Current Events > why didn't frodo just fling the one ring into the cold dark void of space?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It would have, if it could have.

suchiuomizu posted...

More importantly, it would mean Sauron wins and conquers everything. The whole reason they did something as desperate as they did was the point was made over and over, the victory of the Last Alliance could not be repeated. While they might win a few battles, winning a war with Sauron was no longer possible. Hiding the Ring beyond his reach, without destroying it, would not change that.

My lords, said Gandalf, listen to the words of the Steward of Gondor before he died: You may triumph on the fields of the Pelennor for a day, but against the Power that has now arisen there is no victory. I do not bid you despair, as he did, but to ponder the truth in these words.

[] Hardly has our strength sufficed to beat off the first great assault. The next will be greater. This war then is without final hope, as Denethor perceived. Victory cannot be achieved by arms, whether you sit here to endure siege after siege, or march out to be overwhelmed beyond the River. You have only a choice of evils; and prudence would counsel you to strengthen such strong places as you have, and there await the onset; for so shall the time before your end be made a little longer.

Then you would have us retreat to Minas Tirith, or Dol Amroth, or to Dunharrow, and there sit like children on sandcastles when the tide is flowing? said Imrahil.

That would be no new counsel, said Gandalf. Have you not done this and little more in all the days of Denethor? But no! I said this would be prudent. I do not counsel prudence. I said victory could not be achieved by arms. I still hope for victory, but not by arms. For into the midst of all these policies comes the Ring of Power, the foundation of Barad-dr, and the hope of Sauron.

Yeah, this is something a lot of people overlook. Sauron was going to win. The Ring gambit was a desperate last attempt on the part of the good guys.

Sauron wasn't even worried about the Ring being destroyed, the thought didn't even cross his mind. It's why Mount Doom was unguarded. His only real worry was that someone like Gandalf or Galadriel would take the Ring.

Why didn't the ring just roll to Sauron?

Why didn't the ring just roll to Sauron?

Does that mean hes not really destroyed? Would he be able to regain what he lost?

I know this topic isn't entirely serious, but it is funny how Tolkien seemed to think about people going "well what if they did this or that?" about the ring and coming up with an in world logical explanation as to why that wouldn't work.