I am making way through the Council of Elrond section of Exploring the Lord of the Rings, and there is something that's been bothering me for a while. It has to do with the giving up of the Rings of Power. To quote Gandalf in The Shadow of the Past:
"A Ring of Power looks after itself, Frodo. It may slip off treacherously, but its keeper never abandons it. At most he plays with the idea of handing it on to someone else's care - and that only at an early stage, when it first begins to grip. But as far as I know Bilbo alone in history has ever gone beyond playing, and really done it. He needed all my help, too..."
First, Gandalf starts this by saying A Ring of Power, not The Ring of Power or The One Ring. Now considering he was freely gifted a Ring of Power by Cirdan, he can hardly mean any Ring of Power, despite his use of the indefinite article. (Unless he coerced Cirdan - but I'll consider that very unlikely. And if he did, what about Gil-Galad giving a Ring to Elrond? Or Celebrimbor to Galadriel and Gil-Galad to begin with? It seems that its keeper will often abandon it.)
We must, therefore, assume that Gandalf is referring to The One, and also that he is not basing this on any first-hand experience with Rings of Power. In this case, it seems like an very broad statement. Let's look at its brief history of owners to this point and how they gave it up (or the history of owners "as far as [Gandalf] know", anyways):
1) Sauron: taken from corpse (as its creater, he never intended to lose it)
2) Isildur: it abandoned him to his death (but he did toy with the idea of giving it up to the Elves)
3) Deagol: Murdered within minutes of possessing it (but still refused to give it up in that time)
4) Smeagol: it left him (he would not have given it up freely)
5) Bilbo: gave it up freely (albeit with Gandalf's help)
Gandalf has brief records from Isildur to base this observation on, as well as conversations with Gollum and Frodo.
Doesn't it seem to be a stretch to assert that no one can give it up? "Bilbo alone in history" is 20% of its owners, or 25% of owners who didn't explicitly pour part of themselves into it. That's not too bad. Gandalf's assessment that the idea of giving it up at an early stage may be played with by the owner is no doubt based on Isildur, but Isildur never got the chance to see whether he could have or not. I presume he couldn't have given it up (and we did presume that in Class), but we have zero other comparables to say this for certain. It is a remarkably broad claim to make for the vanishingly small sample size.
There would be no records even available to the Wise that could corroborate these claims (presumably Sauron didn't leave his notes laying around), so I personally think it is worth revisiting our assumptions about how hard the ring is to give up. Is it conceivable that Aragorn could have taken the ring to Mount Doom and dropped it in if he never used it? Perhaps. Is it possible he could have worn and then given it up (possibly with great strain or personal sacrifice)? I don't think it's as out of the question as we tend to assume. I personally wouldn't give it to him to test out the theory as I think the less powerful would be a much better bet to carry the ring, but I think it should be accepted as a possibility.
I do, of course, believe what Gandalf says, and it is clearly meant to be unquestionably true in the book. However, in the spirit of this course, I think it is a fair question to ask. If anyone has insight into this, or agrees or disagrees with the analysis, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts!
"A Ring of Power looks after itself, Frodo. It may slip off treacherously, but its keeper never abandons it. At most he plays with the idea of handing it on to someone else's care - and that only at an early stage, when it first begins to grip. But as far as I know Bilbo alone in history has ever gone beyond playing, and really done it. He needed all my help, too..."
First, Gandalf starts this by saying A Ring of Power, not The Ring of Power or The One Ring. Now considering he was freely gifted a Ring of Power by Cirdan, he can hardly mean any Ring of Power, despite his use of the indefinite article. (Unless he coerced Cirdan - but I'll consider that very unlikely. And if he did, what about Gil-Galad giving a Ring to Elrond? Or Celebrimbor to Galadriel and Gil-Galad to begin with? It seems that its keeper will often abandon it.)
We must, therefore, assume that Gandalf is referring to The One, and also that he is not basing this on any first-hand experience with Rings of Power. In this case, it seems like an very broad statement. Let's look at its brief history of owners to this point and how they gave it up (or the history of owners "as far as [Gandalf] know", anyways):
1) Sauron: taken from corpse (as its creater, he never intended to lose it)
2) Isildur: it abandoned him to his death (but he did toy with the idea of giving it up to the Elves)
3) Deagol: Murdered within minutes of possessing it (but still refused to give it up in that time)
4) Smeagol: it left him (he would not have given it up freely)
5) Bilbo: gave it up freely (albeit with Gandalf's help)
Gandalf has brief records from Isildur to base this observation on, as well as conversations with Gollum and Frodo.
Doesn't it seem to be a stretch to assert that no one can give it up? "Bilbo alone in history" is 20% of its owners, or 25% of owners who didn't explicitly pour part of themselves into it. That's not too bad. Gandalf's assessment that the idea of giving it up at an early stage may be played with by the owner is no doubt based on Isildur, but Isildur never got the chance to see whether he could have or not. I presume he couldn't have given it up (and we did presume that in Class), but we have zero other comparables to say this for certain. It is a remarkably broad claim to make for the vanishingly small sample size.
There would be no records even available to the Wise that could corroborate these claims (presumably Sauron didn't leave his notes laying around), so I personally think it is worth revisiting our assumptions about how hard the ring is to give up. Is it conceivable that Aragorn could have taken the ring to Mount Doom and dropped it in if he never used it? Perhaps. Is it possible he could have worn and then given it up (possibly with great strain or personal sacrifice)? I don't think it's as out of the question as we tend to assume. I personally wouldn't give it to him to test out the theory as I think the less powerful would be a much better bet to carry the ring, but I think it should be accepted as a possibility.
I do, of course, believe what Gandalf says, and it is clearly meant to be unquestionably true in the book. However, in the spirit of this course, I think it is a fair question to ask. If anyone has insight into this, or agrees or disagrees with the analysis, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts!