Isildur

[William Cloud Hicklin]

In his final hours, Isildur shows two kinds of weakness. He refuses to even consider passing the Ring to another, even to preserve it from the Enemy or to save his son

Consider however the observation made at the Ford of Bruinen: as soon as Frodo with the Ring took off, his companions were safe; the pursuers' target was the Ringbearer, no-one else. And although common orcs would hot have had the Nazguls' finely-tuned Ringdar, nonetheless T tells us in DGF that the attack occurred, and was as fierce as it was, because the Ring exerted some sort of pull on them, even though they did not recognize what it was. In other words, the best way for Isildur to have saved his men's lives was to leave them.

As for giving Narsil to his squire: if Isildur was contemplating E&E, he wasn't going to be lugging four feet of broken sword with him.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

. In other words, the best way for Isildur to have saved his men's lives was to leave them.

That isn't what he did, though. He ran for his life and left them in contact with the enemy, knowing their leader had abandoned them (and, per the specific statement that his son knew about the Ring, mostly they /didn't / know why he left).

Nor did the Orcs follow him - from DGF we know that he completely evaded pursuit, and was eventually just killed by random guards who were spooked by his sudden appearance.

hS