XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien
From: the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm
On Thu, 28 Feb 2013 14:48:16 +0000 (UTC), Steuard Jensen wrote:
> 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
Not quite "just met" -- Aragorn challenged Sauron via Palantķr after
the battle of Isengard.
> 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" [i.e., Sauron's
> mental image of Aragorn] must have expected that he could use the
> Ring to neutralize the disparity in numbers.
Interesting speculation, Steuard -- and nice to hear from you again!
I think that's probably what Sauron thought, _if_ he thought.
Remember that Sauron's mental processes were not normal. He was
frantic to recover the Ring before someone else claimed it, and that
led him to do stupid things. Think of his warning Pippin that a
Nazgūl was on the way, thus giving Saruman time to hatch a plan of
his own. (Sauron must surely have had suspicions of Saruman's
loyalty, if for no other reason that Sauron was already a traitor to
the White Council.)
> 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?
Remember when Ar-Pharazōn's troops conquered Sauron? Sauron had the
Ring, with over a thousand years of practice in using it, but Ar-P's
army was so splendid that Sauron's own servants deserted him. I
imagine Sauron was counting on overawing Aragorn's troops, both
through a greater numerical advantage (relatively) and through
Aragorn's own inexperience with the Ring.
> 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?
You're referring to Letter 246, I imagine. In that scenario, Frodo
claims the Ring, Sauron sends the Nazgūl, and they hail Frodo as Lord
but distract him while they block up the entrance to the Sammath
Naur. With no further danger of the Ring's destruction, the
immediate crisis is past, and Sauron comes and cows Frodo into giving
up the Ring.
I don't think Aragorn (or "Aragorn") knew that, not having read
/Letters/, :-) but I'm sure Sauron did. The Nazgūl were loyal to
Sauron personally, not to the One Ring, because he still had their
Nine Rings. So Sauron would have sent them to distract Aragorn, just
in case Aragorn's troops didn't desert him.
--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Tolkien FAQs: http://Tolkien.slimy.com (Steuard Jensen's site)
Tolkien letters FAQ:
http://mysite.verizon.net/aznirb/mtr/lettersfaq.html
FAQ of the Rings: http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/ringfaq.htm
Encyclopedia of Arda: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/default.htm
more FAQs: http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/faqget.htm
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
