In order to use the ring to dominate others, you have to train yourself to do so. Frodo was able to use the ring to dominate Gollum. He was a homespun hobbit who knew that using the ring would lead to disaster.
Another man, like Boromir, would use the Ring to dominate others. And he would grow more and more comfortable with overthrowing the will of others and substituting his own. He woudl raise armies, make himself King of Gondor, bring neighboring countries under his overlordship, dishearten his enemies. And as his powers and abilities grew, he would become more and more of a Dark Lord himself. He wouldn’t be exactly equivalent to Sauron, but rather more like the Witch-King of Angmar, who was also once human.
I’m not sure if anyone other than Sauron had a solid idea of what the ring could do. Even Saruman was more or less guessing/deducing.
After thousands of years of legends and camp fire tales, it’s possible that the different groups (Rohirrim, Gondorians, the White Council) had different assumptions of the ring. The ring itself may mislead the wearer in order to get him accidentally killed, a-la Isildur.
So what they thought they could do might be whisperings from the ring itself, or based on legends that may have sprung up since the dawn of the third age.
(Reading this: One Ring | The One Wiki to Rule Them All | Fandom , it says that the elves did not tell the Numenoreans about the existance of the ring, even after Al-Pharazon had captured Sauron!)
Toklein speaks of a “time of turmoil”, as the various leaders of the West contended with one another for the Ring, and for the eventual winner to seize the ring, and train himself in its use. Sauron would presumably take advantage of the confusion to strike, and to seize back the ring.
Yes. To quote Tolkien, “it was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power”. And again; if anyone actually mastered the Ring Sauron would lose power just as he did when it was destroyed, so the fact that that hadn’t happened told him no one had yet mastered the Ring. So it’s reasonable to believe that Sauron would have outright expected some would-be Ringlord to show himself long before they were actually ready.
Good question, I don’t think he could directly. Frodo was able to get Gollum to make an oath on the ring, and it was that which bound him, not direct commands from Frodo. Galadriel warns Frodo not to attempt to try to use the ring, as it would destroy him. “Before you could use that power you would need to become far stronger, and to train your will to the domination of others”.
I think that Frodo did dominate Smeagol with the Ring, but Smeagol was the very definition of weak-willed, and already pretty much completely enslaved by the Ring. I don’t think that’s really a counterexample to Galadriel’s warning.
Perhaps Frodo used Gollum’s longing for the ring to try to control him. And it turns out he wasn’t very successful at that.
To actually “use the ring”, though, he’d have to be wearing it. I don’t recall Frodo ever interacting with Gollum while he (Frodo) was wearing the ring except at the very end. And even then, he didn’t do much controlling.
Remember, Gollum’s oath was to serve the master of the ring. Oaths have real power in Arda, when a significant object or entity is invoked. As John Mace points out, Frodo would actually have to wear the ring to directly command Gollum. IIRC, a couple times he threatens to actually do this, saying he would force Gollum to choke himself on some fish bones. Frodo specifically says he would put on the ring in order to enfore this command.
strangely, i don’t recall frodo ever feeling the temptation to wield the ring. sam felt the urge but a stronger force held them back. for sam, it was his love for frodo. in the case of gandalf and galadriel, it was the very knowledge that it would destroy them. but what about saruman? how could a skilled maiar succumb?
frodo had no great love for anyone besides bilbo. he was wise enough to understand elrond, gandalf, and galadriel (though galadriel was being manipulative at the mirror.) but then boromir was wise and learned too. i don’t know which valar made frodo say “i will take the ring, though i do not know the way.” but elrond sounded as though it was the greatest revolution of the age.
Interestingly we do know of one individual who actually tried to master the ring… and failed, Isildur. And I would guess him to be at least as strong as the members of the fellowship (excluding Gandalf of course). It is highly unlikely that Boromir would have been able to effectively use it.