But FG, the point was that the Ring corrupts someone's pesonality to the extent that it just about creates an entirely new one. It 'steals' their former identity, which is still there, and submerges it below their new personality.

True, when Galadriel states that she will 'remain Galadriel," she's resisting the temptation of the Ring, etc., but that's just what is seen on the surface. What Eä, Sinbearer, and all of the other people who were posting here were saying is that they think that she was meaning that she will remain Galadriel instead of becoming a powerful, dark queen. She will remain who she is rather than becoming another person, in a sense.

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That's exactly what I just said.
I was saying that to an extent Galadriel's personality and everyone else who has come into contact with the ring - has been virtually wiped out.

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<center><font size="0">'Before you came along we bagginses were <i>very</i> well thought of...never had any adventures or did anything unexpected!''</font></br><a href="http://www.frodoforever.com/"><img src="http://www.hufflepuffpride.com/frodo/claim2.gif" border="0" width="200" height="120"></a>

Ah. Well, I didn't read it that way, so I guess I just replied to what I thought you said instead of what you actually said.

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Lol

Yeah - I don't think that the ring actually wipes out an identity as such though, I'm just trying to say that I think the corruption that the ring creates does that.

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<center><font size="0">'Before you came along we bagginses were <i>very</i> well thought of...never had any adventures or did anything unexpected!''</font></br><a href="http://www.frodoforever.com/"><img src="http://www.hufflepuffpride.com/frodo/claim2.gif" border="0" width="200" height="120"></a>

Forgive me for being rather dense or something, but that last bit made zero sense to me.

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Ha! So sorry about that ! I had to leave quickly, a friend turned up and I lost what I was saying lol.

What I meant to say was that I think that the ring doesn't actually take an identity and wipe it out like a sort of mind-wipe thing like the de-neuralizer on Men In Black - if you know what I'm referring to.

I meant that the power that the ring posseses creates corruption, and the corruption is embodied into another - causing a loss of identity via corruption....

Is that Clearer....:/

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<center><font size="0">'Before you came along we bagginses were <i>very</i> well thought of...never had any adventures or did anything unexpected!''</font></br><a href="http://www.frodoforever.com/"><img src="http://www.hufflepuffpride.com/frodo/claim2.gif" border="0" width="200" height="120"></a>

....so the power of the Ring creates corruption in someone, which is then embodied into another? That's what it looks like you're saying. o_O

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Hej, you hit on something I have been thinking about a lot. I think it is interesting that JRR Tolkien said that “The Power of Evil in the world is not finally resistible by incarnate creatures, however ‘good’: and the Writer of the Story is not one of us.”

If he was right, then none of the creatures in middle earth were capable of resisting evil, at least in their own strength. Each one must have been aided in their course by a power outside of self.

So I think you are right, the propensity to evil is within each of us, just waiting to overwhelm us if we make the wrong choices in our lives.



The Ring was such a bane to all involved and it certainly wasn’t without effect on poor Bilbo. His final words in the movie haunt me almost worse than anything:

BILBO: Frodo, any chance of seeing that old Ring of mine again? Hmm? The one I gave you?
FRODO: Sorry, Uncle. I'm afraid I lost it.
BILBO: Oh. Pity. I should like to have held it, one last time.

What a grip the Ring had on incarnate creatures! What kind of a power was this? It is really sad for me. So many eyes had been opened by what had just happened and here is Bilbo—it’s like he never ever really got it! I think there is a powerful lesson for us there.



Finally, as I have read over all your comments, I really think that one of the things that is consistant with what you all are saying is that the Ring steals our identity in that it take from us that person we might have become and all the good that would have come with that.

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"If you do not find a way, no one will."

Yeah - I totally agree with you there sinbearer. Hej has made a fantastic point. The ring does work in that way I think. Through the corruption it causes. That was the point I was trying to get across to Aeredir but I think I added too many funky words :S lol
(:

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<center><font size="0">'Before you came along we bagginses were <i>very</i> well thought of...never had any adventures or did anything unexpected!''</font></br><a href="http://www.frodoforever.com/"><img src="http://www.hufflepuffpride.com/frodo/claim2.gif" border="0" width="200" height="120"></a>

Ooooh. Now I get what you meant, FG.

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Lol (:
Yeahh.
Thanks to Hej for putting it better.

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<center><font size="0">'Before you came along we bagginses were <i>very</i> well thought of...never had any adventures or did anything unexpected!''</font></br><a href="http://www.frodoforever.com/"><img src="http://www.hufflepuffpride.com/frodo/claim2.gif" border="0" width="200" height="120"></a>

Or perhaps the ring is just a metaphor for that "evil" aspect of a character that you are talking about. If that was the case then people would have to kill that part of themselves or said another way, die to their dark passions and lusts (destroy it out of their lives) and embrace embrace the good. In doing that you would become a new creature. Certainly nature is full of pictures that would support this way of thinking. Like Eä said, the "evil" part of our soul would feed off of a persons strength until it was given totally over to darkness.

If a soul is ruined, what is the remedy? Will giving it an imortal body help? I don't think so. However, I an immortal body is a natural compliment for a soul full of goodness and light.

I guess if you looked at it from this way the ring would be a very real and dark part of each person that must be dealt with and destroyed. I would see each character in LotR then, in an agony of decision. Would they take the easy road and embrace their fallen nature if you will, or would they take the road less traveled--the hard path to purging themselves of it's decadence?

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"If you do not find a way, no one will."

Going with that idea, Sinbearer, each character battled temptation the whole way (which they did anyway), but not just against the One Ring, as it is written, but just against the lure of giving the responsibility over to others. After all--when we take the easy road, we (in my experience) make someone else's road harder.

It's an interesting way to look at it, really.

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