Question: Why did one of the Nazgûl stab Frodo at weathertop?
lionhead
Question: Do we ever see the wraiths in their true forms?
Answer: Technically what you see is their true form after being corrupted by the rings and turned into wraiths. Before that they were simply men, you can see what is left of that when Frodo puts on the ring at Weather Top.
I thought those white ugly faces you see, when Frodo puts the ring on at weather top, were their true forms.
Yes, that's exactly right. The rings turned them into wraiths, meaning their spirits moved on to the shadow realm and their real bodies pretty much destroyed. All that's left of them under the cloaks is invisible (in the books) and only seen in the shadow realm, where Frodo enters when he puts on the ring. The danger is too that Frodo would pass into the shadow realm too if he puts on the ring too often, becoming like them.
Question: When Smeagol first sees the ring, its power drives him insane almost instantly, leading him to kill his own friend and not feel any guilt afterwards. Later it changes him physically as well, turning him into the shrivelled up creature Gollum. When Bilbo Baggins however acquires the ring it doesn't cause him to go insane or commit murder, even after he's had it for some 60 years. Frodo Baggins also holds onto the ring for a good amount of time without ever losing his mind to it. Why the difference?
Answer: The Ring's power affects everyone, but not the same way or at the same pace. We really don't know much about Smeagol or what he was like before he found the Ring, so his personality/character may have been more immediately susceptible to its influence. We do know Bilbo and Frodo are, in general, kindhearted and innocent, so they "hold out" longer before succumbing to the Ring...they both DO lose their minds to it at certain points, albeit briefly (Bilbo transforms into a monster in front of Frodo, and Frodo, spoiler alert, later claims the Ring as his own in Mt. Doom).
Answer: Smeagol was greedy for the fish that Daegol his cousin caught which had the ring in its belly. The Ring influenced him to kill Daegol and run from his home into the caves. He was the guardian of the ring for almost 600 years, so he is quite crazy when Bilbo meets him, with even the Ring warning Gollum not to touch it. Bilbo on the other hand was wholly ignorant of the Ring's influence and kept it in his pocket and only using it to hide from his relatives. Bilbo, being a bit wealthy and a Hobbit didn't have greed in him so the Ring had very little to work with. Frodo, being raised by Bilbo was the same, being more interested in smoking, food and other Hobbit activities. He was chosen by Elrond to bear the ring because it had no real effect on him or his people, given their innocence and lack of desire for power. The Ring kept Bilbo alive for over 130 years with no issues. Frodo is only overcome at the forge in Mt Doom, as Sauron's power is literally everywhere in that place.
Most of this is completely made up.
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.
16th Sep 2017
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Question: How does Sauron know Frodo has the ring? He doesn't even know who Frodo is.
Answer: He doesn't. He only knows that someone named "Baggins" from the Shire has the ring. He learns this from torturing Gollum. He sends the ringwraiths to the Shire to search for it, and they sense it enough to figure out who has it.
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Answer: Because they were trying to kill him and take the One Ring for Sauron.
Why didn't the nazgûl simply take ring from Frodo?
They tried, but they were interrupted by Aragorn.
lionhead
How was one of the nazgûl able to stab Frodo when he put the ring on at weathertop? Considering that people who put the ring on are usually invisible.
To mortal people, yes. But the Nazgûl can sense when someone is using it. Note how they immediately changed directions when Frodo put it on at the Prancing Pony.
Brian Katcher