[Aiwendil]

Kuruharan wrote:

Now you're going to have to explain how that is possible. Having a will implies direction and a certain level of independence. Having direction implies having some ability to make choices.

I don't know whether it's possible. But this is a fictional world.

But surely we can speak at times of "mindless desires". As I see it, the Ring certainly did have desires - chief of which was probably to return to Sauron. It willed that it return to Sauron. But I don't think this implies a decision to return to Sauron. Rather the Ring willed it, and sought it, simply because that's what the Ring does; that's what's in its nature.

Of course, all this is really tangential to Davem's initial question, which I think is very interesting in its own right: is the determination to reach Mt. Doom Frodo's or the Ring's? I had always thought it Frodo's, but now I'm not sure.

Davem wrote:

This has me wondering about the Ring-inspired fantasies of Gandalf, Galadriel, Boromir & Sam, et al. Where do those fantasies arise? Is the Ring putting those specific fantasies into their heads, or are they creating the whole thing themselves - what I mean is, is it a case of 'If I claim the Ring I can do X', so that the power trips are invented by the individual? Which would mean that Gandalf & the rest on some level had thought about doing some such thing anyway. Sam actually had those power fantasies already on some subconscious level, rather than the Ring constructing that fantasy & putting it into his head.

Another interesting question, and one that again bears upon the nature of the Ring. It's related to the whole internal vs. external issue that Shippey discusses in Author of the Century. And what I'm tempted to say in answer to this is what I'm tempted to say about that issue: that, in a strange way, it's both. The Ring is, in my view, both a source of evil, with a will and power of its own, and a "psychic amplifier", a mirror that reflects one's darker self. So I see both an active temptation on the part of the Ring and a passive amplification of Gandalf's/Galadriel's/Boromir's/Sam's own weaknesses. Now, I don't know whether Sam had literally fantasized about power before the Ring incident; I doubt it. But I do think that the capacity for such fantasy was inherent in Sam, and this is what the Ring drew out.

A stray thought that occurs to me as I'm writing this: of all the characters who hold or use or are offered the Ring, Frodo seems to be the only one who doesn't have some power fantasy about using it. Now, obviously, Frodo is not immune to the effects of the Ring. But all we see in terms of its effect on him is his unwillingness to give it up and the weight and strain that it eventually begins to put on him. Not until Mt. Doom is there any suggestion that Frodo has even considered the possibility of really claiming and using the Ring - which (and sorry I'm jumping ahead here) makes the eventual climactic scene all the more shocking and powerful.