Why did the Nazgul not succeed in Bree and on Weathertop?

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Originally Posted by alatar

Sounds like prophecy is a little too self-fulfilling and circular. Who is the intended one? The one that fulfills the prophecy. Who fulfills the prophecy? Why, the intended one, of course.

That's always the catch-22 with prophecies whenever they don't come to pass, isn't it? "Oh, it just [/I]looked[/I] like that person was the intended one. There must've been something we didn't know about that was off."

And in some ways, that is the same kind of circular reasoning that could be running through the Nazguls' heads: This hobbit is holding the Ring. We're supposed to get the Ring away from him and get it back to Sauron to make him powerful again. But as long as Sauron doesn't have the Ring... well, he doesn't have the Ring, so this guy who does have it might just be a threat, 'cause, after all, nobody else has ever actually claimed the Ring and tried to use it, so how do we know this guy couldn't just up and decide, "hey, the Ring's mine, I'm gonna use it, so I'm gonna be your new master." If he does that and he's ticked off at us for trying to kill him or kidnap him, we could be in BIG trouble....

Okay, that made my head spin... or maybe it's the sinuses....

And thanks for the welcome, alatar.