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And, if memory is right, someone mentioned that the one ring slowly poisons and kills the soul of the user.
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This is a rather interesting thought. I do agree with the poisoning idea, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's slow poisoning. I have two major proofs of this:
Exhibit a - The One Ring- evidence 1- When Isildur first slew Sauron, he took the Ring. Isildur's strength failed him and he wasn't able to throw the Ring into the fires. The Ring corrupted him rather quickly because his intention when he got the One Ring was to throw it into the fires of Mount Doom. It only took the Ring about (what would you say, three days?) to corrupt him and convince him not to.
evidence b - Sméagol and Déagol fought for the Ring. Déagol ended up getting killed, Sméagol shunned from his tribe and he turned into what everyone now knows him as, Gollum. He eventually spent every waking moment thinking about the Ring. In the end, if it wasn't for his lust of the Ring, the Ring wouldn't have been destroyed. Which brings me to...
evidence c - Frodo was able to hold off the corruption (aka poisoning) until the very end where he (like Isildur) could not throw the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. As they got closer to Mordor, he was constantly thinking of the Ring.
evidence d - Boromir lusted for the Ring and attacked Frodo for it. This (depending on how you look at it like
Boro did in my thread [
Boromir: What would have happened if he didn't die?]) his death could be seen as attonement(sp?) for this.
My next bit Exhibit is this:
Exhibit b - The Silmarils - evidence a - Fëanor crafted the Simalrils. His creations were beautiful, even to him, and he ended up (by the time of the Darkening of Valinor) locking them away and only letting himself see them. His lust for them as well as his want of revenge against Morgoth is what brought him to Middle-Earth as well as his own Doom.
evidence b - Thingol sent Beren to retrieve a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown which could be seen as two things: wanting to get rid of Beren as well as the lust (even the it was very small at the time) for a Silmaril. This lust had a major role in the Doom of Beren and Luthien. It is also said that Thingol was starting to develop the same lust for the Silmarils that Fëanor had (hiding them and only letting himself see it). This lust eventually led to his doom as well.
Now, if you look at all that, I think you could draw that even though the poisoning does occur (even though Tolkien as well as others used different words [lust and corruption for instance]) you can still see that it all depends on what race you are and what strenght you have. For instance, Frodo's corruption took much longer then that of Isildur.
So, what can we draw from this?