The Real Hero

I really enjoyed today's discussion about the true hero (or heroes) of LoTR. Personally, I'm more inclined to side with Tolkien in declaring Sam the true hero due to his strength and perseverance. But I think overall I subscribe more to the belief that the Fellowship as a whole is the hero of the story. Each member of the Fellowship contributes something to the quest, and each comes back to their homeland as a lauded hero amongst their race. The story fails without each player in the Fellowship, and the supportive nature of their bond makes it impossible to take each individual character and divide them into heroes, followers, or what have you. My question to you is this: why create the Fellowship to be so close-knit and dependent on each other? Why not choose one main hero, like Frodo, and designate the rest of the Fellowship to secondary character status with little heroic merit of their own?

-Varda*