Q: What Would Have Happened to Isildur If He Lived?
ANSWER: Isildur was slain by Orcs who waylaid his company of Dunedain as they marched north along the edges of Greenwood the Great about two years after the death and defeat of Sauron in the war of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. Many readers wonder what would have happened had Isildur not been slain.
Based on comments from J.R.R. Tolkien we can be reasonably certain that Isildur would have never mastered the One Ring; it would eventually have consumed him and destroyed him. We can look at Gollum’s sorry state to infer one possible fate for Isildur. He might have become an ancient and miserable king, perhaps even quite petty and murderous.
Some readers wonder if Isildur would or should have faded and become like the Nazgul. The One Ring certainly had all the abilities of the Nine Rings but it would have lacked Sauron’s specific direction. That is, the nine men who accepted Rings of Power from Sauron (which Tolkien says he corrupted to his own purposes after he seized them from the Elves) used those rings while Sauron was at the height of his power and able to monitor them from afar.
Isildur only took the One Ring from Sauron’s dead or dying body (in the book — in the movie it is Isildur’s desperate sword-stroke that slays Sauron). Sauron was thus incapable of directing his will toward Isildur and influencing his relationship with the Ring. Hence, it is conceivable (but nothing that can be proven) that Isildur might not have faded very quickly if at all.
The Elves who made the Nine Rings of Power never intended for their wearers to fade — that was Sauron’s intention and it appears that the fading required his intervention or enhancement of the rings’ corruption.
My guess is that had he lived to rule in Arnor as High King Isildur would have been driven mad by the One Ring. He might even have fled with it into the wilderness somewhere, or perhaps it might have inspired envy and jealousy among his heirs and relatives, thus leading to murder after murder as new claimants sought to take control of the Ring. Instead of surviving well into the Third Age Arnor might have become a terrible threat to Gondor and perhaps other peoples. In pursuing wars with their neighbors the northern Dunedain might have become very weak despite the Ring’s power.
I seriously doubt that Tolkien would have envisioned any safe harbor for the Ring in Arnor. The Hobbits would never have been able to migrate into Eriador; the Shire probably would never have come into existence. And it would be less likely that someone simple like Deagol the Stoor would find the Ring, setting into motion the events that led to the Ring’s coming to Bilbo.
Of course, given that Iluvatar had the final say in how things went he probably would have devised some plan regardless of what happened.
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I think Tolkien (kindly as always) contrived the best end he could for Isildur, in ‘The Disaster of the Gladden Fields’ (UT). In his last moments, after the Ring is lost, he is at last free of the pain it brings him – in some way he is “saved.”
One reason given for the journey is that he has urgent need for the counsel of Elrond – presumably concerning the Ring. Also when he abandons his surviving men (and his son Elendur) it is to bring the Ring to the “Keepers.” So he at least intends, or thinks he intends, to entrust its fate to the Wise. Are they yet wise enough? Maybe that is the untold story.