The One Ring contains part of Sauron himself, it has a malignant intelligence, and seeks to return to him. Do not dare to even touch it, foolish mortal.
Urm. OK.
Yeah, it overrode Isildir’s ability to destroy it. That was pretty fast. And then it failed him, and got itself lost, and then … found by a proto-hobbits Deagol and Smeagol? OK. That was the best it could do. I’ll give it that one.
But kept by Gollum for centuries? That’s weak IMHO. Trasfered to another goblin, it would have made itself up to the king Goblin, that would have been an escape.
So Bilbo gets it – is that its plan? To be worn by the species that can most resist it? Is that how it bides its time? I guess elves and wizards are too smart to touch it, so it doesn’t want them.
Still, it should have failed Frodo when Boromir wanted it. A greedy desperate human is exactly what the Ring wants.
I’m probably over analyzing this. But really, what is Tolkien trying to say with this Ring metaphor. Its his metaphor, what sort of consistency are other people feeling here, that I’m missing?
The Ring is malevolent, but not sapient or even really sentient. Its “plan”, such as it is, is nothing more than to screw people over. It’s like the scorpion crossing the river in the old fable.
Note that, in the end, it actually screws over itself: On the way up Mount Doom, when Gollum makes his penultimate attempt at the Ring, Frodo tells him that if he lays hand on him again, he will himself be cast into the fire. When Frodo says that, he’s using the real power of the Ring, in the way it’s meant to be used, though on a very small scale. And indeed, Gollum, who’s very subject to the power of the ring, lays hand on Frodo again, and accordingly is cast into the fire (taking the Ring with him). If the Ring were capable of thought or planning, it would never have done that. But all it “knows” or cares about is that Gollum is getting screwed.
Gandalf did say, “Always remember, Frodo, the Ring is trying to get back to its master. It wants to be found.” If taken literally, this implies a certain sentience on the part of the Ring; but I think it’s a mistake to take it that literally.
Tropism, maybe, like sunflowers facing the sun? Sunflowers don’t “want” to face the sun…but there’s nothing wrong with saying that way in informal discourse.
That said, the Ring’s tropisms do seem to be able to account for other people’s emotions. It not only “wants” to be near powerful people with limited self-control, it “wants” to undermine that self-control even further…and it seems to have techniques of “knowing” how best to do that.
It seems to have ways to sense what people’s motivations are. Gandalf’s weakness would be in protecting others, while Boromir’s was in wanting great power of leadership. Two very different ways of offering temptation.
Ah. I didn’t expect, for some reason, there to be a FAQ that far outside being “in universe.” There’s a good analogy, the Ring having a simple “program” in it: fail when the user needs it most, and leave the finger of someone who uses it infrequently. That should let it, in fits and starts, get back to Sauron.
But others here have come to the point that I kinda was thinking when I read LotR. That Gandalf and Galadriel could have used it, possibly without grave risk, for a very short time. Its just in the movie, when Gandalf won’t even touch it. My mother didn’t get it – is it poisonous, is it gonna bite his finger, what? And I’m like its the One Ring, using it leads you to evil.
Yeah. But touching it? Thinking about using it? Can Sauron see through it like palantír? These are things kinda taken for granted, and not expressed.
I get the overall idea, that LotR is in some ways paralleling World War I for Tolkien, as the hobbits show their simple greatness over the elves and men to defeat the evil orcs – just like the humble British farmer-soldier rose up above the British lords and other trained troops to triumph over the evil Hun. If LotR was written after WWII, I’d assume the Ring was nuclear weapons. But there’s no good real world analogy for the Ring. Well, except for Wagners opera and the mythology it was built on.
Ask an alcoholic about that. Sure, just one use of the ring won’t kill you. But once you’ve used it once, then you’ll probably end up using it just once more. And then once more again, and again, until you’re lying in the gutter poisoning yourself on rubbing alcohol and pissing your pants.
It’s like Sam Vimes said in one of the Discworld books: You never break a promise, not even for a really good reason, because once you do it for a good reason, next thing you know you’ll be doing it for a bad reason.
I always had the idea that The Ring was a lot like a really hot hitchhiking hooker, who had the hots for her first best John (Sauron). Able to hypnotically seduce and subvert, but unable to directly guide all the actions of each host. Note, not a PSYCHIC hot hitchhiking hooker, can’t predict the future at all, just able to stick a leg out (a la Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night) and get a new ride when desired.
Until this thread, I hadn’t thought about it past that, but something the above answers didn’t include (or I missed it), is that Sauron, the First and Best John, was OFF THE MAP after being chopped up by Isuldur and the united armies of Elves and Men. The Ring didn’t have anywhere special to try to go TO, until Sauron regained enough strength and cohesion to start “making noise” in the Ring’s ether.
