You didn’t ask, but I’m telling you anyway: my Indian name is thread killer…
Aragorn is an archetypical hero, much like that described by Campbell. His strength is nonmagical in nature.
When we meet him he is no longer the naive unschooled young boy like that represented by the Hobbits, but the seasoned warrior who has survived his mistakes and grown. He has prepared all his life for the fight of his life and the temptation of the Ring holds no sway over him. His strength lied in his iron resolve and his iron fist, not in magic.
Balrog bezoar blocking bowels? I think not.
Some JRRT experts (well, me actually) have speculated that balrog belches and borborigmi would also be biliously blazing enough to consume the lesser rings, since balrogs were, after all, arsenous Ainur who adored Melkor’s melody above Ainulindalë.
Seriously, a Valaraukar vielding the vun ring in its own intestine would be a foe too formidable even for an asshole like Annatar to face in a firefight.
Posting the following response for my roommate, who is outraged at your ivory tower theories. (I believe the exact term was “nincompoop”, but I’m a little nicer than she is. 
)
They spell it out very clearly in the movie: Aragorn did not want to turn into another Isildur. He was going to fight the temptation no matter what. Maybe he did want to turn invisible and goggle at naked elf chicks, but he didn’t want to be responsible for the end of the world as he knew it.
I think I may need acid to help read this post. I didn’t know you liked alliteration, doctor… 
dotchan–but that is exactly what I and others like** ouryL** are saying. I call her nincompoop and raise her a kneejerk reactionary. <throws down Boromir’s gauntlets> Plus, the film Aragorn, as much as he makes me lose my mind and any inhibitions I have ever had re sex with strangers, is not the same guy as in the books. Me, I prefer the film guy (for very obvious and shallow reasons). But we are discussing the character Tolkien created, not Viggo and the scriptwriters.
JRRT’s Aragorn held Isildur in high esteem. Isildur was not seen as a greedy fool who lusted for the ring, but rather one who didn’t understand precisely the power inherent in the ring, and kept it more as an heirloom and remembrance of those he lost in the War, particularly his father Elendil and his brother Anarion. Doubtless the ring influenced him to feel this way even more.
Remember, it was Sauron that Isildur had fought against all his life, and while Sauron ruled from behind the throne in Numenor, he did not flaunt the ring as the source of his power.
So when Elendil and Gil-Galad together cast Sauron down (dying in the process) and Isildur cut the ring from his finger and disembodied him, Isildur considered the problem solved. No Sauron, no problem.
Isildur came to rue this mistake greatly, as it cost him 3 of his sons as well as his own life. The high kingship was also lost.
Aragorn knew this and was wise enough not to covet the ring, and this helped him resist.
I take acetylsalicylic acid myself. Try it! 81 mg a day!
Come here.
Let me beat you.
<smacks QtM with wet trout>
<apropos of nothing> I watched a bald eagle tear apart a trout right on my beach on Sunday AM past. I was surprised by how it had to fend off two crows while doing this.
I wonder if Gollum had to contend with crows…
Now I think you are ON acid. Crows are communal birds–they have a complex social network and as such, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few take on an eagle. Gollum had to contend with Tolkien’s “let me get out of a tight literary corner and use this handy vehicle which is never mentioned or considered until I cannot figure out what else to do in 2 different books, no less” aka eagles. 
Trout sounds good about now.
In Bored of the Rings, the Eagles which rescue Frito have “Deus Ex Machina Airlines” emblazoned on their sides.
“…crows? Dotard! What is the House of Eorl but a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll on the floor among the dogs?”
Now, that’s a book I must read!
Note: Gandalf is called Stormcrow by Wormtongue/Theoden. Coincidence? I think not!
Unlike the movie, of course, in the book no one really had a good idea of what the One Ring really was until much later, even the Elf-Lords, right?
Well, IIRC, in the book, Elrond was standing beside Isildur when he took the Ring, and said something along the lines of “Throw that damn thing in damn Mount Doom, damn skippy, chucklehead” (it sounded much classier in Quenya, naturally), but to no avail.
No no no! You guys are missing the obvious answer to the OP!
Aragorn had a higher concentration of Mediclurians in his blood stream, which provided him with a greater innate power to resist the ring’s influence! That’s also why Sam was able to use the ring for a brief period without any ill effects.
There was a wide-spread rumor at the time that The One Ring was originally a part of Sauron’s Arab Strap. Aragorn found this sufficiently oogie that he didn’t even want to touch the ring, knowing where it had been, much less actually use it.
No. Celebrimbor, who forged the three elven rings, immediately perceived what Sauron was up to the first time he put on the One Ring. Thus were the three hidden, so as not to allow Sauron mastery over the elves.
But the knowledge of the rings was not widely disseminated by the elves in the know. The three were dispersed among the most powerful Eldar, and not wielded. They didn’t talk much about the matter, as far as can be gleaned from JRRT’s writings. And while all this was going on, the men of the West lived in Numenor.
So Isildur could well have been expected to be ignorant regarding the matter of so much of Sauron’s power being tied up in his jewelry. He apparently knew just enough to cut the ring from Sauron, but beyond that?
Isildur had been widely respected in his lifetime. He rescued a fruit from the White Tree in the King’s Court in Numenor, right from under Sauron’s nose, thus preserving the tree for the Dunedain. He led a contingent of faithful away from the wreck of Numenor, and with his brother founded the realm of Gondor and Osgiliath, its chief city. He personally founded Minas Ithil in Ithilien.
So he was a pretty stand-up guy. While the ring could have seduced him, I still suspect he was mainly ignorant of its true nature.
Yes, you should.
The ring’s inscription, in BOTR: “Grundig blaupunkt luger frug Watusi snarf wazoo! Nixon dirksen nasahist Rebozo boogaloo”.
This translates to:
“This ring, no other, is made by the elves, Who’d pawn their own mother to grab it themselves”.