Gandalf: the Unilateral Coalition Builder

[davem]

Originally Posted by Eruanna

That, actually, is something that I've always wondered about. It's clear from the chapter in UT on The Istari, that Saruman knew that Gandalf had a ring of power. So why didn't Saruman try to take it from him when he had Gandalf locked up in Orthanc?

Me too.Does anyone know how easy it would be to take a Ring of Power from someone? Would it just be a matter of knocking them unconscious & pulling it off their finger? Would Saruman have risked trying to take the Ring by force? Wouldn't Gandalf have fought back in desperation? We know that if he had to he could defeat a Balrog. Its one thing to subdue & imprison him, because I suspect that neither of them unleashed their full powers in that confrontation, but I think that Gandalf decided that discretion was the better part of valour & let Saruman have that one so he could gain time to make other plans. Perhaps Saruman knew that if he tried to take the Ring from him Gandalf would have gone the whole hog, even if that meant one or both of them ending up dead.

Of course, I'm writing this off the top of my head & I may be totally wrong....