In the film Lord of the Rings why didn’t Frodo hitch a ride to Mordor to get rid of the ring with the eagles in the first place? Would of saved lots of hassle?

View the original post on Musing.io

To understand why no one except somebody like Fordo could have done the job, is crucial in making some sense of the story line. The fact that he had to do it alone without the help of others is a bit confusing though.

The one-ring is actually cursed to caste a sickness on the ones near to it and most severely on the one that holds it. Even in movies we can see that those who are closest to Valar are most severely affected by it. An good example would be - how the Lady Galadriel is affected by it in the forest. Here is a wiki-image of her under the effect of the one ring:

Same goes for Gandalf as well and he knows it and acknowledges his in-ability to touch the ring without being affected by it. In fact he went to great lengths to keep away from the ring but at the same time making sure that it remained safely hidden in the Shire with Bilbo. Here is another image of Gandalf reaching for the ring but in the end pulling back:

The thing with eagles is that they too were sent from Valinor (the realm of the Valar) and the chances of their corruption existed as well. They were intelligent creatures and Gandalf knew their king very well and could have requested the eagles to have just dropped the ring in the fires of mount doom from the sky. Although the eagles were not Gandalf's to command but they would have listened because they too were in danger from forces of Mordor. In the end, none of the above were suitable for taking the ring to the mount doom.

In fact, the hobbits were specifically chosen for the task of carrying the ring because of their special status. I use the word 'special' here in the negative sense. It is like saying that they were 'nobodies' and thus the rings sickness took a long time to get to them. That is why Bilbo was able to retain his sense of self even after remaining in the possession of the ring for so long. But eventually he too succumbed and was close to becoming something like the Gollum. Here is an image of Bilbo under the affect of rings sickness:

Incidentally, the Gollum himself was once a type of a hobbit who went by the name of Smeagol. 

Frodo did not have all this information but somehow realized that the burden of carrying it fell on his shoulders alone. That is why the fellowship broke apart and even Aragorn pulled back and in the end Samwise (another hobbit) was the only one left to travel to the Mount Doom with Frodo. 

Here is an image of Aragorn gesturing that he would be walking away from the ring and Frodo and telling him that this is as far as he would be able to come with him:

"I would have gone with you till the end. To the very fires of Mordor........"