XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: psperson1@ix.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Mon, 05 Nov 2018 14:24:47 -0800, Barry Schwarz    
   wrote:   
      
   >It is repeated several times in The Silmarillion that the Valar could   
   >not remove the Gift of Ilúvatar from Men.  So how is it that merely   
   >possessing the One Ring, not necessarily wearing it, could postpone   
   >the inevitable indefinitely.  The ring contained no power that was not   
   >inherently Sauron's to begin with.  And he was only a Maia.   
      
   But a Maia is not a Man.   
      
   He does not /have/ the Gift of Ilúvatar, and so there is nothing to   
   postpone.   
      
   He disappears at the end for one of two (or more) possible reasons:   
      
   1. Without the Ring he is, in fact, Nothing.   
   2. He has to be called back to the West to go there, and he wasn't.   
      
   #2 has the advantage of applying to Saruman as well.   
   Feel free to add other possible reasons!   
      
   >How is it that wearing one of the Nine could do the same.  It was   
   >fashioned by Elves with presumably even less power.   
      
   As the other poster pointed out, for mortals, the rings mere stretched   
   out their life. To little butter over too much toast, as it were.   
   --   
   "I begin to envy Petronius."   
   "I have envied him long since."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)