June 20, 2004

Re: Elendur, and Annatar
Danny

That is a very good idea as to why Bombadil wasn't effected by the ring. It does ring in perfectly with some of my ideas. At least we agree that Bombadil is a foil to Frodo in the way that Bombadil will not leave his comfort zone even for a few hours, where Frodo sacrificed his home for life. The problem is that Bombadil did care about some things. He cared about the Old Forrest and Goldberry. Shouldn't the ring have been able to tempt him to take it and use its power to forever protect Goldberry. He had to have been aware that Sauron would eventually destroy her and his beloved home. So why was he exempt from the ring's temptations. If anything, I would think that someone so indifferent to the rest of the world and so built around his own selfish world would have been a better target for the ring. I also don't think that would explain why Bombadil could see Frodo, and why he could do what he could with the ring.

It seems to me that Bombadil is in some way a power that is outside the system of middle earth. I have read somewhere (but I don't recall where, maybe it was on this forum a long time ago) a theory about Bombadil being one of the Valar. That may seem crazy, but they supported it very thoroughally and I thought it was the best explanation anyone has come up with for Bombadil. I recall Tolkien intending for Bombadil to be an unexplained mystery and don't feel that he ever intended to give an explanation of his nature. So he may not have even had his own idea for how Bombadil fit. Maybe he let Bombadil be a mystery to him as well. I personally like the Valar theory best, but I can't remember the details that were used to explain it. That is my opinion. He obviously had power to exhert his will over the old forrest, and the barrows. The barrows were an ancient and powerful evil, but they fled like dew before the sun from Bombadil. So there are hints to me that Bombadil had inherent strength and power that somehow enabled him to be free of the ring. Alas his indifference was a tragic loss for the rest of middle earth because even if he hadn't born the ring, it seems clear that he could have made a tremendous difference for good.

Re Annatar. I won't bother fleshing out my "Pro Gandalf" posts. I recall that I very adamantly, responded in the past. To any who want the details, they can find them in the post archive. I will however reiterate a few of my counters. Sauron made HUGE blunders and that cost him his life. He knew that there were halfling spies loos in Mordor. He knew that a Halfling bore the ring. Sauron was right about the ring itself, but he was soo foolishly wrong about the nature of his enemies. He was the greatest fool for seeing the world as a bunch of aspiring Saurons. Ok so if you knew that a halfling had the ring, and that there were halfling spies in Mordor wouldn't you have at least ordered one Nazgul to dedicate himself to finding those halfling spies? If you knew that casting the ring into Mt Doom would kill you, wouldn't have been wise to spare 1,000 orcs to guard the entrance to the cracks of doom as a precaution? Of course it would especially when 1,000 orcs wouldn't have even been a drop out of the bucket. That was foolish. Ok so Sauron beleived that the ring was in Isengard because of the Palantir. He then was led to beleive that Isuldur's heir had claimed it when Saruman was overthrown. However, he was extremely foolish to put all of his eggs in that basket. So if you ask me which one is the fool, I would say it was definately Sauron.

Also, Gandalf knew that Frodo couldn't destroy the ring. Back in the very begining of Fellowship he watches and observes that Frodo can't even throw it in the fireplace in Bag End. He had to know at that time that the Ring would only grow stronger as he drew closer to Mordor, and consequently that Frodo's resolve to destroy the ring would grow less and less capable of overpowering the ring's will. No Gandalf was very wise. He was wise for identifying the one possible solution and having the courage to move that way despite what the rest of the world told him. He was wise for recognizing that there were other forces besides the will of evil that were playing a part. He was wise enough to know that taking the burden of the ring himself would destroy him and in the end destroy middle earth. It took great wisdom and strength for him not releive Frodo of his burden out of compassion. He was wise enough to trust that the will of good would play a part if they just gave it the chance. Gandalf's wisdom put them in the situation where "bad luck" destroyed Sauron. Any other path would have been certain death for everyone without even a chance for "luck" to save them.

I won't even bother responding to the Sauron is good and everyone else is evil rhetoric. Maybe if this were actually a real story then I would. However seeing that this world was a creation of the Author's imagination, I think that it is safe to say that whe he imagined and portrayed as the evil in his world was actually evil and not the other way around 8). That would make for a lame series if in the end evil conquered. Wow I wonder how you could ever read that trilogy and enjoy it Annatar 8).