'Who' is claiming the Ring in each case, then? Frodo & Isildur's bodies, as their minds were no longer present? When did the 'real' Frodo & Isildur disappear, to be replaced by puppets, moved & inspired to speak by the Ring? So, we have the Ring in each case 'claiming' itself. Its the Ring that says 'I do not choose to do what I came to do. The Ring is mine.' This 'I' & 'mine' is the Ring referring to itself? But the first sentence would then imply that the Ring itself came to the Fire to destroy itself, but at the last minute changed its mind. No, Frodo is saying 'I came here to destroy the Ring, but now I've changed my mind, & I'm going to keep it'. As did Isildur. Both knew, on some level, that it was wrong, but it was too hard to resist. Whether that's a 'moral failure' depends on how you look at it. I would say it is a 'sin' in William's sense of the term:
'Sin is the preference of an immediately satisfying experience to the declared pattern of the Universe'.
As long as we understand 'immediately satisfying' in this situation as the avoidance of terrible suffering. In the end, the question is, is it Frodo who is speaking those words at the Sammath Naur?
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