From: mr@sandman.net   
      
   In article , Paul S. Person  wrote:   
      
   > > Sandman:   
   > > So Gollum hides in a dark pool under the lonely mountain for about   
   > > five hundred years, killing off goblins and eating fish.   
   >   
   > > After this time period, Sauron starts to return to Middle Earth   
   > > and calls for the ring, which "decides" to leave Gollum. Gollum   
   > > loses the ring in one of the tunnels, with the only concievable   
   > > reason for being picked up by a goblin, the only other creatures   
   > > around.   
   >   
   > > The reason I'm thinking about this is because Gandalf says that   
   > > Bilbo was meant to find the ring. While there is no way to know if   
   > > Gandlaf could even know this to be true, it seems far more likely   
   > > that Bilbo was NOT meant to find the ring. Indeed, Bilbo finding   
   > > the ring worked against the ring's "wishes" in that it was unable   
   > > to subvert Bilbo to any greater degree and Bilbo took the ring   
   > > further away from Mordor.   
   >   
   > > And in the beginning of the movies, the Galadriel narration says   
   > > the exact opposite - "Then something happened that the ring did   
   > > not intend" when Bilbo finds it. I've always felt that this was in   
   > > stark contrast to Gandalfs position (also in the movies), but I'm   
   > > starting to see why this is the more likely scenario.   
   >   
   > Perhaps it was not the intent of the Ring to which Gandalf was   
   > referring when he says that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring.   
   > Perhaps it was the intent of Someone Else altogether.   
      
   Yes, that is the consensus, but it rhymes badly with the fact that the ring   
   does have its own will, so mixing in fate and/or divine powers seems odd to   
   me.   
      
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