If you had the Great Ring on your finger

[Exonerate]

If I had it....................The Girls locker room would be in trouble.

Oh yeah... Most definately

[Next of Kin]

If I had it....................The Girls locker room would be in trouble.

Oh yeah... Most definately

Would you make them shower without any soap?

[Crown]

And Sauron was more terrified of someone destroying the Ring, not using it. That's what all of his fear of various people in ME was based on.

No, the thought that they were going to destroy the ring never entered Sauron's mind AT ALL. This is stated unequivocally stated by Gandal the White in TTT, just after he meets up with Aragorm, Gimli and Legolas. Read the book.

[The Prime Necromancer]

Okay. According to Tolkien, one of the primary reasons that Sam and Frodo managed to get that far into Mordor without being noticed was because Sauron *wasn't* expecting someone to attempt to destroy the ring. According to Tolkien, with the outlook Sauron had, he could not comprehend anyone attempting to destroy something that could give them such power.

His prime fear, as others have said, is that someone would take the ring, claim it for their own, and use it against him. Now, not just anyone could do this. Only the most powerful beings with the strongest wills in Middle-Earth (Gandalf, Saruman, Galadriel, maybe Elrond or Radagast) would even have a hope with such a course of action. The ring would not have put any of them under Sauron's power, but because of the inherent evil in the ring, it would have corrupted them and essentially made the person into another Sauron. In one of his letters, Tolkien says that if he had taken the ring Gandalf *probably* would have been able to move directly against Sauron and defeat him. He adds that Gandalf was the only one with any decent chance.

The movie sort of clouds this by adding lines such as "The one ring answers to Sauron alone."

[Keevan_Colton]

Okay. According to Tolkien, one of the primary reasons that Sam and Frodo managed to get that far into Mordor without being noticed was because Sauron *wasn't* expecting someone to attempt to destroy the ring. According to Tolkien, with the outlook Sauron had, he could not comprehend anyone attempting to destroy something that could give them such power.

His prime fear, as others have said, is that someone would take the ring, claim it for their own, and use it against him. Now, not just anyone could do this. Only the most powerful beings with the strongest wills in Middle-Earth (Gandalf, Saruman, Galadriel, maybe Elrond or Radagast) would even have a hope with such a course of action. The ring would not have put any of them under Sauron's power, but because of the inherent evil in the ring, it would have corrupted them and essentially made the person into another Sauron. In one of his letters, Tolkien says that if he had taken the ring Gandalf *probably* would have been able to move directly against Sauron and defeat him. He adds that Gandalf was the only one with any decent chance.

The movie sort of clouds this by adding lines such as "The one ring answers to Sauron alone."

That is pretty much my stance....
The ring was forged by evil with evil intent......it was made to bend the power of the other rings to the bearer's (sauron) will, not to warp the one bearing it to obey Sauron....it is an item of incredible power.....and you know the old saying.....power corrupts....

Gandalf etc might have been able to use its power to oust Sauron....but as he himself said....he would use it to do good....and through that desire to use it......become the new dark lord......trying to bend the world to his will and desires.....

[XPViking]

So basically, most everyone here would end up like Gollum? That would make sense since most of us are just regular people. I wonder what would happen if someone, such as the president of a country, a CEO, or a large charity founder put on the ring. I can't remember the exact quote, but I seem to recall that Galandriel telling Frodo that if one had "dominion over others" then more power from the ring would be available. I'm not saying a person from this Earth would suddenly start casting fire, but certainly there might be those who are more kingly in stature like Aragorn, with the potential to cause more harm.

XPViking

[His Divine Shadow]

Not sure if this has been done before (a search gave me a "general error") so I apologize if is has. Anyhow, what do you think would happen to you if you put on the Ring of Power (LOTR)? Remember, the Great Ring is able to affect the user according to his stature.

XPViking

I would flip out

[Dalton]

Merely possessing the ring, even seeing it, is enough to be affected by its power (Boromir). If I actually possessed it however, I'd probably use the power at first to, say, sneak into shower rooms or porn shoots or something.

Eventually I would use it to command an army of mutant bagpipe-playing potatoes to take over the world.

[Ted C]

Not sure if this has been done before (a search gave me a "general error") so I apologize if is has. Anyhow, what do you think would happen to you if you put on the Ring of Power (LOTR)? Remember, the Great Ring is able to affect the user according to his stature.

Having neither a wise wizard to protect me from the Nazgul nor a a hobbit's pastoral sensibilities to protect me from the Ring itself, I suspect I would be dragged kicking and screaming to Mordor rather quickly.

[Slartibartfast]

With my luck, when I put the Ring on I'll get a BSoD.

[Bartman]

Well of course none of us would have a choice in the matter if we actually had the ring. The ring would corrupt us and give us abilities according to our natures and desires. Eventually it would either abandon us, leaving us like Gollum or we would end up handing it over to Sauron. No person alive could ever hope to control the thing.

