How to take a Ring from an unwilling Ring-wielder? - crazy ideas

[CAB]

I guess I missed something somewhere, but why did whether or not Aragorn had complete knowledge of the barrow blade become such an issue? We don’t know that he looked at it prior to Weathertop, do we? He probably wouldn’t recognize it immediately after the Nazguls’ attack either. It was dark, the blade hadn’t actually hit the Witch King, and he had other things to do and think about.

I personally think Aragorn had to have some knowledge of the blades. Later, when he had time to look at them, he probably recognized them. If Denethor knew that they came from the North, then Aragorn probably did too. When he spoke of ‘bane of Mordor’ later, he may have just been trying to save time by not giving a long explanation. Again, he had other things to think about and do. Mordor was the center of evil during the Lord of the Rings, the Nazguls’ master lived there, so what he said was close enough to the whole truth, considering the situation.

As far as the barrow blades being the only thing that can destroy the Nazgul, I don’t buy it. If this was true, the Nazgul would be all but unbeatable late in the Third Age. Gandalf also said that neither Aragorn, Gimli, or Legolas had a weapon that could hurt him. Wasn’t Aragorn carrying a blade that was almost certainly very similar to the one that “killed” Sauron? Maybe when he said this and that the Nazgul couldn’t be killed by arrows, Gandalf was referring to their abilities to be rebodied. I would guess that any being with a physical body could have that body harmed by normal physical means (stronger beings would be less affected than weaker ones, of course), mystical weapons just did it better. I agree with Gordis that the barrow blades were most likely made specifically to deal with the Witch King (but would probably affect the other Nazgul the same way).

Originally Posted by Landroval

If, despite the textual evidence, your persist in your personal interpretation, fine by me.

I don’t understand what you are saying here Landroval. It is clear that the Ring often forces (or tries to) its bearer to put it on. This sometimes happens when no Nazgul are present, as Gordis pointed out. Also, if the Nazgul had the power to command Frodo, why have him just put on the Ring? Sure, that made it easier for them to see him, but why stop there? Why not command him to drop his sword, leave the fire (which they feared) and his friends?