So maybe the Ring arranged Isildur’s death out of sheer revenge, fell into the river and anonymity until Gollum chanced upon it. Gollum came along before Sauron was restored enough to be “seen” by the ring, so it stayed with Gollum for a long time. It only left Gollum after Sauron was making noise in the ether again, and didn’t have a good opportunity there in the caverns until Bilbo happened along. Then it hitched a ride on Bilbo, but Bilbo was harder to “hook” influence than a human might have been , so Bilbo was only seduced enough to hold on to it. Not to physically carry it back to Sauron.
Very long story short, I think Tolkien’s overall idea of The Ring was that it had only a limited ability to effect it’s hosts, and so had to change almost randomly from one to the other, in hopes of chancing to catch a ride back home.
And, of course, since Tolkien made lots of mistakes, and changed his mind about various things as he wrote the very long stories, making up a single cohesive description of what the Ring was all about has to deal with those changes and mistakes.
Kind of like trying to make sense of the Force in Star Wars, with Lucas constantly changing his mind about how much people using it could do, which in turn depended on how good the special effects department was the week they were filming that part of THAT saga.
The short answer is probably that if either of them tried to use it, Sauron would know it immediately, and would know that his only chance of personal survival was to raise as much military Hell as he could immediately. This would not be conducive to actually getting the Ring destroyed, as was felt by the Wise to be the only long-term solution.
(As collateral damage, it would also have pretty much ruined the plot of LOTR.)
It does seem that both Galadriel and Gandalf were terrified that if they put on the Ring even once with the strongest possible will to quickly take it off again, that they might not be able to. That, and as has been said, that they knew they couldn’t make best use of the Ring until their souls had been thoroughly trashed.
The reason the Fellowship chose a hobbit was not just because they “resist” it, but also because they are inconspicuous and easy to overlook. And the very idea they’d choose, in a mighty megalomaniac’s view, the “weakest and most undeserving” member, it would be the last thing Sauron would assume. I.e., the whole arrangement was a Hail Mary pass.
Note Sauron didn’t unleash his (not Saurumon’s) army till Aragorn kicked the hornet’s nest.
One idea I had was that it could borrow intelligence from the user. When it’s not being used, it doesn’t do anything. But, when it’s being used, that’s when it seems to do things.
As for the power issue–its use is addictive, like a drug, as far as I can tell. As in, once you use it, you find it even harder to not use again. I’m also pretty sure it directly tempts people in a way beyond just the normal temptation of having its power. And maybe that effect is even stronger the stronger your magic is.
In Tolkien’s fictional world, the One Ring was an embodiment of the temptation of sin. It tempted sentient beings at the level at which they were susceptible. Refusing to accept or to use the Ring is an Imitatio Christi, as in the desert when he is tempted by Satan and does not give in. It’s a test.
The Ring betrays because that’s what sin does to people. It only starts working towards Sauron when Sauron has regrouped enough to start calling it.
There’s also God, or Goodness, which is also working on the Ring – that’s why Bilbo finds it, that’s why he passes it to Frodo, that’s why it could be destroyed even while it drove its bearers mad.
The Ruling Ring isn’t “sentient” per se. But the Ring is attuned to its master, and it is in itself evil. I believe that the description is that Sauron had to imbue it with a large portion of his powers to make it master of the elven rings. So as I understand it:
When Sauron reforms himself and establishes his lesser domain at Dol Guldur, the Ring feels the power of its master, and at that point tries to enable a return. It slips off the hand of Sméagol/Gollum. But it’s not sentient, so it’s not like it’s planning what happens, it just takes a path of opportunity. Sadly for it, and for Sauron, it’s not picked up by an orc/goblin, but rather by Bilbo, who proceeds to drag it off to The Shire, where it gets buried for the next roughly 70+ years.
The Ring works on people as evil always does: by temptation. Gandalf does not want the Ring, because the Ring will tempt him to its use, initially for good things. But it will corrupt Gandalf as he uses it, turning his desire to help the poor and downtrodden into a desire for power, etc. Similarly, Galadriel turns down the Ring, knowing that she would want to use its powers to return Middle-Earth to how it was in the First Age. That would be a beneficial reason to use it, but it would corrupt her, and eventually she would want to use it to gain power to make things be as she wants them to be.
It’s certainly true that it tempts different people in different ways. See, for instance, the vision it showed Sam of vast gardens: It can sense that gardens are what Sam likes, so it promises him a garden turned up to 11. But it’s not subtle enough to “understand” that Sam wouldn’t like a garden turned up to 11, and moreover that Sam’s wise enough to realize that he doesn’t want that.
