About a month ago, I was flipping through the channels and someone was showing the Lord of the Rings movies again. It's at the point where Elrond's describing how he was there when Isildor wouldn't throw the Ring into Mount Doom and that's why they can't count on Man to fend off Mordor's forces, because Man is weak.
Watching the flashback, for the first time I wondered why Elrond didn't do it himself. Sure the Ring had its hooks into Isildor, he wouldn't have surrendered it. That means you go for the classic "impale the guy, then lift and toss him while he's still on your sword move". He's an elf, which I assume means he's a lot faster than a human (among other advantages), and Isildor turned his back when he went to leave. Easy-peasy.
Yes, he'd have to explain where Isildor is when he gets back down the mountain, but it isn't that hard to believe there were forces set to bar entry to the interior of the mountain, and then some b.s. about Isildor struggled through many wounds to bravely destroy the ring, great hero, always be remembered, blah, blah, toast, to the fallen, we'll have an Isildor Day, etc.
Instead, he stood there and let the guy leave with the Ring. It seems like the elves can be very useful, but they'd rather watch and critique how others handle the problem. Real armchair quarterbacks.
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3 comments:
I think the accepted wisdom is that at the time, Elrond and the other Keepers of the Three knew that the One Ring was evil in itself, but not that it was so inextricably linked to Sauron and his power or that it could be the focus of his reincorporation. Therefore, while it would have been best to destroy it Elrond could not at that time know that that goal was worth killing his friend, ally and the last survivor of the line of his half-brother Elros.
The 'meta' reasons are the ideas of free will and deontology that run through Tolkien's book as a whole; the wielder of the Ring should give it up willingly, as if the new holder tried to take it by force then that would set the tone for the new wielder's possession of the Ring and make it far easier to be enslaved by its will.
Matthew: I didn't realize they were related. I have to actually read the books one of these days.
About giving up the ring freely, and not taking it by force, is that why Frodo rejects Sam when he offers to carry the Ring for awhile? I'd figured he was worried Sam would be corrupted. But if Sam was legitimately offering to help, rather than because he wanted the Ring's power for himself, would that have concerned the Ring? Frodo surrenders it to Sam of his own choosing, Sam accepts to help his friend, rather than out of the darker desires the Ring works best with.
Or was the Ring messing with Sam's mind from a distance, trying to get itself away from Frodo to someone more easily controlled?
I think at that stage it was more that the Ring was working on *Frodo*; the paranoia that seems to infect the wearers was beginning to set in, making him feel that Sam wanted the Ring for himself.
Sam, being a hard-headed Hobbit, was probably unaffected by the Ring at that time.
As for the reasons for taking up the Ring, I think even doing so with noble intentions will eventually always work out in Sauron's favour. Remember Gandalf's words to Frodo that if he himself were to take up the Ring it would be through a desire to do good, but through him it would accomplish an even greater evil.
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