Ravenna you made a great point. I was tinking about it as I was reading all of the previous posts. Had Merry and Pippin been captured, they would have talked eventually (Pippin almost talks looking the Palantir). Knowing that the ring was coming to Mordor, Sauron would have just fortified Mt. Doom with thousands of Troops, and the ring would have been captured. Trying to prevent the capture of Merry and Pippin was the best thing he could have done to aid the quest, not to mention the honourable thing. Also, Gandalf himself mentions that it would have been a great blow if the orcs had mad it to Isengard. He mentions this to Theoden when discussing Eomer's pursuing the orcs against orders. "Members of the company, sharers of a secret hope..." is what he says.
|