[Dininziliel]

Willie:

I think maybe it is another enhancement the ring gives. Maybe it is not time slowing down in Sam's mind, but rather the ring speeding up the mind of Sam, so everything seems slower.

I'm re-reading LotR right now and I will be on the lookout for this--interesting idea!

And, about mentioning the "m" word ... Ah, irony! I have read, and support the rules of the dead in this forum. My sole reason for mentioning the movie is due to my concern that the movie was affecting the perception and discussion of the book! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Tar-Palantir:

Prozac for all the Ringbearers, my treat! ... I'll buy a pitcher of Entdraught for the first person that nails down a concrete theory on this Ring!

I hope it's non-alcoholic Entdraught [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Saucepan:

Does anyone know if there is an actual reference to the Ring changing its width.

We are told that the Ring changes in weight--"The Shadow of the Past" ("It felt suddenly very heavy, as if either it or Frodo himself was in some way reluctant for Gandalf to touch it.") And there are the many mentions of the heaviness of the Ring dragging Frodo down the closer they got to Mt. Doom. Back to "Shadows ...," Gandalf mentions the Ring slipping off the fingers of Gollum and Isildur. Then in "The Council of Elrond" Gandalf recounts Isildur's description of the Ring, " 'Yet even as I write it is cooled, and it seemeth to shrink, though it loseth neither its beauty nor its shape.' "

Tar-Palantir re the Ring mastering/being mastered by Galadriel:

They are one, the Ring and the Dark Lord. I think eventually and inevitably. Perhaps the power of the Ring she may have mastered, but the will of the Ring (which is what is giving us the most problem in understanding) would have worked on her mind ceaselessly,

Yes! and nice delineation.

And is it defining the will of the Ring that we have been dancing with all this time? In Letters, Tolkien says: "A moral of the whole (after the primary symbolism of the Ring, as the will to mere power, seeking to make itself objective by physical force and mechanism, and so also inevitably by lies) is the obvious one that without the high and noble the simple and vulgar is utterly mean; and without the simple and ordinary the noble and heroic is meaningless." [# 131]

Tar-Palantir also wrote:

Would it be impossible to complete destroy him [Sauron] without destroying the Ring? And a follow up question: If Gollum had lived through it, would he get to sail to Valinor with the rest of the Ringbearer gang?

To the first question, a shy and tentative "Yes" for the same reason given regarding Galadriel--they are one and the same. But ... completely destroy Sauron? Hmmm ...

And to the last question, based on the fact that Tolkien stated nothing is evil in its beginning, and that the Valar understood the nature of evil in the Ring (I guess none of us are Valar [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] ), and the chances Melkor got before Iluvatar finally booted his butt out like of Arda/ME like a watermelon seed, and because Gollum was on the verge of choosing Love (that's already been covered in previous excerpts from Letters) ... I'm going to say, "Yes," Gollum would be allowed to board a boat to the Undying Lands.

Excellent question!

Peace.