"Of all the Sauron's works...

[Fat middle]

... the only fair"

that's of course what Isildur wrote about the One Ring. that sentence came to my mind some days ago and i thought it'd do a good thread, but i'm too lazy lately to put my ideas in order, so i've been delaying it and haven't done a proper research. anyway, i'm begining it and appeling to your aid to complete it. :)

the thing is that i suddenly notice that a common device in fantasy stories is the impersonation of fair things by the evil. i mean that the evil guys often use their power to disguise under the apearance of beautiful ladies or so...

okay, there is the Annatar thing and the impersonation of Glaurung as Nienor (or was Finduilas? i can't remember now...), i don't say it never occurs, but i think it's quite rare in Tolkien books.

i think that Tolkien likes to relate beauty to pureness of soul and uglyness to rotten hearts. that sounds as maniqueism and that is something i don't see as consistent with Tolkien works.

well, i'm puzzled with that thing and i cannot even explain why :mad: i see i must put it in order :mad: help! :p

[Eruve]

Well, you can also bring Aragorn's first meeting with Frodo into this. Frodo says something along the lines that if Aragorn were an enemy in disguise, he would "look fair and feel foul", while in reality, Aragorn looks like he could be a shady character, but has an air of goodness about him.

What do you mean about Glaurung impersonating Nienor or Finduilas? I can't think of any episode where something like this happens. Glaurung lays a spell of forgetfulness on Nienor. He also lays a spell on Turin so that he can't move and rescue Finduilas from the sack of Nargothrond.

Re: Annatar. Remember Sauron eventually lost the ability to appear fair. I think that if could still have gotten away with it in the third age, he would have tried to use it to his advantage somehow. There is also an interesting bit in Morgoth's Ring which recounts how the fall of man came about in Tolkien's world. Morgoth disguised himself as a fair lord with all kinds of riches and tempted man to reject Eru by saying they could become as fair and rich as he.

[Fat middle]

Good call on Frodo's words, but don't you think the facts of the books deny that argument?

Glaurung: didn't he imitate the voice of Nienor or Finduilas? that's what i was referring to.

Very interesting that and that of Morgoth's Ring. I haven't read it so the only i could recall about Morgoth was his impersionation as a man of one of the Edainic peoples but hiddne in the shadows of the night.

[Finduilas]

I think it was Finduilas.

[andustar]

i don't remember him as impersonataing either of them, but maybe we have read different versions? i've read the one in the silma and in UT, but there might be another one in the History of Middle Earth somewhere

[Tobold Hornblower]

Isildur´s word sounds like someone really in love, because not even his own description gives away any great "fairness", does it? The beauty he saw must be from inner qualities that the Ring duped him with. It is also sursprising from the point of view that by now Isildur must have a (full?) story from the Elves of the Ring´s origin, and yet he behaves like a man whos been told that girl is nothing for him. Ah, but she´s so Precious...

[Inoldonil]

The Ring appears very fair to anyone who looks at it, because it is. It is plain, but the gold is beautiful and shiny. No doubt the evil power in it enhances the feeling for wanting it and thinking it to be fair, but it is a fair ring indeed.