Elendil's Sword and Sauron's Ring

[drigel]

Lots of good posts here on a stimulating subject. A pity there was no prose laid down by the bards for this critical and heroic fight. Here be my 2 cents - hack away if you desire.

Gandalf gave the impression that even the elf-lord did not have it in him to face all the Nine Nazgul at a time, nor be able to storm the Dark Tower (i.e. take on Sauron).

My IE would conclude that Glor could not storm the Dark Tower (legions of orcs/trolls, arrows, catapults, big rocks et al), the referenced passage says nothing to me about a one on one with S.

Both Gandalf and Elrond admitted that there was nobody on ME that could challenge Sauron if he was to come at the end.

Well, Olorin sayed he feared Sauron before he was sent over the pond, but perhaps Manwe had stats that said otherwise, regardless of the intended mission for Olorin. Fear would be a factor, but who knows, given some kind of hypothetical level playing field...?

So why couldn't Sauron, and his physical body, be subject to a mauling by Gil-Galad and Elendil, a powerful Elf and a powerful Man, even with the Ring of Power? It doesn't seem too far-fetched.

Agreement, considering Sauron's state (post Numenor) at the time.

Like Firefoot's inference, nothing black and white can be drawn straight from the Council of Elrond. My take from the body of work still isnt congruent with the movies. My conlcusion is still thus:

Nothing I remember accounts for any damage from either Aiglos or Narsil (or any weapon Sauron had or had not). I infer that either minor wounding or nothing at all occured before the weapons broke asunder (before or after the deaths of their owners).

I may be all alone here, but I recall nothing as to the exact surface temperature of Sauron. Deadly hot yes, but not instant evaporation if they layed hands on him. The few precious minutes that a valourious High Elf and King of men had, could -and would have been enough to do a choke hold, break a neck, fracture bones, crush vertebre etc etc a 'la Greco/Roman style. Even more valorious if they knew that their laying hands on Sauron would mean the end of their lives. Not pretty, but ultimately the highest order of physical contests between combatants, IMO. No aids or handicaps. Just struggle. Yea sure, its all very ugh-ugh caveman (Conan of Cimmeria anyone?). But what could be more heroic?
Possibly Gil-Galad's pretty shield upside the head could cause a concusion or contusion... hmm

Finally the Ring. I still conclude that this was cut off the hand after the struggle. At the very least the work never referenced the Ring as being the lynchpin of the fight (off comes the ring and *poof* S dies and, oh yea btw, E and GG die too).