LotR - Prologue

[Saraphim]

Define "poorest". To me this conjures up just-a-little-smaller-than Number Three Bagshot Row (See Tolkien's watercolor of The Hill) which has two windows, one door, and a contract with the upscale neighbor for earning bread.

Like you said, Mark12_30. While poor, perhaps, the lower-class hobbits were not badly off. Especially if they had a neighbor such as Bilbo, who well, let's see:

~gave both the Gaffer and Samwise jobs as gardeners, despite his own proclivity to gardening. He could just as well have done it himself. And probably more hobbits too, for cleaning and the like.

~Paid them well

~Question to the rest of you: did Bilbo actually own Bagshot row? If he did, he gave hem free housing. If not... well then disregard this.

~Like it was mentioned earlier, Sam apperantly had free reign where the beer stores were concerned

~And Bilbo taught Sam to read and write, something he would not have had the opportunty to do otherwise.

So things can't have been all bad. I simply can't picture a permenently homeless hobbit.

Hence, 'Good' and 'Evil' are not co-dependent, it is 'Evil' that is dependent and proceeds from 'Good'. But 'Good' exists in its own right and does not need 'Evil' to do the existence

I'll agree with that as well. It takes a good person (eg. Frodo) to remain uncorrupted for so long, by something that would be so easy to put on.

I have a cheap little copy of the Ring that I always wear around my neck. I constantly have it subconciously on a finger. And it's not even evil and whispering to me.

More on this when we get to the end, but Frodo was indeed, good. As was Bilbo, Boromir and probably Isildur. The Ring, obviously an evil object, corrupted them all.

And look at Smeagol. He was corrupted by the Ring almost before he set eyes on it. I don't think he was a very good person to begin with. This is just my opinion, now. I've got no proof behind it, other than the fact that he was under the influence of the Ring before anyone else was.

But Evil contains the seeds of its own demise. When Sauron made the Ring, he made himself stronger, and capable of controlling others. But he also made something that could be easily lost and destroyed. And, indeed, it was.

If not for the Ring, Sauron may never have been destroyed.