Who did the One Ring Try to Corrupt in The Lord of the Rings?

Q: Who did the One Ring Try to Corrupt in The Lord of the Rings?

ANSWER: Not everyone agrees that each of the major characters whom Frodo encounters in The Lord of the Rings faces some sort of test of temptation connected with the One Ring. There are certainly hints in the texts that this may be the case but the lack of sub-headings in the chapter in the form of TOM BOMBADIL IS NOW TESTED BY THE RING leads some people to doubt that the Ring was trying to tempt anyone to take it from Frodo. However, in Letter No. 154 Tolkien writes to Robert Murray in November 1954:

…The ‘wizards’ were not exempt, indeed being incarnate were more likely to stray, or err. Gandalf alone fully passes the tests, on a moral plane anyway (he makes mistakes of judgement). For in his condition it was for him a sacrifice to perish on the Bridge in defence of his companions, less perhaps than for a mortal Man or Hobbit, since he had a far greater inner power than they; but also more, since it was a humbling and abnegation of himself in conformity to ‘the Rules’: for all he could know at that moment he was the only person who could direct the resistance to Sauron successfully, and all his mission was vain. He was handing over to the Authority that ordained the Rules, and giving up personal hope of success.

Gandalf’s choice to sacrifice himself seems clearly to be one of the “tests” Tolkien refers to, but what might any others have been? Perhaps Gandalf’s refusal to seek to dominate the wills of Elves and Men was such a test — Saruman himself seems to have failed in that respect. One possible moment of temptation could have been when Gandalf assists Bilbo in bequeathing the Ring to Frodo just before Bilbo leaves Bag End for the last time:

‘You have still got the ring in your pocket,’ said the wizard. ‘Well, so I have!’ cried Bilbo. ‘And my will and all the other documents too. You had better take it and deliver it for me. That will be safest.’

‘No, don’t give the ring to me,’ said Gandalf. ‘Put it on the mantelpiece. It will be safe enough there, till Frodo comes. I shall wait for him.’

Bilbo took out the envelope, but just as he was about to set it by the clock, his hand jerked back, and the packet fell on the floor. Before he could pick it up, the wizard stooped and seized it and set it in its place. A spasm of anger passed swiftly over the hobbit’s face again. Suddenly it gave way to a look of relief and a laugh. ‘Well, that’s that,’ he said. ‘Now I’m off!’

However, the real moment of temptation seems to be when Frodo offers the One Ring to Gandalf years later:

‘But I have so little of any of these things! You are wise and powerful. Will you not take the Ring?’

‘No!’ cried Gandalf, springing to his feet. ‘With that power I should have power too great and terrible. And over me the Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly.’ His eyes flashed and his face was lit as by a fire within. ‘Do not tempt me! For I do not wish to become like the Dark Lord himself. Yet the way of the Ring to my heart is by pity, pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good. Do not tempt me! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe, unused. The wish to wield it would be too great, for my strength. I shall have such need of it. Great perils lie before me.’

This seems to be the first indication that the Ring is attempting to affect someone other than its “keeper”. Bilbo struggled to give up the Ring; Frodo seemed all to willing to give it away but in truth the Ring may simply have been trying to find a keeper more likely to take it back to Sauron. Sam, Merry, Pippin, and Fredegar could all have been tempted to take the Ring from Frodo but in reality they would have been no better as keepers than Frodo himself. The next person to face the Ring’s temptation appears to have been Tom Bombadil:

Indeed so much did Tom know, and so cunning was his questioning, that Frodo found himself telling him more about Bilbo and his own hopes and fears than he had told before even to Gandalf. Tom wagged his head up and down, and there was a glint in his eyes when he heard of the Riders.

‘Show me the precious Ring!’ he said suddenly in the midst of the story: and Frodo, to his own astonishment, drew out the chain from his pocket, and unfastening the Ring handed it at once to Tom.

It seemed to grow larger as it lay for a moment on his big brown-skinned hand. Then suddenly he put it to his eye and laughed. For a second the hobbits had a vision, both comical and alarming, of his bright blue eye gleaming through a circle of gold. Then Tom put the Ring round the end of his little finger and held it up to the candlelight. For a moment the hobbits noticed nothing strange about this. Then they gasped. There was no sign of Tom disappearing!

Tom laughed again, and then he spun the Ring in the air — and it vanished with a flash. Frodo gave a cry – and Tom leaned forward and handed it back to him with a smile.

However, not everyone agrees that this scene represents a moment of temptation for Bombadil. After all, Bombadil expresses neither fear nor desire for the Ring; and he eschews dominating other wills. It is this “pacifist” point of view, Tolkien notes in a letter, that puts Bombadil in a unique position. But though Bombadil has no interest in establishing realms and controlling other beings, he nonetheless must face the power of the Ring for even if he does not desire or seek to possess it, the Ring clearly responds to Bombadil’s presence and touch. Bombadil would certainly be able to take the Ring pretty far without being much troubled by the lesser evils of Middle-earth. And yet, Bombadil (like Gandalf before him) does not succumb to the Ring’s allure — in fact, he laughs and so may think nothing of whatever temptation the Ring provokes him with.

The next person who must feel the Ring’s temptation appears to be Aragorn. Like Gandalf and Bombadil before him he faces a moment in which he has an opportunity to take the Ring but apparently chooses not to:

Pippin subsided; but Sam was not daunted, and he still eyed Strider dubiously. ‘How do we know you are the Strider that Gandalf speaks about?’ he demanded. ‘You never mentioned Gandalf, till this letter came out. You might be a play-acting spy, for all I can see, trying to get us to go with you. You might have done in the real Strider and took his clothes. What have you to say to that?’