One could make the argument that the Ring stayed with Gollum for so long because it knew Sauron was too weak to make his ‘comeback’ so to speak. It must be remembered that Sauron was basically crippled after being defeated by the Last Alliance; he needed time - a long time - to rebuild himself up to a measure of power which would be enough to contend with the West. He also had to rebuild his armies and such as well. Perhaps the Ring, throughout those centuries, sensed it wasn’t time yet, and so it stayed relatively dormant with a “safe” steward - an addicted, nasty little creature who would never abandon it or attempt to destroy it. It could feed off of Gollum’s innate ugliness and evil while it waited for it’s Master to regain his strength. When it sensed the time was right, it left Gollum.
But remember - there were other forces at play (meaning the will of the Valar and Eru). It fell into Bilbo’s hands, rather than say, a Goblin or such, through destiny.
Think of the Ring as a drug, a narcotic that is sort of sentient and can sense the areas of inner weakness and prey on them. It seduces people based on what they want. Touching it might bring about a connection, a bond with it, if you will; like having a little bit of poison sent into your system. Thinking about the Ring might draw its will to bear on you - and if you’re of a weaker ill, or more desperate mind, it could easily make you obsessed with it. Look at how it corrupted Boromir - how quickly - and he was a man of good intent and not so great power - and he never once touched it.
It is before the Tower of Cirith Ungol that Sam is truly tempted.
“His thought turned to the Ring, but there was no comfort there, only dread and danger. No sooner had he come in sight of Mount Doom, burning far away, than he was aware of a change in his burden. As it drew near the great furnaces where, in the deeps of time, it had been shaped and forged, the Ring’s power grew, and it became more fell, untameable except by some mighty will. As Sam stood there, even though the Ring was not on him but hanging by its chain about his neck, he felt himself enlarged, as if he were robed in a huge distorted shadow of himself, a vast and ominous threat halted upon the walls of Mordor. He felt that he had from now on only two choices: to forbear the Ring, though it would torment him; or to claim it, and challenge the Power that sat in its dark hold beyond the valley of shadows. Already the Ring tempted him, gnawing at his will and reason. Wild fantasies arose in his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a flaming sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-dur. And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be.
In that hour of trial it was his love of his master that helped most to hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.
'And anyway all these notions are only a trick, he said to himself.” [163]
Heh. You know, if we are assuming the ring had a mind of its own, and scanned the thoughts of people – to see how addicted Gollum was; and how addicted Sam wasn’t, even if it could see what particular temptation would have the best shot at winning over the guy who just wants to tend a garden – then a lot of the story can easily lend itself to a game of Imagine What The Ring Is Thinking Right Now.
But, man, what would’ve gone through its mind when Tom Bombadil put it on?
That’s an interesting line of thinking. I do think it had a mind of its own to some degree - At the very least, it had the ability to plant fantasies into people’s head based on what they most desired. It at least had some analytical ability, to be able to interpret people’s deepest wishes and produce for them enlarged, and seductive fantasies of the same. The Ring as a malevolent computer?
If the Ring had gone to Tom Bombadil, I think Bombadil, for lack of more eloquent terms, would’ve mindfucked it right back. It’s said though that Bombadil would lose interest in the Ring and disregard it, might misplace it. It’s said that Bombadil was meant to perhaps embody the Earth’s spirit - literally, the Earth in a physical form - like the elemental spirits of old tales. If worn by Bombadil, it perhaps would’ve been at first very, very confused, overwhelmed by a mad rush of images of life in its varying forms - rocks, rivers, trees, plants, flowers. Bombadil wanted nothing; he was content to live in his little domain; Both Bombadil and the Ring would have had no use for each other. But…if Bombadil kept it on long enough, perhaps it slowly would’ve corrupted his mind into wanting to destroy all life. If Bombadil is the Earth embodied as more than one LOTR theorist has stated - imagine a sentient Earth, angry and hateful of all living things for their parasitic and destructive nature. A Bombadil posessed by the Ring would probably mean the end of all life on Earth.
But…it would take centuries of him wearing it, maybe even aeons, for it to get to that point, because it would take the Ring that long to figure Tom out. Centuries of confusion, and perhaps even delusion on the part of the Ring, would come with Tom wearing it.
The Ring’s instinct was evil, and so it sought out and reached for the evil (or the good which could easily be twisted into evil) in every living soul; and it planted thoughts into the minds of all who desired it.
It probably showed Boromir images of him as a Warriror King who would save Gondor and bring Her to glory, who would overthrow Sauron and who would conquer the world as Gondor’s rightful King and remake the world in Gondor’s image.
It might not be able to comprehend the very Earth itself - something so innately *neutral *as Tom Bombadil. But given a long enough time, it would find a weak point.