"Both Bilbo and Feanor have the right of ownership, as Gandalf and the Valar
acknowledge."
I honestly never believed that Bilbo had the right of ownership! What do others
think? It's like a soldier acquiring a gun to save his life, excusable, like
using stationery in an open office, like hot-desking - you use what you need.
You don't go taking it home afterwards! OK, he didn't see the inscription. I
really never understood Tolkien's blind spot there. OK, had he thrown it away
there or later, essentially the orcs would have had it, and there goes the
plot.
I suspect it has always been an uneasy topic, and not just for Bilbo. He never
felt safe enough to abandon it, knowing that it could make an enemy invisible;
certainly as he aged, he would have felt more paranoid under the Ring's
influence.
In later life, he gave away the remainder of his share of the treasure trove
that the Trolls had stolen from the people they killed or raided. Bilbo was
essentially honest person, and could afford to be, the way it's written. But he
had no thought of returning the ring to Gollum. Finding it saved his life, yet
it didn't belong to him, and he kept it, knowing that.
It's like an amiable grandfather revealing that his gold watch was found on the
battlefield, and not on the ground. He felt pity for Gollum, and perhaps a
fellow-feeling as one of hobbit-descent to another. But for all he knew, Gollum
was dead without his only weapon. That lack in him has always niggled at me. I
felt Bilbo's real character comes out when fencing with Smaug, not when he
takes the Ring.
And I do believe that Frodo was motivated beyond charity - what if Bilbo had
been the next candidate? I think Frodo knew full well that he couldn't expect
to live - that wasn't martyrdom, that was a very stark assuming of
responsibilty with the privileges he had been accorded up to then. Bilbo was
family, and had given him so much - well then, if there was a prce to be paid,
so be it. Like the selection at the time of pilots for bombing raids - it
sounds like a skewed logic, but married men were *not* asked to volunteer.
Island logic, I guess, but it sheds some light on the reasoning of a small
agricultural community and their priorities. If the Shire was sacrosanct, they
didn't expect others to pay.
Just my two cents - that's inflation for
you!
