Funny, I had just finished reading Tom Shippey’s “J.R.R. Tolkien – Author of the Century” at the start of this thread about wraiths and redemption. Shippey writes about many of the same subjects discussed in prior posts. Tolkien’s perception of “wraiths and shadows” takes up quite a bit of a chapter on “Concepts of Evil. Have to go back and read again now.

Anyway, Shippey thinks those who came under the influence of the Ring could recover. Gollum was on his way to becoming a wraith but never completed the process because he became detached from the Ring for a number of years.. After separating from the Ring, Gollum began to call himself Sméagol again. Shippey thinks the schizophrenic dialogue between his “hobbit-personality” and his Ring-personality” in “The Passage in the Marshes” shows he was beginning to free from the Ring’s influence.

My own thought is that an earlier Boromir, not a member of the Fellowship, son of Denethor I is another example of someone who seems to have never completed the wraithing process. This earlier Boromir, who is described as courageous enough to cause teh Witch King concern, was stabbed with a morgul blade. Tolkien tells us that he became shrunken and died horribly. He never says that this Boromir became a wraith. Somehow he must have resisted the process and instead died. Perhaps, it was force of will? Tolkien never says.(Appendix A under Stewards. )

I think Frodo would have had a more difficult time resisting the wraithing process. He was both carrying the Ring and stabbed by a Morgul blade. I don’t think he would have been strong enough to resist given that at the end he failed to give up the Ring of his own accord.