Question: Did Gandalf know that Elrond let Isildur have the ring?
Phixius
16th Nov 2017
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Question: This question has been bugging me and I hope someone can answer this for me. I remember hearing that Viggo Mortensen did not want to reprise his role as Aragorn in the Hobbit movies, saying that the time between Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit would not make sense. Yet when I was watching LOTR there is a scene where Elrond says he was there 3000 years ago with Isildur (father of Aragorn?) to destroy the ring. Then, another scene where Arwen tells Aragorn he is not like his father. So, if Aragorn's father died 3000 years before LOTR, how old is Aragorn? It seems he's either too young for his father to have been around then, or old enough that he could appear in The Hobbit without any time issues. Can someone please explain this one?
Chosen answer: Viggo Mortensen meant that Aragorn was a child during the time of the Hobbit. Isildur is not Aragorn's father (his father's name was Arathorn), Isuldur is Aragorn's long-ago ancestor. This is why Aragorn is referred to numerous times as "Isildur's Heir" rather than "Isildur's Son."
Question: Why did Bilbo decide to leave the Shire?
30th Nov 2013
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Question: The narrative for this franchise takes place over thousands of years, yet Middle Earth is always in a medieval stasis. Has any reason been provided as to why Middle Earth never advances technologically?
Chosen answer: The presence of real magic in the world, and the fact that evil demi-gods and sorcerers keep trying to destroy it every few thousand years, makes technological advancement an endeavor no one sees much need for. Saruman makes some advances in it at Isengard, and in the novel the Shire had been very industrialized by Saruman's takeover when the hobbits return home to it.
10th Aug 2010
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Question: When the Fellowship are on the side of the mountain and arguing about which direction to take, Gandalf says "Let the ring bearer choose". Why does Gandalf say that? He knows that Frodo has enough on his plate, what with taking the ring all the way to Mordor, so why add to his problems by making Frodo decide the way to go?
Answer: Because, like it or not, he's the leader of this quest. Gandalf is only a guide; Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas, and Gimli are Frodo's guardians, while the other three Hobbits are simply companions. Besides, Frodo's the one carrying the increasingly burdensome ring. If he thinks one path easier than another then that's his call.
Question: In the prologue to the movie, Galadriel states that the ring has been forgotten, but Galadriel herself was around during the historic war against Sauron, and Elrond encouraged Isildur to throw it into the lava in Mount Doom, and there's even a mural in Rivendell of Isildur cutting the ring from Sauron's hand, so obviously the ring has not been forgotten. What gives? It can't be that "forgotten" means "believed now only to be a myth" ("History became legend; legend became myth") because Elrond and Galadriel (and countless other elves) would know that the ring wasn't a myth because they were a part of the earlier events. Nor can it be that Galadriel is referring to general history when she says, "For none now live who remember it," because she is not extemporizing on the nature of history, she is specifically referring to the ring: "For two and a half thousand years the ring passed out of all knowledge." Not just men's knowledge, or dwarves' knowledge, but all knowledge. Similarly, Gandalf has been in Middle-Earth for "300 lives of men", but Gandalf has to look up the story of the ring in historical papers; how did such an epic and giant war escape his notice?
Answer: Elves usually count themselves out of affairs like this, preferring to keep to themselves. It was a man who took the ring, so it is a man's tale until the elves choose to involve themselves again. And Gandalf is well aware of the war that saw the supposed defeat of Sauron. He's researching the historical documents looking for any clues, any seemingly irrelevant yet ultimately useful minutia, he may not yet be aware of.
Your answer doesn't make any sense. She says has fallen out of all knowledge. Whether or not elves prefer to keep to themselves doesn't change that they have knowledge of the ring.
The ring was deemed lost for good, eventually those that were there forgot it existed (or could still exist) untill the dark shadow over Mirkwood and later Mordor jolted their memories.
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Answer: Yes. It was Isildur's by right, having been the one to shear it from Sauron's hand and thus defeat him in combat.
Phixius ★