Posted: October 09, 1999 at 13:44:13: by Michael Martinez
: : The Noldor can probably see the Nazgūl (those that have lived
: : in the blessed realm), mark their no-fear for them and the
: : Nazgul's fear of them. However, Frodo (IMO) did not vanish
: : into the spirit world (or whatever you wish to call it) when
: : putting on the ring, it merely rendered him invisible and
: : able to see this other world.: I disagree. I just read an applicable passage recently (I
: forgot to mark the cite, dammit); but it said that wearing the
: Ring made one more vulnerable to the nazgul. That would only
: occur if the wearer partially entered the wraith world. So I
: think the Ring does more than just provide enhanced ability to
: see and render the wearer invisible. : Gandalf, i think, tells Frodo that at the Ford he was partially
: in the wraith world due to his morgul wound. i think that is
: why he was able to see Glorfindel thus. I think the process of fading is hard to understand. I've always wondered how Tolkien distinguished between someone who was simply wearing a Great Ring and someone who had actually faded. Frodo was fading due to the morgul wound, but unfortunately we are only shown what HE perceives as the world grows dark and grey around him. We aren't told what the others see. Gandalf tells Frodo in "Many Meetings":
'Yes, fortune or fate have helped you,' said Gandalf, 'not to
mention courage. For your heart was not touched, and only your
shoulder was pierced; and that was because you resisted to the
last. But it was a terribly narrow shave, so to speak. You
were in gravest peril while you wore the Ring, for then you
were half in the wraith-world yourself, and they might have
seized you. You could see them, and they could see you.'
He's referring to what happened on Weathertop. This is just after Gandalf explains what the morgul-wound would have accomplished had Elrond not intervened. I would say it's clear from this text that someone simply wearing a Ring of Power (other than the Three) did not simply become a wraith. They weren't yet faded. Half in the wraith-world is not enough to make one a wraith. Yet Frodo was able to see AND interact with the wraith-world (the Nazgul could have seized him). It's not clear at all, but I would say that the bridge or threshold explanation seems to work. The Ring is sort of like a portal to the wraith-world. If you wear it long enough, you will slip across into that world permanently.
------------------
Xenite.Org: Science Fiction and Fantasy
| 
