Yes, and that ring was Sauron’s.
Theoretically, yes. But after that he would have been tempted to use the ring again and would become a dark lord himself (perhaps overthrowing sauron but nevertheless he would become evil).
They might as well have used a catapult to hurl the ring into mordor, *over *sauron’s defenses.
Mordor would have tossed cows back at them. Or something like…
Oh, certainly. But this was before the Council at Rivendell, so Frodo wouldn’t have understood those consequences.
Judging by the security around Mount Doom, the password to Mordor is something along the line of 12345.
RUN AWAY!!!
Could be, but I think it’s probably Onering, Onering_torulethemall, or ashnashgimbatur.
I think that’s Paul Blart’s password as well…
More on the Blue Wizards: Wizards in Middle-earth - Wikipedia
Even if Gandalf was mostly sure it was the one ring, he wasn’t 100% sure yet, and regardless, he didn’t have reason to believe it was in imminent danger. In fact, at the time, tucked away in the Shire was an ideal place for it, while he researched more about it. The fact that it seemed likely to be the great ring brought much into question, especially the words of Saruman, master of ring lore, who was beyond certain the ring was gone. At this stage, Gandalf had no reason to not trust Saruman, but he wisely deemed it vital to get his ring lore a little more up to date, he needed to know exactly what he was dealing with, since the resident expert was beginning to look a little less credible.
If ever I change user names, or add a sig, it will be “One ring to rule the mall”
Frodo might have been able to learn to command the Black Riders, but first he would have had to train his will for the domination of others. He couldn’t just put on the ring and start issuing orders, he would have had to practice. And training yourself to use the ring to dominate others is essentially equivalent to training yourself to become the Dark Lord.
Note that Frodo later does use the ring to dominate Gollum. But dominating Smeagol and dominating the Witch-King of Angmar are two different things.
<sigh> 25 min. too late to the party. 
OMG! Like, totally awesome! I’m Sooooooooooooooooo there! 
cool:
Ash nazg gimbatul, btw, for what it is worth. 
That’s amazing! I’ve got the same combination on my luggage!
Actually, he never did that, he merely threatened to do so. An empty threat (at least until they actually got to the Cracks of Doom), but Gollum took it as real.
That is, of course, a matter of interpretation. But if I recall aright, that the scene is told from Sam’s point of view, and that when Frodo orders Gollum away from him, Sam perceives the commanding voice as coming from the Ring as well as Frodo. Moreover, Frodo says something along the lines of “If you ever touch me again, you shall be cast alive into the fire”–which is exactly what happens. I think some magic was involved there.
KRAMER: Hmm, let’s see. Um, well, we can throw out
12345 immediately. That’s too obvious. And no numbers for Sauron, he’s a
word man. Alright, let’s go deeper. Uh, what kind of man is Sauron? Well,
he’s evil, cunning, a man of temptations, but what tempts him?
Sauron: Huh?
KRAMER:He’s a wicked fellow, really loves his treachery . So what’s his pleasure? Is it the foul words of the black speech he craves? No no no no no, his preference is that of evil creatures!
SAURON: Wuh…what?
Oh he may stray, but he’ll always return to his dark master, the
evil Maiar!
SAURON (Fidgiting): I uh, I gotta go
KRAMER: and only the darkest can satisfy him!
Balrog! Morgoth! Melkor!
SAURON: SHUT UP! I’m getting out of here!!
It never even occurred to me to think of Frodo or Bilbo using it for this purpose. Could Frodo have controlled the ringwraiths? Maybe he could have eliminated them somehow…
Well played, sir.
As I said, you don’t command the Ringwraiths just because you wear the ring. The ring augments your personal powers of coercion and domination. If your personal powers don’t run along those lines, you’ll be lucky to dominate a wretch like Gollum.
Frodo might have grown powerful enough to do so, but he would first have to turn himself into a monster. Even Galadriel or Gandalf or Aragorn would have to exercise parts of themselves best left unexercised. As Gandalf said, he would first be tempted to use the ring for good–to banish the Ringwraiths, stiffen the hearts of the Alliance, and so on. But the ring is a tool for domination, and the more you use it for domination the simpler and easier that domination becomes, and pretty soon you’re drinking blood out of the skulls of your enemies.
Hmm… true enough. I as thinking of earlier, when Frodo is telling Gollum not to swear by the Ring. He told Gollum that if he misbehaved, he’d put on the Precious and order him to jump off a cliff or some such.
The latter incident appears more like a hallucination - after all it just seemed to Sam that the Ring spoke, but you are correct. That is much more ambiguous.