As regards
Frodo,
Tom Shippey discusses this name at length in both of his
books, "
J.R.R. Tolkien - Author of the Century" (2000) and "The Road to
Middle-earth" (3rd edition 2003). I'll quote from the latter.
"...
Tolkien left two very strong clues. One is the name of the 'hero' of
The Lord of the Rings, Frodo. The other is the note in Appendix F, which says that some hobbit-names have been retained by Tolkien without translation, 'though I have usually anglicized them by altering their endings, since in Hobbit-names
a was a masculine ending, and
o and
e were feminine.' 'Frodo', in other words, is an English form of original 'Froda'. But what kind of name is that? ... On the other hand 'Frodo', surprisingly, is never mentioned in the name-discussion of that Appendix. ...
'Froda' actually
is a name from the dimmest reaches of Northern legend. It is mentioned once in
Beowulf (not in the main story), when the hero, discussing politics, says the the king of the Danes means to marry his daughter
glædum suna Fródan, 'to the fortunate son of Fróda'. By this means he hopes to heal the feud between the Danes and the 'Bards' over whom Fróda once ruled. His idea won't work, says Beowulf, for the pressure on heroes to take blood-revenge is too strong - it seems, though this is speculation from other sources, that Ingeld's father Fróda was killed by the Danish king who now wants to make alliance with his son. ...
Nothing else is ever heard of Fróda in Old English, but the Norse form of the word - it means literally '
the wise one' - is Fróthi, and round this there are several stories. The most persistent is that Fróthi was a contemporary of Christ, alleged by both Saxo Grammaticus (c. A.D. 1200) and Snorri Sturluson (c. 1239). During his reign there were no murders, no
wars, no robberies, and gold rings lay untouched in the open, so that everyone referred to his age as
Frótha-frith, the 'peace of Fróthi'. But it came to an end because of greed, or maybe over-altruism. ...
This is a story, one can see, about the incurability of
evil. Has it anything to do with
Beowulf? There is no overt connection, but Tolkien was used to 'reconstructing' stories. The point that seems to have struck him is the total
opposition between son and father, Ingeld/Ingjaldr and Fróda/Fróthi.
The one is an example of the Ragnarök-spirit undiluted, of heroic conventionality at its worst; in the
Beowulf lecture Tolkien called Ingeld 'thrice faithless and easily persuaded'. The other has about him a ring of nostalgic failure; in his time everything was good, but it ended in failure both personally (for Fróthi was killed) and ideologically (for Fróda's son returned to the bad old ways of revenge and hatred, scorning peace-initiatives and even apparently his own desires). Of course the
Frótha-frith could have been just an accident, a result of the Incarnation which not even virtuous pagans knew about. For all these reasons the composite figure of Fróda/Fróthi became to Tolkien an image of the sad truth behind heroic illusions, a kind of ember glowing in the dark sorrow of heathen
ages. ...
There is something grimly appropriate, further, in the fact that 'Ingjaldr' remained a common Norse name for centuries. 'Fróthi', however, was quickly forgotten.
All this sounds very much like Tolkien's 'Frodo'. He is a peacemaker, indeed in the end a pacifist. One can trace his progress from p. 316, when he stabs the
Moria troll, to p. 600, when he threatens to but does not stab
Gollum. On pp. 670-73 he saves Gollum's life from the archers, against
Sam's strong inclination to keep quiet and let him die. He gives
Sting away on p. 905, keeping an orc-blade but saying, 'I do not think it will be my part to strike any blow again.' He throws even that away ten pages later, saying, 'I'll bear no
weapon, fair or foul'. In 'The
Scouring of the Shire' his role is to forbid killing (pp. 983 and 986-87), and later, after a battle in which he has not 'drawn
sword', to protect prisoners. He will not kill
Saruman even after his mithril-coat has turned a treacherous stab. ...
This sense of age perhaps motivates the general unconcern for Frodo shown by
the Shire, his unfair though unintended supplanting by the large and 'lordly'
hobbits Merry and
Pippin, the rudeness or much-qualified respect shown to him by
Sharkey's
men and
Gaffer Gamgee too. Saruman knows better, and so do some others, but 'Sam was pained to notice how little honour [Frodo] had in his own country'. It is prophets who proverbially have no honour in their own country, and Frodo is increasingly a prophet and a seer. ...
The end of Frodo's quest, in the memory of Middle-earth, is nothing.
Bilbo turns into a figure of folklore ('mad
Baggins'), the
elves and
dwarves percolate through our world as time-shifters and ring-makers, even 'the
Dark Tower' remains as an image for 'poor Tom' in King Lear. Of Frodo, though not a trace: except hints of an unlucky, well-meaning king eclipsed on the one hand by the fame of his vengeful son, on the other by the Coming of the true hero Christ."
