Nice post, I think you articulated the balance between saintliness and
Everyman-liness quite effectively. We do need to be cautious when it
comes to overstating Frodo's "saintly" aspects because Tolkien does make him,
in the end, a mere mortal who could never resist the lure inside the Sammath
Naur. Now Sam does see him in his saintly aspect briefly when Frodo (or
the Ring as he sees it) sending off Gollum--that's that complex passage on pity
that we've discussed several times recently--but for all his secondary world
attributes, Frodo is still there to remind us that no mortal is capable of
resisting in the end. His courage, determination, hope even after hope
has been all but eliminated, still takes the form of the the Everyman hero in
the trenches, the soldier doing what he can as long as he can hold out. I
like your use of Fussell's ironic twists in WWI experiences to provide an
analogue for Frodo's claiming of the
Ring.
Howe, Drowning of Númenor
