July 31, 2002

Re: Stir the Hornets Nest
Elbereth

Annatar, I disagree with you when you said that Gandalf did not care. He did care about the peoples of Middle Earth and their future, especially the elves(he loved them, it says so in the Silmarillion). In the return of the king he said that it was their(and his) job to try to overcome sauron even if they(he also meant himself) died in the process so others that lived after wouldn't have to deal with Sauron. If he was willing to die in the process of defeating Sauron(or trying to) to help the PEOPLES of middle earth, he obviously cared. Also when you said that he could just go back to valinor, if Sauron won then it would have been hard for him and the elves to escape middle earth if Sauron was in control of it. Remember the elves and immortals who could pass into the west went by sea, and if all the ports and costs were controled by Sauron(and if he had the ring)then it would be very difficult to escape.
Also when you said Gandalf should have taken the ring instead of letting frodo take it, Gandalf knew the danger of using it(with the power he already had and that's why he wouldn't take it. Also, he knew frodo was destined to destroy it because he was bilbo's heir and frodo offered to destroy it, and hobbbits seemed to have a better resistence to the ring than most.
Also on your theory about eru being evil, he is the supreme being and created melkor, "he who arises in might", and gave him more power than the other valar, but Morgoth chose to oppose Eru and became evil because he lusted for power over all, like Eru. And sauron followed Morgoth, so therefore he is evil. And when gollum bit of the ring and frodo's finger, he was so happy he was dancing around and being stupid(he was already close to the ledge), and fell in and destroyed himself and the ring. He was not killed by Eru, and if he was, it would have been lawful for Eru to kill him after all the murder and treachery he had done, and would have gotten rid of sauron.
Thanks for your time.