Mhoram - OK, I see what you were driving at; the only reason I'd put the first note was it seemed like you were issuing a blanket ban on speculation. Actually Birdland was very clear in her starting of the idea that she was speculating:
It is the opinion of many (myself included) that Hobbits were created specifically by Eru Ilúvatar, in order to have one Race who could resist the lure of Sauron's Ring.
But memory tends to get a little swamped when reading lots of posts (including mine, obviously [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]). Maybe we should have big SPECULATION sign the way people put SPOILER before things sometimes.
Burrahobbit, aren't you being a little harsh?
The reason that it isn't ok to speculate about this particular thing is that while there may be nothing to refute it there is certainly nothing to support it aside from a wish for hobbits to be especially special.
First of all, there's nothing innately incompatible between the fact (since Tolkien stated it) that hobbits are related to men and the idea that hobbits may have been created to save the world during this particular crisis. Creation doesn't mean that God zapped a lightning bolt at the Shire and hey presto, suddenly hobbits appeared. Just that the ultimate reason for their branching off from the Big People may have had something to do with this. (You could make the same kinds of speculations about the Wild Men, for that matter).
It's true that there's nothing to support it apart from a wish, but this isn't a board on Aristotelian fallacies, it's a board that derives a lot of its steam from speculation. The real old battleaxes of questions - Tom Bombadil, Balrog wings, Eagles flying to Mount Doom - the ones that are so popular they've all been asked 40 million times - last so long because there's no real answer and (in the case of the Eagles and similar kinda-sorta far out questions) sometimes there's no real evidence. I'm not saying that speculation is all that should be done, just that it's a large part of the board and can often make you think more about a subject that may not have struck your interest much previously.
Orual - That is interesting. Sam probably *would* get the Ring, by default in some way, though it's easy to imagine him doing everything in his power to beg off. Everyone except the hobbits would be too afraid to touch it (except Boromir, of course, but Gandalf wouldn't allow that). It's hard to see Merry doing anything if Pippin wasn't allowed to join in, and of course there's no way Pippin is going to be allowed to touch it. Poor Sam, always getting left with the baby like that.
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