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07-10-2016, 12:23 AM | #1 |
Wight
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Hudson Valley, NY
Posts: 111
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The "Well what next?" fox and The One Ring
""Hobbits! Well what next? I have heard of Strange doings in this land but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There's something mighty queer behind this".
He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it." Well, what if he HAD found out more about it? What if the prescient Fox had come into possession of The One Ring?
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www.scottchristiancarr.com They passed slowly, and the hobbits could see the starlight glimmering on their hair and in their eyes. |
07-10-2016, 12:34 AM | #2 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 785
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I have to admit I was tempted to make this exact joke in the Treebeard thread but I thought it might come across as a bit much...
To take this unnecessarily seriously, I'm afraid to say that had the poor fox seized upon the Ring while Frodo slept, almost certainly the Ringwraiths would have found it, taken the Ring and ridden back to Mordor with it. Simple.
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"Since the evening of that day we have journeyed from the shadow of Tol Brandir." "On foot?" cried Éomer. |
07-10-2016, 12:39 AM | #3 |
Wight
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 144
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That's what happens. Or maybe this: MB |
07-10-2016, 06:32 AM | #4 |
Gruesome Spectre
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Heaven's doorstep
Posts: 8,036
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Yeah, I think the One was only a danger for Ilúvatar's Children and his created Ainu servants. Animals were immune to the One's lure.
That said, I'm amused by the thought of Goldifox, Lord of the Woody End bringing in thrall all wildlife in Eriador.
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Music alone proves the existence of God. |
07-10-2016, 07:05 AM | #5 | |
Dead Serious
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It's a silly topic, no doubt, but it's got me wondering... if it was by the hands of the small that the world was to be saved from Sauron and the One Ring, why stop at Hobbits? There are humbler creatures yet in Arda: why not have Bill the Pony or Acornamir the Forgotten Chipmunk of Ithilien as the heroes of the tale?
1. The obvious answer is that Hobbits are Children of Ilúvatar where animals are not, that they are thus more preferable instruments of Eru's will than the kelvar. 2. Another answer might be that as the power of the Rings most directly threatened the Children of Ilúvatar, so it was most appropriate that they were the ones used to destroy the Rings. 3. Or perhaps it is that the Children of Eru were the special enemies of Sauron (whose animus after all was directly more specially at them than at the whole of creation, unlike Morgoth's less focused hatred to end in the annihilation of all things). 4. Or you might say that Hobbits, as the least of the Children, represent the perfect balancing point between having something real to contribute and needing Eru's help to contribute it. Regardless, it is no doubt that case that Eru, under the following principle: Quote:
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I prefer history, true or feigned.
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07-10-2016, 07:59 AM | #6 | |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,372
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Quote:
However, given that this fox can think in complete sentences, perhaps I am underestimating its power.
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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07-10-2016, 08:18 AM | #7 |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,508
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Would you put it
in a box? Would you give it to a fox? Not in a box. Not with a fox. Not with a wizard. Not down my gizzard. I would not wear it here or there. I would not wear it anywhere. I would not wear the Dark Lord's bling. Please, no more posts about the Ring.
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
07-10-2016, 08:32 AM | #8 |
Wight
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Hudson Valley, NY
Posts: 111
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Well, it certainly offers a new answer to the age old debates of 'why didn't the eagles fly the ring to Mt. Doom?' and 'why not just cast it in the ocean?'
After all, as the saying goes, ya can't trust an eagle... To say nothing of the fishes...!
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www.scottchristiancarr.com They passed slowly, and the hobbits could see the starlight glimmering on their hair and in their eyes. |
07-10-2016, 01:31 PM | #9 | |
Wight
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 144
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Quote:
Can people really not see what is wrong with that? The "Use the Great Eagles to fly it back to Mordor" has to be one of the worst ideas I can think of with the One Ring. It's doing nothing more than delivering the One Ring to Sauron by Air-Mail. The "Cast it into the ocean" makes only marginally more sense, but it still leaves Sauron alive, and mostly "Well." And a fish could eat the thing, get caught by some hapless fisherman, who then winds up using it and we are right back where we started. As for the Fox, Tolkien mentions in several places the distinctions between "mere beasts" (animals without Fëa), and those who could speak. And he admits that this threw himself a curve-ball. And it is another case of having to reference back to those "underlying postulates" and "coherent theological and metaphysical systems" again. To begin with: How would the fox use the ring having no fingers? Is the One Ring really so accommodating that it would stay on its Paw, should it decide to "wear" it? Why am I even thinking about this? MB |
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07-10-2016, 01:41 PM | #10 | ||
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,372
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Quote:
Quote:
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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07-10-2016, 01:48 PM | #11 | |
Gruesome Spectre
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Heaven's doorstep
Posts: 8,036
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I'm sorry, but I just had to bring this up.
Quote:
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Music alone proves the existence of God. |
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07-10-2016, 01:57 PM | #12 | |
Wight
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 144
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Quote:
The Fox just having the ring and never using it might not produce the more severe effects we see upon those who actually use it. And the Nazgűl seem to have had a harder time tracking it down unless it was actually worn. I can just see the Nazgűl with a pack of Spectral Fox-hounds riding through the Shire hunting the Fox who has taken the One Ring. As for the Bacterium.... Bacteria are immortal already. And what does an "Evil Bacteria" do, even? I'll take a look at the link... MB |
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