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I'm a bit confused about another thing, though. The part where Pippin looks into the Palantir and 'converses' with the Dark Lord, Sauron says: '... This dainty is not for him to take. I will send for it at once...'
Now, if Sauron believed that this was the Hobbit, the one with the Ring, than he also believed that Saruman could not overthrow him even with the Ring. Yet Gandalf says: 'His greatest fear is that a mighty one of us stands up wielding the Ring.' The 'His' is, no doubt, Sauron. And Saruman was considered mightiest of the Istari, so these two statements seem to contradict each other. Any other opinions on the matter?
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Lathspell, I believe I might be able to clear this up for you.
I have discussed this before in another thread with some others. We came to the conclusion that Sauron's "fear" was not that he would be destroyed. It never says he's afraid of that. He's afraid of delay.
He's been trying to take over ME for so very long, and now he's so incredibly close. He's so close that he doesn't even need the ring on his hand to complete his conquest.
He's afraid of someone claiming the ring and managing to defeat him militarily, setting him back another few hundred years (or thousand years, depending on who claims the ring).
Do you think he'd have designed the ring to tempt people who were actually capable of using it to destroy him? No. Boromir couldn't use the ring to take Sauron out, and neither could Galadriel or Saruman, and some may disagree with me but I don't think Gandalf could've either. The temptation of the ring was a safety device to make sure that no one can ever willingly destroy it. His ring plot was evil genius at its best. Whoever claims the ring would eventually bend to its will (maybe some would last a hundred years, maybe someone like Saruman a thousand years, maybe Gandalf 10 thousand years). But although Sauron would still win in the end, he'd rather not have to suffer yet another defeat and wait longer to ascend to the throne of ME.
Since the time Sauron first started trying to take over the world (without Morgoth) he has "died" twice. His forces have been severely diminished on more than one occasion, but he keeps coming back while his opposition grows weaker and weaker. He's like a wave crashing upon ME, washing in again and again trying to reach his goal. In LOTR, he had almost reached it. He didn't want to suffer another washout. It's not easy to keep rebuilding a dark empire.
That's what Sauron was afraid of.
Well, I hope that helps.
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And remember that the One Ring was an instrument of deception; if a character claims he could vanquish Sauron by wielding it, that doesn't mean the claim has any merit.
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I couldn't agree more. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
[ September 18, 2003: Message edited by: the phantom ]