‘That you are a stout fellow,’ answered Strider; ‘but I am afraid my only answer to you, Sam Gamgee, is this. If I had killed the real Strider, I could kill you. And I should have killed you already without so much talk. If I was after the Ring, I could have it — NOW!’

He stood up, and seemed suddenly to grow taller. In his eyes gleamed a light, keen and commanding. Throwing back his cloak, he laid his hand on the hilt of a sword that had hung concealed by his side. They did not dare to move. Sam sat wide-mouthed staring at him dumbly.

‘But I am the real Strider, fortunately,’ he said, looking down at them with his face softened by a sudden smile. ‘I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will.’

Gandalf’s eyes flash, Bombadil’s eye gleams, and Strider/Aragorn’s eyes gleam. These are all signs that someone is being tempted by the Ring. Glorfindel and Elrond do not appear to face such a test, and that is inexplicable — but then neither do their eyes gleam or flash during any encounters with Frodo. Of all the characters who are tested, only Galadriel names the moment for what it is.  (NOTE: While Tolkien consistently uses these “alarming” or “commanding” gleaming eye descriptions for characters who are tempted by the ring, he also uses “gleaming eyes” in other contexts where the ring is not a source of temptation.  Some readers conveniently overlook the differences in context when obliquely referring to other passages where Tolkien mentions gleaming eyes, such as the mysterious glowing eyes Bilbo sees in Mirkwood.)

‘You are wise and fearless and fair, Lady Galadriel,’ said Frodo. `I will give you the One Ring, if you ask for it. It is too great a matter for me.’

Galadriel laughed with a sudden clear laugh. `Wise the Lady Galadriel may be,’ she said, `yet here she has met her match in courtesy. Gently are you revenged for my testing of your heart at our first meeting. You begin to see with a keen eye. I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired to ask what you offer. For many long years I had pondered what I might do, should the Great Ring come into my hands, and behold! it was brought within my grasp. The evil that was devised long ago works on in many ways, whether Sauron himself stands or falls. Would not that have been a noble deed to set to the credit of his Ring, if I had taken it by force or fear from my guest?

`And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair! ‘

She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.

‘I pass the test,’ she said. `I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel.’

While Galadriel’s eyes neither flash nor gleam the fact she acknowledges the test eliminates the need for subtlety. By this point in the story we have already seen that the Ring is probing the hearts of the people around it, and Frodo is moving closer to Mordor and Sauron. The next temptation occurs when Boromir talks with Frodo at Rauros:

‘Ah! The Ring! ‘ said Boromir, his eyes lighting. ‘The Ring! Is it not a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt for so small a thing? So small a thing! And I have seen it only for an instant in the House of Elrond. Could I not have a sight of it again? ‘

Frodo looked up. His heart went suddenly cold. He caught the strange gleam in Boromir’s eyes, yet his face was still kind and friendly. ‘It is best that it should lie hidden,’ he answered.

This scene later returns to Boromir’s eyes, “His eyes were shining and his face eager.” And when Boromir physically tries to take the Ring: “His fair and pleasant face was hideously changed; a raging fire was in his eyes.” The most subtle indication of a test appears in Faramir’s eyes:

‘So it seems,’ said Faramir, slowly and very softly, with a strange smile. `So that is the answer to all the riddles! The One Ring that was thought to have perished from the world. And Boromir tried to take it by force? And you escaped? And ran all the way — to me! And here in the wild I have you: two halflings, and a host of men at my call, and the Ring of Rings. A pretty stroke of fortune! A chance for Faramir, Captain of Gondor, to show his quality! Ha!’ He stood up, very tall and stern, his grey eyes glinting.

Frodo and Sam sprang from their stools and set themselves side by side with their backs to the wall, fumbling for their sword-hilts. There was a silence. All the men in the cave stopped talking and looked towards them in wonder. But Faramir sat down again in his chair and began to laugh quietly, and then suddenly became grave again.

Faramir looks very tall and stern, and his grey eyes glint. This is his moment, when the Ring tempts him. Like Galadriel, Aragorn, Bombadil, and Gandalf before him he passes the test. Only one test remains: Sam’s.

His thought turned to the Ring, but there was no comfort there, only dread and danger. No sooner had he come in sight of Mount Doom, burning far away, than he was aware of a change in his burden. As it drew near the great furnaces where, in the deeps of time, it had been shaped and forged, the Ring’s power grew, and it became more fell, untameable save by some mighty will. As Sam stood there, even though the Ring was not on him but hanging by its chain about his neck, he felt himself enlarged, as if he were robed in a huge distorted shadow of himself, a vast and ominous threat halted upon the walls of Mordor. He felt that he had from now on only two choices: to forbear the Ring, though it would torment him; or to claim it, and challenge the Power that sat in its dark hold beyond the valley of shadows. Already the Ring tempted him, gnawing at his will and reason. Wild fantasies arose in his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a flaming sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-dûr. And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be.

This scene is unique in that we actually see the temptation from Sam’s perspective. Through his eyes the reader sees that the Ring attempts to offer each target of its temptation a means of increasing its power. For Gandalf, Aragorn, Galadriel, Boromir, and Faramir that test is very powerful, for each of them wields or stands to inherit considerable power. For Bombadil and Sam, however, the temptation is more absurd, because neither desires to be other than what he is.

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