Who delivered the final blow?

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Gollum, snrk.

Sauron was never a giant eye, but it's true that he couldn't maintain physical form at the Siege because it had been sliced and diced by our heroes.

One point: The passage reads "Then Sauron was for that time vanquished" after a sentence including the terms "Sauron also was thrown down" and "Isildur cut the Ruling-ring", so there is no basis in saying that this "vanquished" line supports one or t'other.

the phantom makes a good point (*gasp*) when he says that maybe there was no final blow before Sauron decided to leave his body.

In The Council, Elrond tells that "Sauron himself was overthrown, and Isildur cut the Ring from his hand..." This seems like good support for not choosing Isildur as the one who delivered the 'final' blow, which I read as that blow which crippled Sauron's body.

Fordim, you should have made it a choice between Isildur and Elendil/Gilgalad. Once more you have incurred pettiness at the structure of your polls. You'd think you would have it sorted by now.

[Tuor of Gondolin]

I was going to abstain, but a key is the improbability of
the very questionable PJ depiction of Sauron losing the
Ring. More likely is the Ring being cut off of a finger, with
that obviously only practicable when Sauron was "dead."
therefore, Elendil/Gilgalad seems the choice, with it
being relatively unimportant which one technically got the
last "killing" blow in. But since Isildur claimed the Ring
as weregild I'll opt for Elendil.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

My, my, that is an excellent point Tuor. I can vote now.

[Farael]

More likely is the Ring being cut off of a finger, with that obviously only practicable when Sauron was "dead."

I beg to differ as he could have been incapacitated as well. You don't need to be dead to be helpless! I do agree that the depiction of the scene shown in LoTR The Movie is a little off... because we know Sauron lost ONE finger and the only way to hack the ring finger off someone is going through either their little finger or their index and middle finger! Unless, of course, the person carrying the ring tries to point his ring finger at the other (which, if you try, you'll find is VERY awkward)

Yet that does not mean that Sauron was beyond recovery. His physical body was inhabited by a VERY STRONG soul and therefore one could think that he could recover from many things a human could not and yet the soul chose to leave the body after the ring was cut off. That is, at least, what I understand from the books. So as I said before, Isidur and Elendil might have incapacitated Sauron, but loosing the ring is what made his soul leave the body.

[bilbo_baggins]

Really it seems to me as some people dislike Isildur himself and his character. I believe that Isildur delivered the "final" blow and that no-one delivered a killing blow because a child of Illuvatar cannot really destroy a Valar or Maiar with simple weapons. Later, Sauron is destroyed because of the destruction of the Ring, so he could be ~vanquished for a time~ by merely losing the Ring in the Last Alliance. So I voted for Isildur.

About Isildur's character: His behaviour after he acquired the Ring is very poor indeed, but I believe that this is because of his being weak-minded. He had noble intentions beforehand. He, after all, was the one to curse the Dead Men of Dunharrow, and through discussion on that, Isildur had to have either inherent power to curse or the Valar deemed him worthy enough to go through with the action. Obviously, Isildur actions were only a result of his owning the ring.

Admitted: His claiming the Ring because of his father's killing the Dark Lord is possible. Convincing, convincing.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

So you think Sauron was broken by Isildur cutting his finger off as opposed to Elendil and Gilgalad stabbing him all over his body?

If Isildur took Sauron's ring then Sauron would just take it back, only in this case he couldn't because he was already dead.

Hypothetical situation: Imagine Sauron with the One Ring was going about on Mount Doom and Frodo, say, snuck up and pinched it off his finger—would that have killed him? Of course not, and the situations aren't too different. Are they?

[Farael]

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

So you think Sauron was broken by Isildur cutting his finger off as opposed to Elendil and Gilgalad stabbing him all over his body?

We have no evidence of such thing happening. We don't really know that Elendil and Gil-Galad stabbed him all over

If Isildur took Sauron's ring then Sauron would just take it back, only in this case he couldn't because he was already dead.

Already said, he didn't need to be dead, just incapacitated. And you don't even know that, perhaps the shock of loosing the Ring did destroy his Physical body. After all we know that for the Ainur it is a strain to have a body, perhaps when he lost the Ring he lost the ability to mantain his physical form (until he was able to re-group his strenght and come back again)

Hypothetical situation: Imagine Sauron with the One Ring was going about on Mount Doom and Frodo, say, snuck up and pinched it off his finger—would that have killed him? Of course not, and the situations aren't too different. Are they?

How do you know? perhaps it would have, if as I said before, by loosing the Ring he momentarily lost the ability of having a physical form it would have "killed" him indeed. Note that he wasn't really dead, he just lost his physical form.