Frodo was Bilbo's Choice of an Heir

Symbolic and Mythic Expression in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien

11/28/2K6

"Bilbo made no mistake in choosing his heir, though he little thought how important it would prove"

Bilbo and Frodo

-- Gandalf, to Frodo (Fellowship, p. 72)

Tolkien's unconscious method throughout much of his fiction was to take an ordinary event and layer it with meaning.

For example, supernatural providence finds expression in the Ring passing from Bilbo to Frodo.

Frodo inheriting the Ring was an ordinary event.

However, the fact that the future of the Free Peoples of the West hinged on this event suggests that there was more to it than accident.

Gandalf observed, "Bilbo made no mistake in choosing his heir, though he little thought how important it would prove" (Fellowship, p. 72).