Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfirin
How Gandalf knows that will work I do not know (my best guess is that he read an account of the battle by Isildur or someone else that mentioned the inscription and its fading as the ring cooled, and simply worked out what would be needed to reveal it again)
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Yes, that's exactly how he knew. He reports so at The Council.
More particularly, he notes that Saruman has made comments about the Ring being "round and unadorned, but the maker had set signs on it that one might be able to read." He then deduces that, since Saruman's knowledge must have a source, and since Isulder's hand alone ever touched the Ring (other than Sauron) before it was lost, Saruman *must* have read an account by Isuldur. That leads Gandalf to visit the archives in Minas Tirith where he finds a scroll "unread by any eyes other than Saruman's and his since the kings failed" in which Isuldur reports:
It was hot when I first took it, hot as a glede, and my hand was scorched, so that I doubt if ever again I shall be free of the pain of it. The ring misseth, maybe, the heat of Sauron's hand which was black and yet burned like fire - and so Gil-galad was destroyed. Already the ring cooleth and the writing fades. Mayhap the writing would become visible again if the ring were put into a fire, but for my part I will risk no hurt to this thing: of all the works of Sauron the only fair. It is precious to me, though I buy it with great pain.
Of passing side interest, in this account, is that the Elvish king died by being grabbed and burned by the heat of Sauron's hands.
And, of course, there is the (not-too-subtle) key word that keeps cropping up through the history of the Ring, right to the moment of it's destruction ... preciooooouuuusssssssssssss <g>