[MLD-Grounds-Keeper-Willie]

The Saucepan Man

Bilbo's Dwarvish companions exhibit no particular desire for it, but then it was not at the height of its powers at that time.

Well, Sauron was not at the height of his powers, but I don't think that the ring has different levels of power. I believe that it is always at the same level. I think it was just as dangerous as it ever was and just as desirable. So, I don't think it matters. But about the dwarves. The fact of the matter is that they didn't even know about the ring. So, we don't know if they would desire it or not had they know of it.

So, if Hobbits are supposed to be peculiarly resistant to the Ring, why is Smeagol driven to murder his friend for it by the mere sight of it?

Well, as Arvedui III said,

his own personal faults that caused him to take the ring

I think that a big part of it was because of Smeagol himself. He was sort of the curious and greedy type. But I think an even bigger part of it was his knowledge of the ring. What did Smeagol know about the ring? Nothing. No one told him of the ring and its dangers or risks. It just happened to cross his path. So, the ring takes full advantage of his personal faults and his complete ignorance of the ring. And Smeagol has to kill someone in order to obtain the ring. The ring also happened to cross the path of Bilbo, who also was completeley ignorant to the ring. However, he did not have to kill anyone to obtain it, all he had to do was pick it up. So, we don't know whether he would have killed anyone to obtain it. And then with Frodo and Sam, they were both well informed of the ring and its dangers and risks so they had some more resilience to the ring. And Merry and Pippin also knew of this, so they did not attempt to take it. And the reason why Bilbo could give it up while Gollum could not was because Gollum had to kill someone for it, while Bilbo did not. So right away the ring was corrupting Gollum greatly. And secondly, Gollum had it, alone, just him and the ring, for about 500 years. And Bilbo had it for a lot less. Besides that, Bilbo was living a life, not one at the roots of a mountain all alone. He lived in full interaction with other people, so he was not alone. And he had much help from Gandalf in the fight for the ring while Gollum was all alone.

Arvedui III

A type of halfing, but not a hobbit.

You can't really say a Stoor isn't a hobbit. No one knows, except Tolkien, who happens to be dead. But it is suggested that Stoors are hobbits. They're just a little isolated and distant, but that doesn't make them any less of a hobbit. And Halfling is just another word for hobbit, it's just slang.

But welcome! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]