XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: steuard@slimy.com   
      
   Consider: You are Sauron, in the early stages of a war against Gondor   
   and a hunt for your Ring that has recently resurfaced. You have just   
   met an unexpected challenge from an upstart heir of Isildur who   
   somehow managed to turn the tide of battle at Minas Tirith when your   
   victory there seemed all but certain. It seems very likely that this   
   "Aragorn" has claimed your Ring and is using it (or planning to use   
   it) to challenge you. In fact, he is now leading a significant but   
   still laughably small army to *attack* the gates of your realm.   
      
   Clearly, Aragorn's plan must be to use the Ring to make this assault   
   something other than a suicide mission. He must expect to ______ ___   
   ______ _ ______ ___ ________ _______ [...]. Therefore, your best   
   response is to gather as many of your own troops as possible in Udun   
   in order to repel his assault: Orcs, Men, Trolls, and the rest, with   
   the surviving Nazgul circling overhead to sew despair in your enemies.   
   By doing this, you will be able to crush his tiny force and recover   
   the Ring for yourself!   
      
      
   So my question is, what exactly is supposed to fill in those blanks?   
   In Sauron's mind, Aragorn clearly didn't expect his army's small size   
   to be a death sentence. Thus, "Aragorn" must have expected that he   
   could use the Ring to neutralize the disparity in numbers. Was "his"   
   expectation that he could inspire his paltry few troops to superhuman   
   prowess in battle? That seems unlikely against such overwhelming odds.   
   Did "he" expect that he could paralyze Sauron's armies into inaction,   
   or even turn them to his own side? The why would Sauron sending even   
   more troops into range help? Did "he" plan to shoot fireballs or cause   
   earthquakes or something? But there's no evidence for anything like   
   that. What other possibilities am I overlooking? Also, we know from   
   Letters that the Nazgul would be unable to assault a declared   
   Ringlord, so why did Sauron send them into this conflict at all?   
      
   I have my guesses about all of that, but I'm interested in hearing   
   others' thoughts. But let's take this a step further. Once the Black   
   Gate opened and battle was joined, it was inevitably a "normal" battle   
   with no Ring influence. At what point (if ever) would Sauron become   
   suspicious that the Ring wasn't there to be used at all? If Sauron   
   thought that Aragorn had already used the Ring to influence the   
   outcome at Minas Tirith (*Did* he? I have some memory that they   
   guessed so), what could it mean that there were *no* hints of Ring   
   influence at the Morannon? (One would think that the Nazgul at least   
   would have known if the Ring was being used, or even if it were   
   present. Why didn't they tell Sauron, "Hey: the Ring's not here at   
   all!")   
      
   And imagine that Frodo had been one day farther from Orodruin when the   
   battle occurred. Isn't there a concern that Sauron would catch on to   
   the real plan once it became clear that the battle honestly had been a   
   suicidal feint? "What the heck could they have been hoping to distract   
   me fro.... Oh!"   
      
   					Steuard Jensen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)