in Letter
246. Speculating on what would have happened if Gollum had not
retaken the Ring from Frodo, Tolkien says
“[The Nazgul] would have greeted Frodo as ‘Lord’. With fair speeches they
would have induced him to leave the Sammath Naur - for instance ‘to look upon
his new kingdom, and behold afar with his new sight the abode of power that he
must now claim and turn to his own purposes’. Once outside the chamber
while he was gazing some of them would have destroyed the entrance. Frodo
would by then probably have been already too enmeshed in great plans of
reformed rule - like but far greater and wider than the vision that tempted Sam
- to heed this.”
Tolkien also speculates on how Gandalf would have governed if he had claimed
the Ring and defeated Sauron (which is probably similar to Frodo’s dreams of
glory):
“Gandalf as Ring-Lord would have been far worse than Sauron. He would have
remained ‘righteous’, but self-righteous. He would have continued to rule and
order things for ‘good’, and the benefit of his subjects according to his
wisdom (which was and would have remained great).
“[The draft ends here. In the margin Tolkien wrote: ‘Thus while Sauron
multiplied [illegible word] evil, he left “good” clearly distinguishable from
it. Gandalf would have made good detestable and seem evil.’]”
Why do we see Sam’s vision, and not Frodo’s? Why, indeed, does the point
of view shift at all in this part of the story? Well, Frodo’s point of
view during the last part of the Quest might have been pretty boring, since he
was focusing every last effort on resisting the Ring and letting Sam take care
of everything else. The glimpse quickly dismissed by Sam becomes a
24-hour-a-day obsession for Frodo. Sam literally takes over the Quest at
this point, while Frodo spends all his time resisting the
Ring.
“I dislike Allegory - the conscious and intentional allegory - yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language. (And, of course, the more 'life' a story has the more readily will it be susceptible of allegorical interpretations: while the better a deliberate allegory is made the more nearly will it be acceptable just as a story.)” (From Tolkien Letter # 131.)
