I personally think anyone of significant power could have. Boromir, Denethor, or Farimer would have stood a chance. That’s one of the few things that bothered me about the movies is Farimer’s reduced heroism. He was schooled by Gandalf. The other major characters all had a moment of temptation. If I remember correctly Farimer explicitly says “I would not pick it up if I found it on the side of the road”. You can argue that this statement kills the seductive power of the ring but I think it just shows how much of a bad ass he was.
I have more than once thought Farimer, Eomer, and Samwise represent Tolkien’s disdain for the “Upper Class” All lower in class then the main protagonists but smarter and more well equipped to deal with the challenges at hand.
And hobbits are trustworthy dudes! You wouldn’t doubt what they wrote about themselves in their books, would you?
I think this is backwards, actually. The “greater” beings would be the first to succumb, while mortals could hold out longer. The being we’ve seen who was most resistant to the Ring was Samwise, who’s as mundane as they come, and Frodo and Bilbo were close behind him. Even Smeagol, despite being a basically evil person even in his own right, still held out far better than the Wise would have expected.
Someone once wrote that the Rings make you better at what you already are.
Elrond and Galadriel went from being wise, to being Wise.
The dwarf-lords went from being prosperous, to being wealthy.
The Nine went from being mid-level warlords, to being mighty kings.
Smeagol was an incel living in his grandmother’s basement. The Ring made him the ultimate incel, living in the Misty Mountains’ basement.
With the Ring, Sam would have turned Eriador into the ultimate garden. (Admittedly, with a lot of serpents.)
I suggest an alternative for a few reasons:
- Hobbits have a natural resistance to the lure of power (I think this is mentioned in the Books)
- Smeagol, Bilbo, Sam and Frodo didn’t use the Ring much (basically just for short bursts of Invisibility)
- Smeagol was content to hide out in a dank isolated cave for ages (he never even tried controlling a single goblin)
- Bilbo simply kept the Ring in a drawer for decades
- by contrast Galadriel had visions of controlling all of Middle Earth and Gandalf says (at the Council of Elrond) "If any of the Wise should with the Ring overthrow the Lord of Mordor, using his own arts … yet another Dark Lord would appear’
P.S. I can confirm my post 29 about Bombadil - from the Council of Elrond, Gandalf says "the Ring has no power over him"and “if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it or most likely throw it away.”
Yeah, I know that he gets described like that. But, to me, the weird part has always been that he doesn’t act like that; he acts like he knows what’s going on, and plans ahead by giving our heroes useful equipment and some sensible advice on what to do in the future (which is ‘call on him for help’ — at which point he comes through for them as expected). I guess my question is, had Gandalf ever even met the guy?
I think the Rings amplify your desires, but not necessarily in a good way.
Again from the Council of Elrond, he says “The Three (Elven Rings) … were not made as weapons of war … but (for) understanding, making and healing, to preserve”. That is why they were still usable (e.g. by Gandalf.)
However the Dwarven Rings may have led initially to wealth, but their owners became obsessed with it and were reduced in the end to misery.
Similarly the Nine became powerful rulers at first, but were reduced in the end to being undead slaves.
Smeagol was taken from being a happy hobbit living in the countryside to a lonely tormented soul stuck in a small cave with no prospect of sunlight.
I agree that Tom is unique - he may be the oldest inhabitant of Middle Earth (and perhaps immortal?!)
But I think his knowledge mainly covers forests, the Shire and the Barrow Downs. He doesn’t seem aware of the situation outside those areas.
As for Gandalf - well he’s had around three thousand years to wander Middle Earth (gaining different names from Elves, Dwarves, Men and Hobbits.)
I’m confident that he would have discovered Bombadil at some point!
But that’s what resisting the power of the Ring is. Sauron crafted it, if memory serves, to bend other minds to his will. The hobbit Ringbearers took so little harm from it - relatively - because they never attempted to do so. Bilbo used it to avoid the Sackville-Baggins, but he never tried to change their personalities to make them less obnoxious. Even Smeagol, as was pointed out above, never tried anything with the Ring other than using the invisibility it granted to hunt. He killed goblins, but never attempted to enslave one.
I have always enjoyed the whole conservation of power that is built into this world. It’s like you can’t just pull power out of your ass and take over the world without some level of self sacrifice that will leave you somewhat vulnerable.
That being said, I’ve never understood why Sauron put so much power into the ring when doing so would ultimately make him vulnerable.
I think he always intended to take over the other Rings, using the power in the One Ring.
It worked really well for him with the Men who turned into Nazgul - and he probably enjoyed watching the Dwarven Ringbearers getting obsessed.
Even when Sauron was defeated by the Last Alliance of Men and Elves and lost the Ring, he could still have made a comeback if he regained it.
Hubris, I suspect.
His plan was to use the One Ring to dominate the other rings, and thus be able to control and rule over all of the people of Middle-Earth. I suspect he felt he’d been so cunning in his ruse as being a friend of the elves that he couldn’t foresee it not working.
The elves, of course, figured it out.
I totally agree. This and the Mirror of Galadriel scene were the low points of the trilogy for me.
He was defeated when the ring was forcefully removed from his hand. I always assumed that if he didn’t put his power into the ring then there was less chance of him being defeated in the first place.
That’s exactly why the great and powerful people were more vulnerable to the Ring: They had Visions of Great and Wonderful Things to do with it. If Galadriel or Gandalf had claimed the Ring, they couldn’t just leave it in a drawer, or only use it occasionally, not when there was so much good they could do with it. Samwise, though, the Greatest and Most Wonderful Thing he ever has a Vision of is a garden that produces plenty of taters, and maybe some onions and herbs. And he can get that using just his own two hands. Hobbits are humble, and easy to satisfy.
Huh? Éomer was royalty. Faramir was top of the aristocracy (and near-equivalent to royalty in the absence of Aragorn).
You got one out of three. Sam’s sterling character was sketched in praise of the officer’s batman in the old British army system Tolkien served in.
He had. In the Book VI chapter “Many Partings” G says he’s looking forward to hanging out with TB again.
Yup:
I don’t see anything about “again” there.