The "Well what next?" fox and The One Ring

[Marwhini]

Originally Posted by Sardy

Well, it certainly offers a new answer to the age old debates of 'why didn't the eagles fly the ring to Mt. Doom?' and 'why not just cast it in the ocean?'

After all, as the saying goes, ya can't trust an eagle... To say nothing of the fishes...!

Do people really take that "Why didn't the Eagles fly with it to Mt. Doom?" seriously?

Can people really not see what is wrong with that?

The "Use the Great Eagles to fly it back to Mordor" has to be one of the worst ideas I can think of with the One Ring.

It's doing nothing more than delivering the One Ring to Sauron by Air-Mail.

The "Cast it into the ocean" makes only marginally more sense, but it still leaves Sauron alive, and mostly "Well."

And a fish could eat the thing, get caught by some hapless fisherman, who then winds up using it and we are right back where we started.

As for the Fox, Tolkien mentions in several places the distinctions between "mere beasts" (animals without Fëa), and those who could speak. And he admits that this threw himself a curve-ball. And it is another case of having to reference back to those "underlying postulates" and "coherent theological and metaphysical systems" again.


To begin with:

How would the fox use the ring having no fingers? Is the One Ring really so accommodating that it would stay on its Paw, should it decide to "wear" it?


Why am I even thinking about this?

MB