Vitesse, your points are interesting, and the extent to which the Ring is aware and 'sentient' in itself has long been argued in many threads here, at least to the best of my memory!
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I personally do not believe that either Frodo or Isildur necessarily failed when they were within reach of destroying the ring. If anything, Isildur is more of a failure than Frodo - because Frodo merely submits to the Ring is a moment of weakness, while Isildur is corrupted by the Ring in a moment of relative victory. But I believe "corrupted" is the operative term.
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Interestingly enough, I read the account of "The Disaster of the Gladden Fields" last night in Unfinished Tales, and Isildur, despite his failure to relinquish the Ring at Sammath Naur, came to understand just how unequal he was to the task of using the Ring. (Even donning the Ring at this time caused him pain!) It is to his credit that the excursion he undertook to Imladris appeared to be for the outer purpose of retrieving his wife and son but also had the hidden purpose of relinquishing the One Ring to the "Keepers of the Three," as confided to his son Elendur as they were fighting off the Orc attack at the Gladden Fields. Of course, he would have done better in this endeavor to take it to Lothlorien; at least he might have made it there!
I don't see Isildur as any more or less a failure at this task than Frodo, for neither had the strength to destroy the Ring by his own will. The circumstances of Isildur's failure to destroy the Ring do not, to my mind, have in them any more of a moral failure than Frodo's. I don't think either of them failed 'morally.' Both had the insight to realize its danger and their ultimate unsuitability to the task, but neither had the strength to withstand the pressure at the Cracks of Doom. The fact that Isildur takes the Ring as "weregild" for his father and brother merely shows the path of the evil influence to Isildur's heart. If it had not conquered him in this way, it would have found another way. If Isildur had lived, he would have had much longer to reflect on his failure and what it meant, without the reprieve at the end such as Frodo was afforded. He at least understood the need to take responsibility and attempt to make disposition of the Ring in the best way he knew.
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My theory, however half-baked, is that the Ring is self-aware to the extent that it knows where it needs to go to get back to Sauron, and it also knows when it is in danger.
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Another interesting tidbit from "Disaster of Gladden Fields" is that the Ring was said to be 'broadcasting' its location in all directions, in effect drawing the dark forces toward it. Thus, we could say that Isildur was an "orc magnet," but more precisely, the One Ring was a homing beacon for the remnants of the forces of Barad-dur. I don't know how to equate this to the Ring being 'self-aware' though. I suppose that it would also broadcast in this way at the Sammath Naur, bringing all its 'protective' forces to bear on the one who bears it.
More later! I take my leave. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
Cheers,
Lyta
<font size=1 color=339966>[ 1:57 PM February 01, 2004: Message edited by: Lyta_Underhill ]