[Galadriel55]

Tar-Atanamir - he wasn't the nicest guy, but I can't say he was insane either.

Gollum/Smeagol - a bad case of schizophrenia and multiple identities. Not quite normal. I will consider him.

Denethor - quite nuts at the end. Just raving. Another one to consider.

Angband - well, saying "insane Angband" is quite funny, but it lacks the final shine to pick it.

Mouth of Sauron - insane MoS? I don't know. Seemed quite not so to me.

Ted Sandyman - insane? Him? Well maybe only a little bit. Not really enough.

Tom Bombadil - yet another one to consider. Even without the influence of the Ring he seems half cracked, and his songs can drive anyone out of their mind (which is also a good point, I suppose).

Fatty Bolger - a bit cracked when mumbling his story, but not enough to really make me pick him.

Lobelia - well poking a Ruffian twice her height with an umbrella is quite insane, but again, it's not enough to compete with the others

Numenor - perhaps I'm slow but I can't see how Numenor is insane.

Thorin Oakenshield - that one lost his wits with all that gold in his eyes. One more candidate I would consider.


So I have Thorin, Bombadil, Denethor, and Gollum as my candidates. I will narrow it down from here.

I would say that Gollum is out first, since he knows exactly what he is doing despite his multiple identities thing. He has weird manners, but his head is turned the right way, so to speak.

Now if I use the same reasoning Bombadil is out too, since beside his unusual habits he is quite sane and knows what he's doing. (But I like this one very much and it's a really close thing that I didn't pick Tom)

Between Thorin and Denethor now. They both seem to forget themselves during their moments of madness. Thorin's is caused by gold and greed, Denethor's by Sauron's influence and the palantir.

It is said that dragon's gold especially increases the greed factor, so with a stretch it could be said that Thorin had an outside influence. But with a stretch. I believe it is mostly his own ambition and greed. So if I go that way, Denethor's insanity was caused by his precarious use of the palantir and Sauron's influence. And Thorin's - through his own greed and ambition. And going from that, if it wasn't for Sauron's enchantments, Denethor would have been sane. If it wasn't for a dragon's enchantments, Thorin would have still gone mad.

So -

++THORIN OAKENSHIELD