Isildur's Knowledge

[Marielle]

Last week we spent some time musing why Isildur called the Ring "an heirloom of the North Kingdom" rather than "mine". Could this be evidence that Isildur is unaware of the great rings' tendencies to prolong mortal life? As a king, he would naturally consider his important possessions -- his scepter, for example -- as heirlooms; his for a time, by right and by destiny, but not his forever. Even a jealous monarch is also protective of the rights of his future heirs.

Even if he is unaware of his looming "immortality" (and I think he is), there is a mark of ... if not humility, then noble perspective, perhaps? ... in calling the Ring an heirloom. He is asserting the rights of his Line, not himself, over the thing. Granted, it's an evil, terrible thing he shouldn't want anything to do with it, but at least he is not yet looking totally inwards in regards to it.

 

[Flammifer]

Hi Marielle,

How would Isildur know much about the Great Ring, and how much would he know? The possible source of knowledge for Isildur is anything learned from the survivors or from the records of Hollin. But, what did they know? They did not make the Great Ring. Sure, they know about Rings, but how much about this one?

Why would Isildur think that the Great Ring prolonged life among mortals? The Nine did (and presumably this was known) but they were made for Mortal Men. The Seven did not seem to prolong life for Dwarves. The Three did not need to prolong life, as Elves are immortal anyway. The Great Ring did not need to prolong life as Sauron seemed to be immortal anyway. No reason for Isildur to think that the Great Ring would prolong life. No reason to think that it might corrupt him, or turn him into another Dark Lord either. The only property of the Ring that Isildur seems to have figured out is that it made him invisible.

I suspect that a lot of what the Wise knew, or thought they knew about the Ruling Ring, came long after Isildur had lost it, and came mostly through the research and studies of Saruman, who made the Rings his field.

As you observe, Isildur is foreshadowing Bilbo's attitudes towards the Ring. Bilbo intends it to be an heirloom of his house, and pass it down to Frodo. Bilbo knows that it makes him invisible, but is certainly not worried about being corrupted by the Ring nor about turning into a Dark Lord. Bilbo also does not realize (until the last minute) how much hold of possessiveness the Ring has acquired over him. I suggest that Isildur's thoughts about and attitudes towards the Ring are extremely similar to Bilbo's.'

There is, however, one key difference. Isildur knows that this is the Great Ring of Sauron. Bilbo does not. Isildur probably knows that this Ring was made to command and dominate the other Rings. He might not know how to do that yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't thinking already on the possibilities of using the Ring to 'find', 'bring', 'bind' and 'rule' the Nazgul, eliminating them as a threat (assuming, that is, that he even suspects they might have survived the downfall of Mordor)?

 

[Eliza]

This is an especially interesting point in light of Isildur's comments about the Ring as "wergild" for his father and brother. Setting aside the Ring-induced self-justification aspects, it does provide additional support for the idea that he's thinking about family and dynasty. I wonder to what extent this reflects or illustrates something about Númenórean (and future Gondorian) culture, with it's intense focus on history, lineage, honouring of the dead, and so on. From another perspective, one could observe that this shows how effective the Ring is at finding the weak spots of its holder, such that any temptations it's introducing blend pretty seamlessly into the bearer's existing motivations and thought patterns.