The List

Jeff Hanvey

New Member
In episode 94, Professor Olsen listed those who can wield the ring, and stated that most of them are in Rivendell.

However, I'm not so sure this is true. There are a number of "people" who could sure claim the ring and pose a danger to Sauron. Some that immediately spring to mind are Radagast, Imrahil, and Thranduil.

Other threats could be Dain Ironfoot, Legolas, Grimbeorn, Theoden, Eomer, Eowyn, and even Ghân-buri-Ghân.
 
In episode 94, Professor Olsen listed those who can wield the ring, and stated that most of them are in Rivendell.

However, I'm not so sure this is true. There are a number of "people" who could sure claim the ring and pose a danger to Sauron. Some that immediately spring to mind are Radagast, Imrahil, and Thranduil.

Other threats could be Dain Ironfoot, Legolas, Grimbeorn, Theoden, Eomer, Eowyn, and even Ghân-buri-Ghân.

I'm just imagining Hobbit-movie Radagast declaring himself Dark Lord, and having his sled pulled by pure-black rabbits with glowing, red eyes.
 
Boy, that's a bold list. I don't reckon that I'd really agree to most of it. Outside of Aragorn, there aren't many Men who could take up the Ring and attempt to master it without falling under the sway of Sauron. Maaaaybe Denethor, if he had gotten his hands on it without being broken first by the palantir. Faramir, if things turned out that way. Probably not any of the others. Boromir would have been no challenge, and in the measure of these sorts of things he would have been beyond pretty much any other Men, excepting his brother and father. Boromir is actually a really handy measuring stick for Men - any Men who are lesser than Boromir don't go on the list.

Radagast - he has never been about imposing his will. I honestly have no idea what would happen if Frodo stumbled and dropped the Ring and it accidentally fell on to Radagast's finger... Most likely he'd take it off and give it back and hop on a ship and sail West (or disappear into the East if no ship would bear him).

There are a lot of Elves who could master the Ring, but again I think the list might be smaller than yours. Either learned sorcerer types (ie. the few Noldor who have stuck around this long) or those accustomed to having their will followed (ie. maybe Thranduil, maaaaybe Celeborn). I actually really wonder about Cirdan - he's old, and he's awesome, but he doesn't strike me as one with a long history of imposing his will upon others.

Dwarves are a sticky one. I suspect that in the same way that the Seven had little sway over the Dwarf lords, the Dwarf lords would have little sway over the One. Dain might resist Sauron, but he probably wouldn't be able to make full use of the One for his own purposes either.

I'd wager that, with the exception of any wandering bands of Gildor-style Noldor (who, for this discussion, we'll consider to be "in Rivendell"), there are fewer than 10 people we know of outside of Rivendell who could credibly challenge Sauron, Ring in hand. Saruman, Galadriel, Denethor at the top of the list, and then the less likely but vaguely possible Thranduil, Celeborn, Cirdan,... then who? Maybe there are some scattered Noldor still living in Lindon, but conceptually those are just more Rivendell types.
 
Good points, Mike.

I like this thought, though, that more people have the ability to claim the Ring than we usually think.(Like Ghân-buri-Ghân, who we know less about.) Would they decide to seems like a whole other question. For example, I think Radagast would maybe have the power to claim the ring, but I agree that he wouldn't choose to.

I'm not sure I would put Thranduil on the list. Nothing about him has ever seemed of particularly strong will to me. Although I think his lust for power and control means he would take it, no question.
 
I'm not sure I would put Thranduil on the list. Nothing about him has ever seemed of particularly strong will to me. Although I think his lust for power and control means he would take it, no question.

I'm not sure I agree. The One, after all, is the only of the Great Rings to have no gem.
 
Interesting thought... do you think he would go on the list, then? He does love gems, but I don't know if the presence of gems or lack thereof is a deal breaker for him.
 
Let's not forget how Bombadil handled the ring at his house with the boys and consequently what is later said (by Gandalf I believe...it is early and I don't want to look it up) but more or less even Tom would be enveloped by the darkness.
 
Let's not forget how Bombadil handled the ring at his house with the boys and consequently what is later said (by Gandalf I believe...it is early and I don't want to look it up) but more or less even Tom would be enveloped by the darkness.

Not quite. The meaning by Gandalf's warning isn't that the Ring would corrupt Tom, but that Tom has no means of breaking the Ring and could do little more than keep it away from Sauron. And so long as the Ring remains, Sauron can still grow, and when all else was conquered, could even overcome Tom in the end. It is Sauron, not the Ring, which would ultimately defeat Tom.
 
sry...that is what I meant...it was early and I was calling to memory something in the text about darkness eventually getting to Tom...but yes, I did not mean that Tom would become corrupted by the ring :)
 
It's true that we have seen the Ring have no effect on Tom when we were back at his place, and this can be combined with the fact that he doesn't care for it. Here is what Gandalf will say in the Council of Elrond about Tom keeping the Ring:
He cannot alter the Ring itself, nor break its power over others... He might do so, if all the free folk of the world begged him, but he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian.
 
A couple of thoughts:

Radagast: I think the best yardstick to measure Radagast by is Saruman. Given the contempt with which Saruman holds Radagast, I think we can safely strike him from the list. I can imagine Saruman creating a mental or actual list of those who could contend with him. Whether by inclination or capability, it looks like Saruman does not consider Radagast a contender. (The irony, of course, is that Radagast appears to be following the same path as Bombadil, over whom the One Ring has no hold.)

I think we are missing one clear test for membership on that list — the individuals selected by the One Ring for temptation. It does not reach out indiscriminately. It did not tempt everyone in the Fellowship. It reaches out for Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Frodo, and, eventually, Sam — asking them to consider what they would do were they to claim the Ring for themselves. The One Ring does not ask Pippin, Merry, Gimli, or Legolas to consider such things.

The others who actively refuse the Ring (or openly discuss it) are Dethenor and Faramir, Galadriel, and Elrond. It doesn’t not seem to bother Celeborn or, for that matter, Glorfindel (although it is possible he is just being discrete). And, of course, Sméagol/Gollum is somewhere in the mix.

And, standing head and shoulders above them all (metaphorically speaking) is Bilbo — the one person to willingly give it up.

From this vantage point, it appears the One Ring is going through a kind of triage list and focusing its attention on those who are most likely to claim it and/or wield it. To take Sam as an example, he is not noticed by the Ring at the start of the story. He, like Frodo, has grown by the end of the journey — raising himself in the estimation of the One Ring and becoming worthy of temptation.
 
Yeah, great thoughts, Matt. I like the point about it not reaching out to people indiscriminately.

And that brings up a whole other question: does the Ring reach out to people who have the ability to claim and conquer it, or people that it thinks it can conquer? Isn't its goal, after all, is to get back to it's first master, not to find a new one?
 
Strangely, it does not seem to reach out to individuals based on the strengths of their will. It doesn’t seem to be interested in trying to get Bill Ferny or one of Faramir’s men to slip an knife between Frodo’s ribs, grab it, and high tail it off to Mordor. Gimli, on the opposite extreme, is strong enough to shrug off several attempts to overwhelm him, including Saruman.

Nor is it just leadership. Yes, Frodo is the titular head of the Fellowship but he defers to Aragorn and Gandalf unless he is pressed. Of the three true heir apparents (Aragorn, Legolas, and Pippin), only Aragorn seems to be aware of the Ring’s call.

It feels like the Ring can sense those who are ready/able for it, much like the Nazgul are only able to sense those who cast a sufficiently powerful spiritual shadow as to appear in their world.
 
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