Here are Tolkien's thoughts on the matter, from Letter 246

In any case a confrontation of Frodo and Sauron would soon have taken place, if the Ring was intact. Its result was inevitable. Frodo would have been utterly overthrown: crushed to dust, or preserved in torment as a gibbering slave. Sauron would not have feared the Ring! It was his own and under his will. Even from afar he had an effect upon it, to make it work for its return to himself. In his actual presence none but very few of equal stature could have hoped to withhold it from him. Of 'mortals' no one, not even Aragorn…

<snip>

Of the others only Gandalf might be expected to master him - being an emissary of the Powers and a creature of the same order, an immortal spirit taking a visible physical form. In the 'Mirror of Galadriel', I 381, it appears that Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and supplanting the Dark Lord. If so, so also were the other guardians of the Three, especially Elrond…

<snip>

One can imagine the scene in which Gandalf, say, was placed in such a position. It would be a delicate balance. On one side the true allegiance of the Ring to Sauron; on the other superior strength because Sauron was not actually in possession, and perhaps also because he was weakened by long corruption and expenditure of will in dominating inferiors. If Gandalf proved the victor, the result would have been for Sauron the same as the destruction of the Ring; for him it would have been destroyed, taken from him for ever. But the Ring and all its works would have endured. It would have been the master in the end.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I retract my incorrect statement that Sauron was terrified of someone destroying the Ring. It's been about five years since I've read the book, and I've mostly been reading the History of Middle-earth recently.

However I still believe that no matter who used the Ring, it would eventually fall back into Sauron's hands.

[Next of Kin]

I retract my incorrect statement that Sauron was terrified of someone destroying the Ring. It's been about five years since I've read the book, and I've mostly been reading the History of Middle-earth recently.

However I still believe that no matter who used the Ring, it would eventually fall back into Sauron's hands.

You're right as that was the ring's intention...to get back to its master aka Sauron. Now what would happen if the new bearer was more powerful than Sauron? Would the ring stay with its new master?

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I don't think there was anything in Middle-earth as powerful as Sauron. Not even the Istari are at his level.

[Balrog]

I don't think there was anything in Middle-earth as powerful as Sauron. Not even the Istari are at his level.

The Istari were only barred from using their powers to directly contest Sauron, perhaps Saurman or Gandalf the White certainly could have bent the Ring to its will.

[Next of Kin]

I don't think there was anything in Middle-earth as powerful as Sauron. Not even the Istari are at his level.

The Istari were only barred from using their powers to directly contest Sauron, perhaps Saurman or Gandalf the White certainly could have bent the Ring to its will.

Could they? The only character who seems to be unaffected by the lure of the ring was Tom Bombadil but that is because the ring had no mastery over him.

[Balrog]

I don't think there was anything in Middle-earth as powerful as Sauron. Not even the Istari are at his level.

The Istari were only barred from using their powers to directly contest Sauron, perhaps Saurman or Gandalf the White certainly could have bent the Ring to its will.

Could they? The only character who seems to be unaffected by the lure of the ring was Tom Bombadil but that is because the ring had no mastery over him.

It's speculated

[Spanky The Dolphin]

IIRC, Sauron is, if not the most powerful Maiar, is one of the most powerful. The Istari don't seem to be very exceptional in nature, except that Olorin was regarded as the wisest of those that made up the Istari.

[Johonebesus]

Sauron is not as powerful as you might think. Spiritual beings were weakened by taking corporeal form. The best example is Morgoth. In the beginning, he was the most powerful vala, but after spending millennia bound to a physical body, he was cast down by Manwë's herald, who would have been a maia. Sauron may have been one of the greatest of the maiar, but he was defeated by a magical but mortal hound once. Elendil and Gil-Galad wrestled him to the ground, and Isildur was able to cut the ring off. It seems to me that Sauron's power was not the magical fire and brimstone kind as much as the power to command and bend others to his will. When bound to a body he wasn't that strong, and when pure spirit he was not able to interact with the physical world.

As for the Istari not being remarkable in nature, Gandalf was able to defeat a balrog (another maia) despite having a weaker body.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I don't recall Tolkein saying anything like that.

[Next of Kin]

Sauron is not as powerful as you might think. Spiritual beings were weakened by taking corporeal form. The best example is Morgoth. In the beginning, he was the most powerful vala, but after spending millennia bound to a physical body, he was cast down by Manwë's herald, who would have been a maia. Sauron may have been one of the greatest of the maiar, but he was defeated by a magical but mortal hound once. Elendil and Gil-Galad wrestled him to the ground, and Isildur was able to cut the ring off. It seems to me that Sauron's power was not the magical fire and brimstone kind as much as the power to command and bend others to his will. When bound to a body he wasn't that strong, and when pure spirit he was not able to interact with the physical world.

As for the Istari not being remarkable in nature, Gandalf was able to defeat a balrog (another maia) despite having a weaker body.

Yes, Morgoth lost much of his power in his corporeal form but alot of his power was used trying to taint middle earth and thus he spent it.