Well i suppose on the logic above it would indeed fail but i think were crossing the line from internal logical consistency to silly speculation here.
Not the top. The entrance on the side that Frodo et al used to get in.
But I think the problem would still exist- you can’t completely seal a volcano, because the pressure will eventually just cause some new fissure somewhere else. I guess if you had an infinite number of orcs, and an infinte number of really big corks, you could theoretically run around plugging holes as soon as they formed. But why?
And even if they sealed up the door Frodo and Sam used to get inside, it still wouldn’t have stopped them. They’d have just trudged up to the rim of the volcano and tried to pitch it in there. Probably. I don’t know.
Talking with various people over the years about LotR, and especially now that the movies have come out, there seems to be a lot of trouble with just accepting the story as is. The Ring came from Orodruin, it has to go back there to be destroyed. But this just isn’t good enough for some people. They ask strange and contorted questions, like “Why couldn’t they just seal up the Ring in a magical un-openable box, and then bury the the box under a mountain, and then detonate a nuclear device over the mountain, and then pour concrete over the rubble and put up big “Keep Off Rubble” signs, and never tell anybody about what they did?”
Well, 'cause, that’s just not how the story works. Tolkien goes out of his way to immediately and finally negate any suggestion other than taking the Ring to the fire. The whole point of the quest, sort of, is to say that sometimes you just have to do things the hard way.
Keep in mind, also, that the ring wants to be found. Bury it under a mountain, and it’ll find a way out.
Or the ever-popular “Why don’t they just get the Eagles to carry the hobbits to Mt. Doom and drop it in from the air?”
Might as well ask why Glinda doesn’t just tell Dorothy about the dimension-travelling power of the slippers at the beginning or why Parsifal doesn’t just ask “What the heck is going on here?” when the Grail procession goes past the first time. Why people can manage enough suspension of disbelief in those cases and not LotR I have no idea.
A story has to be logically consistant; it is perfectly valid to criticise it when characters do something stupid, like not using the Eagles (I know nothing about this particular issue, I’m using it as an example. They’re might be an explanation in the book why they didn’t, for all I know).
It’s the author’s duty to explain why characters make the choices they make, and if he or she doesn’t that’s a failure of the work. It’s not necessarily a fatal flaw in the work, obviously the Eagle thing isn’t (if it is a flaw).
If the author creates a situation where the protagonists can solve their conflict in what seems like an easier way, then it is that author’s job to explain why they didn’t take that path. It’s nothing to do with suspension of disbelief, it’s just a an oversight of the writer, and usually minor.
Forbin and Monstre are right: Sauron didn’t seal the mountain because it was inconceivable to him that a Ringbearer would actually try to destroy it. (And, of course, Sauron was 100% correct.)
Re: Dragons. Gandalf actually says quite explicitly that, while dragons might be able to melt the lesser rings, no dragon could melt the One Ring ('cuz it was made by Sauron.)
It seems to me that by the time Frodo would’ve reached Mordor flying on an eagle, the Nazgul would’ve had air capability, and they would’ve decimated the fellowship.
Sauron is clearly deeply intertwined with Mount Doom–not only does he use it to forge the ring, but he uses it to send out his darkness over Middle Earth prior to the big attack. I think the implication is that he keeps the Sammath Naur clear because he draws some power from the mountain itself. Note that the ring becomes ever more potent as Frodo draws closer, until at last, on top of the Cracks themselves, he is wholly consumed by it.
Say toad, that wouldn’t be a spoiler, would it?
I thought one reason for walking the ring into Mordor was that it needed to be snuck in…most of Frodo’s journey is spent running from those who are searching for him…
zipping across the landscape on the backs of giant eagles isn’t exactly low key…
another question would be what effect the ring would have over the eagles, would they too be tempted to steal it?
SPOILERS
Well, Sam worried about that same thing. He thought that carrying both Frodo and the Ring with him would be unbearable, but turns out the Ringbearer-bearer doesn’t feel a thing. Of course, that bearer needs to be a hobbit…
I imagine that the eagles would be tempted in about the same way that Boromir was - as being a companion of the Ringbearer, not as a bearer themselves.
Which brings up another question - why weren’t Legolas or Gimli tempted? Not enough time in proximity?
Legolas and Gimli weren’t tempted (as quickly) because they didn’t have any immediate use for the Ring. Boromir, on the other hand, knew that the Ring could be used to defend Gondor from imminent attack. So he cracked quicker.
Also, the rings that Sauron gave to the elves and dwarves didn’t have anywhere near the intended effect–only the men were enslaved. Apparently Legolas and Gimli didn’t have much to worry about.
The elven rings were different. Although they were made using the craft that Sauron taught to the elves they were never touched by His hand and so were uncorrupted.
The dwarven rings did work their evil. Dwarves don’t really lust for power so much as wealth, so the dwarven rings amplified this, making their holders into hoarders and misers.
There’s nothing special about elves and dwarves. Notice the effect that the One Ring had on Galadriel, the most badass elf left in Middle Earth. It required a tremendous force of will for her not to take it when offered.
As Wumpus said, Boromir cracked first because he had the most immediate use for the Ring. And as Tolkien makes clear in RotK Boromir had delusions of grandeur even when he was home in Gondor and knew nothing of Isildur’s Bane.
Given enough time in close proximity to the Ring both Legolas and Gimli would have cracked too.
I conceived of this argument at one point, but found it unconvincing.
That something must be destroyed in the exact spot, or by the same person, or at a particular time – due to magic constraints – is, uh, plausible.
That a dragon – which is in some undefined way magical – happens to possess a quality – quite apart from its basic dragoness – that’s able to destroy magic rings which it otherwise never interacts with – seems arbitrary and implausible. Doubly implausible that no other magical thing has or could have this destructive property.
Again, dragons could not destroy the One Ring. “It has been said that dragon-fire could melt and consume the Rings of Power, but … [there was never any] dragon, not even Ancalagon the Black, who could have harmed the One Ring … for that was made by Sauron himself.” Gandalf, FOTR chapter 2.
As for the lesser rings, nobody ever said that a sufficiently hot ordinary fire couldn’t melt those as well. So it’s a non-issue, really.
And, as noted above, no dragon, not even Ancalagon the Black, had enough firepower to destroy the One Ring.
The One Ring can’t be destroyed any way but through the fire of Orodruin because Sauron put a bit of himself into the Ring, quite a large part of himself. Sauron is a demi-god, making the ring a mythical object unable to be dealt with through non-mythical means. Orodruin can ruin the ring not because of how hot it is, but because it is where the ring was made, and that is the “flaw” the ring has, a concept usual in mythical fantasy.
Tolkein deals with this in Chapter Two of the first book (out of the SIX books that comprise the story, two per volume). Only those who aren’t happy unless an author wastes paper dealing with all the possible posits of anyone who wants to poke holes aren’t happy with the result.
By the way, we’ve knocked down the stupid eagle idea in other threads; Sauron’s spies in the air tell him the Fellowship is on the way and he simply prepares a welcome for them using the fell beasts the Riders eventually use. End of Gwaihir and Landroval, et alia. Among other equally good solutions.
Here’s an unsupported speculation about why Sauron didn’t make Mount Doom inaccessible: perhaps he planned once he got the One ring back to forge additional lesser rings there. I recall a passage where Gimli relates that a black rider promised new rings would be forthcoming if Sauron could get the One ring back. Certainly Sauron would have found such rings convenient to control his minions.
I remember that passage as specifically referring to returning the surviving Dwarf rings, not issuing new ones.