Which Vala tripped Gollum?

[blantyr]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I still doubt that the Ring intended its own destruction. Think of how much pressure it was exerting on Frodo at Mt. Doom to prevent him from throwing it into the Fire. And it succeeded. I think the "will" of the Ring was to stall Frodo until Sauron could come in person and deal with the pretender. It was Gollum who was the wild card, playing the unforeseen part Gandalf had intuited.

I don't think that when the Witch King claimed, "This is my hour," that he was thinking of a cock crowing. That was the furthest thought in his mind. I don't think when he claimed "No mortal man may hinder me!" he saw Eowyn as a woman. Nor do I think all the implications of the curse "If you touch me ever again, you shall be cast yourself into the Fire of Doom" were well thought through when the curse was uttered. This would be true whether it was the Ring that was behind the curse, Frodo, or some combination of the two. In hindsight, the wording of all three curses were flawed.

In many of the exchanges of curses / prophecies that precede physical conflicts, it seems that the bad guy slips up the wording, leaving a critical loophole which the good guys, intentionally or not, end up exploiting.

It's common to encounter something similar in role playing. I played in a Middle Earth role playing game a while back. Both myself and the game master were aware of the notion of prophecies spoken before battle in Middle Earth. I was always fearful of invoking such word magic for fear I'd mess up the phrasing. Game masters are notorious for granting the letter of a wish, curse or prophecy while perverting the spirit. It seems Tolkien wrote in a similar spirit.

I also wasn't sure my character had enough Fea to speak a binding prophecy / curse / wish in her game world. Can any individual in Middle Earth, before a conflict, speak Words of Power? Or are only the Great speaking at the height of a major point of history granted the privilege?

I can't see Frodo speaking Words of Power in order to get away from some farmer without losing any purloined mushrooms. None of the conflicts my player character was involved with were on the scale of events encountered by the Fellowship of the Ring. It generally didn't feel right for Aerlinn to stand tall and issue orders to the various Servants of the Enemy she encountered. Thus, she didn't.

But she and I were aware that the possibility of speaking such Words was there.