pour sien, il ne s'agit cette fois, plus d'un acte guidé librement par sa propre volonté. Ainsi, s'il me semble assez hasardeux de dire que c'est Eru qui parle à travers Frodo au Conseil d'Elrond, il est beaucoup plus probable et facilement démontrable qu'au moment ultime de la Quête, ce n'est pas Frodo lui-même qui parle. D'ailleurs, alors qu'il fait face à Gollum, sa voix se confond clairement avec celle de l'Anneau lui-même.
Il me semble personnellement très clair qu'au moment fatidique, le pouvoir maléfique de l'Anneau, au sommet de sa puissance, se substitue à la volonté de Frodo - montrant ainsi la fondamentale différence entre Eru-Dieu, qui laisse l'homme libre de ses choix et le Mal, qui asservit.
Ylem.