TOTAL HIJACK -
Muad’Dib, you know something? You’re right - there are no beef, bean and cheese burritos in the supermarket! And it frustrated the hell out of me, too! I almost started a thread on it but I couldn’t find that old thread. 
END TOTAL HIJACK
Albert Rose, 
Legolas is the prettiest, though.
Not the dwarves. They were curiously resistant to his mind-bending powers (resistant to the point of immunity, all things considered), such that he gave them the Seven, they put them on, he put on the One, said “Hah! Submit to my bidding!”, they said “stuff it, old man,” and he said “… aw, dang…”
At which point he tried to get them back from the dwarves; he got back a couple, a couple were destroyed when their wearers were eaten by dragons, and a couple were lost.
Nearly right. He got back three, the rest ended up in dragons. The last to be possessed by a dwarf was presumably that taken from Thrain in the dungeons of the Necromancer, between about 150 and 250 years before the War of the Ring. (Thrain disappeared a hundred years before the events in The Hobbit and by the time Gandalf found him in Dol Guldur it was too late to rescue either him or the Ring.)
While I don’t disagree about blanket statements, it should be noted that Frodo’s power/ability grows over time. He first becomes aware of Galadriel’s ring, but after he gains that insight, he doesn’t see either Elrond or Gandalf until after Mount Doom. Thus, it’s not quite a fair comment.
So what happens to a Ring of Power in a dragon’s stomach? I can’t imagine it is destroyed, so it should be excreted in the fullness of time. Why didn’t Sauron get them back? Squeamish about rummaging through dragon shit?
I don’t think I would want a Ring of Power after a dragon had passed it. Might still be handy for dealing with those pesky elves, though.
(Wiping Mountain Dew off of my monitor)
Thanks Albert Rose. Thanks a lot.
I just hope that my keyboard is machine washable.
The brief references to this, give the impression that being consumed by a dragon was indeed sufficient to destroy a ring of power. Not the one ring and maybe not the Elven Rings, but the 7 Dwarven and the 9 for mortal men.
Jim
Actually, it might well have been destroyed. Here’s what Gandalf had to say about dragons and Rings in FotR:
Of course, it’s possible that one of the Seven could have been swallowed by a dragon without passing through the dragon’s fire, or that it could have been consumed by a dragon without a hot enough flame to destroy it. However, Sauron had plenty of flunkies to dig through dragon dung for him; the fact that he evidently wrote those rings off suggests that they were destroyed.
I would guess that the last dragon capable of destroying one of the Seven was Smaug, as he was the second-largest dragon (after Ancalagon) ever to plague Middle Earth.
You can? I just thought Galadriel needed a better manicure. I don’t recall reading that bit in the book(s).
I argue that Bilbo really didn’t give up the ring voluntarily or perhaps I should say wholeheartedly. Sam is purer of heart, as is Frodo (who fails to give it up). But then, I liked Bilbo tremendously in The Hobbit, but really didn’t like him much in the trilogy…
Sorry; I didn’t realize that was too much. I was more worried it was too little.
Well, according to the opening scene in Fellowship of the Ring the ring doesn’t seem to give you enough power to keep someone from chopping your finger off with the ring on it.
Interesting, can you cite that? I was not aware that Smaug was supposed to be the second-largest.
Jim
Note as well that this passage responds to DSYoungEsq’s concern: Frodo has just now seen the Eye, in the Mirror of Galadriel, which is one of the things which Galadriel says contributes to his ability to see the Elven Rings. Since that occurs after he had last seen Elrond and Gandalf, it’s consistent that he wouldn’t have perceived the other two rings before hand, as CK notes.
The power to convince movie moguls to finance a fantasy trilogy. 
There is NOTHING in that passage to suggest that his having seen the Eye in the mirror had ANYTHING to do with seeing her ring. That is simply wishful reading. :rolleyes:
And while one could assert that Nenya was simply his first time he became able to see an elven ring, it’s hard to perceive just why this is so, because Frodo doesn’t wear the Ring once between Rivendell and Lothlorien. Mind you, too, he just saw Gandalf last about two weeks prior, in Moria.
I’ve always thought that he saw Nenya because Galadriel didn’t mind him seeing that she wore it.
Aye, a bit of a morale boost and friendship. I know it’s not entirely supported by the text but I’ve always thought that Galadriel perceived in Frodo a purity (or destiny) that she recognised she was in danger of losing for herself, and made her decision based on that. “Here’s a mere mortal carrying the fate of the world on his shoulders, and I’ve been thinking of my own selfish designs. Now I remember who I am”.
I don’t have my references available just now, so it’s probably best to take it with a grain of salt. I don’t remember for certain if it’s explicitly stated somewhere, or if I just inferred it. I’m pretty sure Smaug is mentioned as the greatest of the fire-drakes to survive the War of Wrath, but even if I remember that correctly, it doesn’t necessarily mean there weren’t intermediate dragons between him and Ancalagon at one point. Ancalagon was much bigger than Smaug (his fall destroyed Thangorodrim, after all).
Ancalagon was the greatest of the dragons. The only other named dragons are Glaurung (father of the kind), Scatha (obscure long worm), and Smaug. The Hobbit refers to Smaug as the last of the great Fire-Drakes, which implies he is of First Age origin, but there is no extant size/power comparison.
Chrysophylax!
(OK, OK, I’m stretching it a bit. but it is a bonafide JRRT dragon! Just from “Farmer Giles of Ham”.)