In the climactic scene of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Frodo, and Samwise approach the end of their quest to destroy the great Ring of Power and with it, Sauron’s evil empire. They have survived every kind of danger and have made their way against all odds into the heart of the Dark Land to the volcano, Mount Doom, the only place where the ring can be destroyed.
But having gone through so much, at the last moment, Frodo, who carried the Ring, is finally overcome by the Ring’s greatest danger: It infects the heart, mind, and soul of its bearer with the desire to make its power their own. Standing by the side of the cracks that open onto the seething magma at the volcano’s core, Frodo announces that he will not do what he had pledged to do and that the Ring is now his.
