isildur and the ring

[ainur]

Forcing him would have broken him. Though he only had it for a short amount of time, they were on the slopes of Mount Doom, where the Ring was at it's most powerful. It no doubt took an immediate hold of his mind. Tolkien said somewhere (I think in one of his letters--I don't have them, I read it here on the 'Downs) that no one in Middle Earth could voluntarily destroy the Ring. Forcing him to destroy it would have wounded his soul beyond healing, as it did Frodo. Taking it from him in order to destroy it would have done the same to him as it did to Gollum--driven him mad. And then you'd be back in the same boat. Neither Elrond nor Cirdan had the strength to cast it into the fire either. It could only be destroyed the way it was--by accident (with a little push from Iluvatar.)