we all thought it in the opening sequence to the Lord of the Rings films when iseler had cut the one ring from sar's finger and went to the cracks of Dune then turned around and walked out with it why didn't Elon just push him in and destroy the ring let's take a look hi everyone this is Robert welcome to indeep geek on this channel we cover the Lord of the Rings and tolkin wider legendarium in nerdy detail as well as other great fantasy worlds welcome I was there the day the strength of men failed it's
a great quote from the Peter Jackson films and sets up one of the big themes in those movies Humanity has the chance to do the right thing and destroy the one ring in particular isur has the opportunity to destroy the ring and fails elron leads isildur up to the cracks of Doom but isildur changes his mind he takes the ring for himself falling prey to its power Aragon then much later needs reassure ing again and again that he is not isilda he is not irrevocably destined to fall into the Ring's power simply because he is
isildur's Heir it's a great Arc for Aragon's character but it's not what happened in the books so let's go back to that moment when isildur cut the ring from sauron's finger in the books and see what happened this is what elron said at the Council of Eland alas yes said elrond isildur took it as should not have been it should have been cast then into orrin's fire nigh at hand where it was made but few marked what isildur did he alone stood by his father in that last mortal contest and by Gil gallad only Kuran
stood and I but isildur would not listen to our counsel this I will have as wear Guild for my father and my brother he said and therefore whether we would or no he took it to treasure it but soon he was betrayed by it to his death so there was no visit to the cracks of Doom no exhortation there to cast it into the fires just a conversation on the battlefield between isildur kurdan and Elon after Saron fell one that very few people witnessed but okay couldn't elron have tried to take the ring from isor
by force and take it up to the fires of orodruin himself perhaps but let's follow follow that train of thought for a moment no one else was close enough to stop isildur from claiming the ring in the first place that much is clear Eland and kurdan were close by and urged him to destroy it straight away but isildur did not listen to them so their only option would have been to take it by force on the battlefield picture the scene sauron's forces are defeated but then the elves turn on the humans attacking the king of
Gondor and heir to aror the humans with would have rushed to isildur's side it would have been horrific battle after horrific battle over who controlled the one ring and exactly what the one ring was about seeking power we don't know whether the elves or the humans would have held the upper hand in that battle you might think the elves but we know that the elves of merkwood had suffered massive losses earlier in the battle and the blood of numor still ran strong in the gondorians and anoran so a close-run thing but let imagine that elron
did manage to get the ring and take it up to the cracks of Doom in order to destroy it personally could he have done any better than isildur I think the answer is no way back in Chapter 2 of The Lord of the Rings Frodo suggests to Gandalf that they should just destroy the One Ring there and then gandal responds by simply telling him to pull out the ring and try it we read this Frodo drew the ring out of his pocket again and looked at it it now appeared plain and smooth without Mark or
device that he could see the gold looked very fair and pure and Frodo thought how rich and beautiful was its color how perfect was its roundness it was an admirable thing and altogether precious when he took it out he had intended to fling it from him into the very hottest part of the fire but now he found that he could not do so not without a great struggle he waged the ring in his hand hesitating and forcing himself to remember all that Gandalf had told him and then with an effort of will he made a
movement as if to cast it away but he found that he had put it back into his pocket gandal laughed grimly you see already you too Frodo cannot easily Let It Go nor will to damage it in the comfort of his own home before the ring has a huge hold of him Frodo tries to destroy the ring and finds that he simply can't do it Gandalf basically adds to that by saying that he wouldn't be able to do it either saying that if he had it the wish to wield it would be too great for
his strength and at the cracks of Doom the Ring's power would be at its greatest so I think we can forgive isildur for not destroying the ring no one could be expected to do that and in case you are wondering that scene at the Council of Eland in the films where gimle tries to destroy the ring with his axe isn't in the books either I love gimly but no so the film version of events where isildur had the ring is already starting to look a bit shaky in book Cannon elrond would never have said that
he was there the day the strength of men failed the strength of everyone would have failed the Ring's power was so strong it wasn't some Turning Point showing that humans are morally weaker than elves say but even if elrond couldn't destroy the ring might he have been able to push isilda into the fires of orodruin well isildur had the ring so technically get around the Ring's protective influence by tricking it in some way leaving aside whether elron could take isur in a wrestling match feel free to speculate wildly in the comments if you wish could
the Ring's ability to stop people trying to destroy it be circumvented by simply trying to mask your intention in that way I think not I did another video on whether the ring is sensient that's a whole other issue which I'm not going to get into here but it is clearly aware of its surroundings and capable of some kind of basic critical thought choosing to abandoned Gollum when it decided he was of no further use betraying isildur and so on the ring would have responded in some way perhaps by a simpler method as expanding to slip
off isildur's finger so elrond would have to pick it up if he wanted to destroy it and well you get the idea that section where Gandalf challenges Frodo to destroy the ring there and then is a masterpiece of showing rather than telling in storytelling we see Frodo take the ring out admire its beauty gather his strength to throw it into the fire then oh he actually put it back in his pocket the ring completely took over his actions to the extent to which Frodo didn't even know what he was doing until it was done perhaps
in the film version of events that's what we expected to believe happened to isildur but if so it wasn't his strength failing it was the ring showing its power you can actually make an argument and I will in a future video that isilda though by no means perfect in this and affected by the ring deserves a lot of credit for realizing after a year or so of trying that he couldn't bend the ring to his will and good purposes and then deciding that he would take it to Elon rather than keep trying to use it
himself anyway let's see what the professor himself had to say on the subject in one of his letters when discussing whether Frodo failed in some way by not being able to destroy the ring when he had the chance this is what tolken said in the last moment the pressure of the Ring would reach its maximum impossible I should have said for anyone to resist so not just Frodo anyone even elron presumably so why didn't elron just push isildur into the cracks of Doom as a way to destroy the ring because they were never there in
the books and even if they had been there there's no reason to think that elron would have even been able to do it the Ring's power in that place being so strong if you'd like to see more videos like this diving deep into tolk's legendarium there's a link to my playlist on the left of your screen or to support this channel Chanel thank you there's a link to my patreon page on the right of your screen thanks for watching that's all for this time I'll see you again soon
