All posts by Lachlan Moir

I’m not sure that he was particularly ‘jealous’ of Gandalf. Just that he craved power itself more than anything else. These two guys have known each other since the beginning of time and were sent to Middle Earth together. But Saruman had a more ‘commanding’ personality (hence his power to speak very loudly which is talked about in the book, not so much the movies), wheras Gandalf had a more ‘inspiring’ personality that was magnified by the ring of fire he held.

You could technically argue it’s Sauron as most of his power was in the ring.

You should maybe contact the publishers of the translation? Their base copy might require another proof read?

Thing is you don’t really see the full power of the Balrog in the movie. They were pretty much at the same level as the wizards and were used in the first age by Melkor in the same kind of role as Sauron used the ring wraiths. So, its difficult to compare.

A staff.

Mordor. At least you’d never be bored 😂

Of course. Though I would argue that these were people who the ring would have no use of. They generally would have to be exceptionally powerful such as Tom Bombadil, Gandalf, Aragorn, etc. Or those of such stout heart such as Sam. But, I repeat, it would be the ring determining that these individuals would restrict its journey to its master rather than those people themselves making that choice. In my opinion anyway though I’m happy to be corrected.

This is a great question, and it gets to the point of what the ring actually does. This is something I feel that a lot of people don’t realise. The answer is that you wouldn’t have a choice. If the ring determined that you were the best person to carry it on further in its mission to be reunited with its maker then it would use its power to enchant you into carrying it whether or not you wanted to. If you are the person unfortunate enough to be selected by the ring then it has already determined your weak spot and it would then exploit that. This was the fate of Sméagol. It determined that even though Deagol found it, it recognised that Sméagol was the better carrier because it knew he loved things under the ground and would be more likely to move it from the river to a safe space in an underground cavern. It realised that its master was still not at full strength and it needed to place itself somewhere out of the way and unseen until it was ready to move on. This is how powerful it is.

Personally I don’t think the location really matters. The problem is as both items are sentient to a major degree its difficult to see how a 50/50 situation would occour. The only realistic situation I can see from this scenario is that either one of the items is actively playing the poor sap who has to choose, or they’re working together temporarily in a sort of evil tag-team. Its not as straight forward as choose one and see what happens because they both have minds of their own. If that makes sense.

The problem with this scenario is that the ring very much has a master. It is constantly trying to get back to Sauron. So, it’s very unlikely that it would allow itself to be in a position where it has a 50/50 chance of survival. The only real outcome would be that it already had command of the mind of the person and forced them to come to Mount Doom whether they knew it or not. They would choose the ring and it would then be perceived by Sauron who would retrieve it with deadly force.

I quite like the character of Goldberry who is Tom Bombadil’s wife. She’s the closet to a Greek mythological figure in Tolkien and resembles a river nymph.

@Mithral Tinu, speaking of multi-generational I am currently a post-graduate student at Oxford and regularly go to the ‘Eagle and Child’ pub where Tolkein and C.S. Lewis discussed their work. Its amazing sitting in a place where a hundred years earlier the very stories we all love were being constructed and finessed.

My brother had a copy of the Hobbit in the mid-80’s that I read, although I was more interested in Tolkien's illustrations. Then I saw the LOTR cartoon movie which they used to show now and then on UK tv.

Its not about your age. Its about your concentration. There’s a lot going on in that book and you really have to pay attention.

Gil-Galad. Forced Sauron back to the Barad-Dur and kept him under siege. That would’ve taken some almighty strength.

I’m pretty sure the ‘Eye’ on top of the Barad-Dur was something akin to a Palantir. It may even have been a Palantir, abandoned at Minas Ithil, that had been warped with dark magic and used by Sauron to monitor his forces in Mordor.

Samwise of course. He literally heaved Frodo to the Sammath Naur to get the Ring destroyed.