1 and 2) After many readings, I'm still not sure exactly what happens
here. Did desire for the Ring really transform Bilbo, at least in the "spirit
world" into this horrid, grasping little creature? Or did Frodo imagine Bilbo
as horrid and grasping because Frodo was transformed by his own desire for the
Ring? Or both? I think that what Bilbo sees is a reflection in the spirit world
of the damage done by the Ring to both Bilbo and himself. We only "see" from
Frodo's point of view. Perhaps Bilbo say a repulsive, grasping little Frodo
clutching the Ring protectively, witholding it from him. I admit that I never
thought about whether Frodo could destroy the Ring, I was too concerned about
whether or not he would ever survive all the perils in the world to get to Mt.
Doom.
3) I think Bilbo saw his own desire for the Ring reflected in Frodo's
expression. When he says, "I understand now," I think he is finally aware of
the hold the Ring has over him, and the danger that it holds for
Frodo.
*******************************************************
Although now long estranged, Man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
Dis-graced he may be, yet is not de-throned,
and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned:
Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shpes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build
Gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sowed the seed of dragons--'twas our right
(used or misused). That right has not decayed:
We make still by the law in which we're made!
