XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: mr@sandman.net   
      
   In article <20130106020429.C9C97EAACD@snorky.mixmin.net>,   
    Igenlode Wordsmith    
    wrote:   
      
   > > He lusted for power in the same way most people would. The ring for   
   > > him was a means for that power. I am trying to make a distinction   
   > > between Sarumen being "corrupted" simply by wanting to have more   
   > > power, and "corrupted" as an active force by the ring, which   
   > > incidentally doesn't actually seem to exercise a force to make you   
   > > want to use it for world dominantion (in spite of what Tolkien himself   
   > > says).   
   >   
   > I was interested by the change in Gollum in that respect: he *had* the   
   > Ring for a long time, but so far as we are told it never awoke any   
   > desire for world-domination in him. In fact he spent most of that time   
   > hiding from the sunlight under the mountains.   
      
   That's my point. According to Tolkien, the lust for world domination   
   is inevitable, but the person that hung on to the ring the longest   
   show us that that just isn't the case. Either that, or the   
   "inevitable" part just takes a hell of time.   
      
   Maybe that's why the ring elongates the users life? :)   
      
   > Yet after losing the ring (and learning of its true identity?) he then   
   > starts to fantasise about regaining it and becoming "Gollum the Great"   
   > and ruling according to his own, very limited capacity (having the   
   > Ringwraiths scared of him for a change, having as much fresh fish as he   
   > wanted) -- just as Sam is tempted according to his own nature with the   
   > prospect of returning Mordor to a fruitful, fertile country.   
      
   Neither of which amounts to world domination, or even "evil". The   
   feeling of empowerment, or the prospect of empowerment may have been   
   part of the rings lure - but apart from (maybe) Isildur, the entire   
   "lust for world domination" part of the "inevitable" ring lure seems   
   to exist only in Tolkien letters, not in the actual story.   
      
   > What puzzles me is that Gollum apparently never felt this before: he is   
   > the one creature who did successfully(?) possess the Ring, but that   
   > possession certainly never brought any of the power to him of which he   
   > now dreams.   
      
   Nor did it for Bilbo or Frodo. Bilbo were addicted and slightly   
   obsessed with the ring over the course of sixty years. Frodo handled   
   and carried the ring for about a year and was ultimately "corrupted"   
   by it in that he wanted it for himself rather than to destroy it - not   
   that he sought world domination. I.e. his relationship to the ring   
   very much echoes Gollums relationship with it. At that point, Frodo   
   very well might have killed to keep on to the ring, which could be   
   called evil in the same way a drug addict turns to crime to be able to   
   afford drugs. But not a hint of world domination or wielding the   
   "power of the ring".   
      
   > The most likely in-story explanation is probably that the power of the   
   > Ring -- and its ability to tempt -- had grown vastly since it was last   
   > on Gollum's finger, either with the strengthening and/or heightened   
   > attention of its Maker, or with its increased proximity to its origins   
   > in Mordor...   
      
   That's very likely. Sauron, having thought the ring lost, sends his   
   agents for it when he knows it exists in the world. His grasp for it   
   may very well strengthen the inherit "lure" of the ring. It's really   
   the only valid explanation that it got hold of Frodo so "quickly"   
   wafter having done practically nothing to both Gollum and Bilbo apart   
   from a severe and slight obsession with it.   
      
      
      
      
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