Who would have fallen?

[Lyta_Underhill]

True enough, and I've never disputed that -- though I suppose I could by pulling out that well-thumbed Eru quote: "...no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined."

Well thumbed, indeed! I think I made reference to it earlier obliquely (the "better to have been" thought). The conclusion is, of course ambiguous and no conclusion at all: these evils that have wrought good unintentionally may have been part of Eru's plan, the theme unaltered in his despite, but still remain evil. A contradiction? Perhaps, perhaps not. "Evil will shall evil mar" also follows in this line of thought. And we come to the inevitable question of whether evil as such was part of Eru's original plan or not...and so on, ad infinitum.

Or, we could apply set theory to the problem (without using symbols, since I can't remember them):

Sauron=Evil
One Ring=Subset of Sauron
One Ring=Evil

Of course, I am being reductionist and a little silly, but I had fun. I hope you had fun reading it! Just thought: you could substitute the characteristic "Sentient" for Evil and I guess you'd get the same relationship. The real question is "what characteristic parts of himself did Sauron transfer to the Ring, and how do these characteristics interact with the non-Sauron bearers?

Cheers!
Lyta