Who would have fallen?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Mister Underhill

I think you credit the Ring too much with a mind and will of its own.

Well, its either the Ring itself, or Sauron working through the Ring. I think the latter causes many more problems in terms of explaining how it behaves - that would mean that Sauron was in touch with the Ring & so knew where it was & what it was doing.

Where do the fantasies the Ring produces arise? The Ring often behaves as if it has a mind & will of its own - its stated that the Ring decides abandon Gollum for instance, & that it slipped off Isildur's finger, that it temps Frodo to put it on, etc. Now, is all this to be understood metaphorically, or does the Ring have some kind of 'intelligence' - & if so, to what degree? How much of himself did Sauron pour into it? It seems to function autonomously too often simply to be an object of power.