Middle-earth Mysteries

[alatar]

Another questioned popped into my head, listening to the Flight to the Fords chapter. Frodo, at the end, is almost over into the wraith world. I think that the text states that the ringwraiths no longer needed their horses to see Frodo as they could see him. So two things came to mind. What if Elrond wasn't able to remove the splinter of the Morgul-knife that had lodged in Frodo's shoulder and Frodo subsequently succumbed to the wound?

I guess that Elrond and Gandalf could take the Ring from the disembodied spirit. Could they 'trap' the wraith Frodo to keep him from going to Mordor? How would they hold him?

And would this tragedy aid the enemy, beyond the killing of the Ringbearer? Could the wraiths use Frodo as a spy? And would he retain some 'claim' to the Ring?

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by alatar

Another questioned popped into my head, listening to the Flight to the Fords chapter. Frodo, at the end, is almost over into the wraith world. I think that the text states that the ringwraiths no longer needed their horses to see Frodo as they could see him. So two things came to mind. What if Elrond wasn't able to remove the splinter of the Morgul-knife that had lodged in Frodo's shoulder and Frodo subsequently succumbed to the wound?

I guess that Elrond and Gandalf could take the Ring from the disembodied spirit. Could they 'trap' the wraith Frodo to keep him from going to Mordor? How would they hold him?

And would this tragedy aid the enemy, beyond the killing of the Ringbearer? Could the wraiths use Frodo as a spy? And would he retain some 'claim' to the Ring?

I imagine that he would have been drawn to Mordor - - - without the Ring. The Fellowship would have been Eight? Merry seems the most likely after Frodo somehow. A certain gravitas in that Hobbit that always impressed me, compared to Pippin and Sam. Not that Sam wasn't serious; but there was something just a wee bit more - um - elvish (?) about Merry compared to P & S..... really flying off the top of my head here....

[MatthewM]

Sorry that this doesn't have relevance to the discussion, but does anybody else find the idea of The Blue Wizards starting magic cults cool?

[The Sixth Wizard]

I read somewhere since then that Morgoth devoted some of his power to Sauron, giving Sauron a fair share of Iluvatar's gifts, and Saruman never had this, so my opinion has changed on this topic I'm afraid...