The Ainulindale And The Life Of Frodo Baggins

Frodo’s Character Description This paper aims to tie together the themes of the Ainulindale and the life of Frodo Baggins. One of the first themes that arises in the Ainulindale is fate. There are a few key aspects involving fate in the Ainulindale that are worked out in Frodo’s life. For example, at the beginning of the Ainulindale, Illuvitar created the Ainur which created a beautiful theme that proposed goodness and life throughout the void (Whittingham,1998). However, like in most creation stories, there was always one deity who is defiant and corrupt, and his name was Melkor. Melkor tried to create his own theme, which would topple that of the Ainur. So, both musical themes fought against each other and the Ainur were overwhelmed for

Now, just as the fate of evil is bound to spread like Melkor unto Morgoth and later Sauron, the fate of the One Ring’s passage to Frodo is quite similar. It was fate that caused the One Ring to fall into Bilbo’s hands, and it was destined for Frodo to carry the burden for him. However, is it also fate that caused Frodo to battle the evil within the ring, just as the Ainur battled the evil within Melkor (Lasseter, 2006)? We inevitably see that throughout Frodo’s journey he has many instances where he is consciously and unconsciously battling the evil that is trying to corrupt him, as well as, expose him to the dark lord (Whittingham, 1998). Similarly, Melkor is trying to corrupt the beautiful music of the Ainur with his own, which also attempts to exploit the Ainur’s lack of superiority through music (Ankeny, 2005). Perhaps both of these themes of fate are connected appropriately in order to establish an obvious connection

The ring was originally intended for Frodo to inherit from Bilbo, and regardless of what would have happened, Frodo would have still been given the ring (Croft, 2010). It was also Frodo, out of free will, who chose to take the ring to Mordor. After having to hear the bickering among the fellowship over who will take it, he of all people decided to take on the job. So, both fate and free will have an involvement in the journey that Frodo will take with the ring (Lasseter, 2006). Also, Frodo’s mortality was important at the end of the story. Frodo had loved life and adventure, and always wanted to see the outside world for what it was (Whittingham, 1998). However, in the end he stopped caring about life, in fact he was so okay with dying that he was willing to let himself die in the fires of Mount Doom as long as his mission was complete (Whittingham, 1998). So, this shows that Frodo is willing to risk everything in order to destroy the ring, even if it means sacrificing his own