Re:Question for all Lord Of The Rings experts…
edit: Here’s a good link for stuff
http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.htm
Re-Editing and cleaning this stuff up, got to be a long messy explaination 8)
Short Answer:
Because all throughout Frodos adventures he was ‘touched’ by Saurons evil/shadow. He even took 2 major steps in LotR to becoming the Lord of the Rings himself (See “Taming of Smeagel”). The 4th Age cannot truly begin until the Ring-Bearers leave. That’s straight from Lotr, and as short as can be =) And no he can never come back. Gandalf explains in lotr that only Elves can build the ships, and none can ever come back to Middle Earth. For continuity sake Legolas stays behind and builds the final ship which takes Samwise, Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn, Pip, and Merry.
Long Answer:
His sickness directly stemmed from the Witch-King stabbing him. A sliver of the blade stayed in his body and began to turn him into a Wraith. He was rescued by Glorfindel and cured by Elrond. But on the Anniversary (the first of which is the day Samwise had to carry him at Mount Doom) Frodo got VERY VERY ill, and just for a day.
This is why he leaves. **To cure his spiritual wounds before death.** The Undying Lands does not make mortals, immortal, period. And while there are only hints and clues of this, he never comes right out and says it other than in a letter to a friend. Even the story of Samwise leaving for the Undying Lands is ambigious, as JRR tells the story through another (Sams daughter or son, I forget)
Tolkien wrote so much on the Ages of Man, that Lotr really only makes up about 5% of the total content. Even the stuff Christopher released doesn’t really *add* or change the story as much as it expands on it. Sorta like the difference between the regular and extended version of the movies. He tells the same stories mostly, just expanded.
JRRs story about what happens AFTER the War of the Rings and the Fourth Age, explains a lot more about why people leave. In LotR the book, A LOT LOT LOT more is explained about the corruption of the Ring.
For example as I mentioned above, Frodo took 2 major steps to become Lord of the Rings himself. Gandalf talks a bit about this in Fellowship of the Ring.
The poem says: One Ring to Rule them all. One Ring to Find them. One Ring to bring them all, and in the Darkness Bind them.
Frodo uses the Ring to seek out things (only shown in the movies as a brief scene with Saurons Eye) Gandalf warns him about this and tells him it’s the first step to controlling the Ring. From that first step Frodo can seek out those who still wield the Rings of Power and Bind them to himself assuming he has the power.
Well he does…
In the Taming of Smeagel, he does not even need to put on or show the ring to Smeagel. Instead he tells him that he was once a Ring-Bearer and because of that he is now Gollums Master. Again something Jackson does not explain even though Gollum calls Frodo “Master” throughout the movies. There’s a ton of cool stuff involved here, and Samwise see’s Frodo as the Lord and Gollum as a dog licking his feet. A vision later that evolves into Frodo becoming a large man in a white robe, with a Wheel of Fire on his Chest. And Gollum a dark dirty shadow at his feet. This visions illustrate the corruption of Frodo so I thought I’d include them.
The two major things I’ve seen that people argue about because Tolkien never gave an answer to:
1) Who is Tom Bombadil?
2) Who were the Entwives?
Those 2 arguements have been going on now for nearly half a century. The rest has pretty much been answered through JRRs letters, many of which were not released by his kids, but through the Authors and families he was friends with like the “Inklings”.