[Kuruharan]

um,mm having too much fun w/Bilbo to drop off and find a bearer who really knows the meaning of Power? see - thats whats bugging me

Ultimately, it wanted to return to its master, not just any crumb bum. You could hardly expect it to start announcing itself to Gandalf. That wouldn't have done at all.

OK, the sentience and will of the ring is there....to what end? survival? Is the ring's pupose is to return to it's master, or just have a bearer?

Well, obviously, as is stated a number of times, the Ring wants to get back to Sauron. It is an old part of Sauron that wants to be with the rest of him again.

All we have to go on are the lives of the bearers post Sauron. From that, I dont see any of the ring's will, I see the effects of bearing the ring.

In what way? Isildur chopped the Ring. The Ring got Isildur killed (note especially how in the Gladden Fields section of the UT the Ring "was still laden with Sauron's evil will and called to all his servants for their aid."). Unfortunately, since the Ring was just a ring, it did not have a whole lot of control over where the body hit the deck (or in this case the drink). It takes awhile for something to happen. Unfortunately, when it does, it is rescued by a hobbitish creature who (while certainly an unpleasant person) is in some ways resistant to the pull of the Ring. It may also have taken the Ring a long time to decide that Gollum would ultimately be of no use to it. When it abandons Gollum it is picked up by...another hobbit! (Imagine the Ring's frustration...) This other hobbit travels in the company of this dangerous and unpleasant wizard and the hobbit won't wear the Ring that much. Then when the wizard leaves they are tromping through this forest on an elf (shudder) path, and the hobbit is not giving the Ring a chance to pop off. When Bilbo does put the Ring on he is in danger of being eaten by spiders and probably has his fingers curled around Sting so the Ring can't work its way off. Then the next time Bilbo wears the Ring for a long period of time they are in an elf (shudder) kingdom. That would be the last place the Ring would want to abandon Bilbo. By the time Bilbo gets out of the Woodland Realm, Sauron is hightailing it eastwards and the Ring probably figures "why bother, better to just lay low for a bit."

Many years pass.

Sauron has returned to Mordor and Bilbo is about to go off into the Wild. This is perfect!

Oh crrrap! That silly wizard intervened and now I'm still stuck here and this new hobbit won't use me at all.

And so on and so on...

I imagine there is a lot of fodder for a “Very Secret Diary of the Ring” here if one wanted to press matters.

Kuruharan, I appreciate your views, and how you explain them! I see where you are coming from, but I just aint getting that from my read.

I see no reason to think that the Ring was not sentient and, in fact, have a body of textual references to back my point. And so we are now back at the bottom of post 48.