The irony of Isildur's weregild statement

[dietlbomb]

The idea behind weregild is that by paying the fine, the accused would be exempted retaliation.

Although Isildur and his posse had just overthrown Sauron, Sauron wasn't actually eradicated. Isildur could have destroyed Sauron for good by destroying the ring. In this sense, Isilsur's taking of the ring from Sauron's body was an inadvertent act of clemency.

 

[Jim Deutch]

Can it be called irony, though?

Isildur wanted the Ring, and rationalized it as "wereguild". He "knew" that was not what it really was at all, because he had just finished punishing Sauron as thoroughly as you can ever punish anyone: as far as he knew, Sauron was totally dead. But he said it was his wereguild anyway. And the irony is that "wereguild" was actually a perfectly correct characterization of his keeping of the Ring (as opposed to destroying it, which would have actually finished the job on Sauron)? That sort of works. Twists my brain a bit, though.

"I remember the first time I had a deja-vu. It freaked me out. That was the first time I was seeing a scene I had never seen before for the second time!"