The White Council....wise? I think not

[Maeglin]

Name one thing the White Council has done right! I can't think of anything! Anyway...the real topic of this post is one question, pertaining to the following quote:

Saruman feigns that he has discovered that the One Ring has passed down Anduin to the Sea.

That's from Appendix B...
anyway, if the council was really so wise, wouldn't they have wanted some proof from Saruman? I don't care if they didn't suspect him of any evil at the time, wouldn't they still want to know for absolutely sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that something of such power as the Ring would never be found again? They seem pretty foolish to me, if they just assumed Saruman had all the answers without questioning him as to how he knew or what his sources were.

 

[Grond]

Name one thing the White Council has done right! I can't think of anything! Anyway...the real topic of this post is one question, pertaining to the following quote:

That's from Appendix B...
anyway, if the council was really so wise, wouldn't they have wanted some proof from Saruman? I don't care if they didn't suspect him of any evil at the time, wouldn't they still want to know for absolutely sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that something of such power as the Ring would never be found again? They seem pretty foolish to me, if they just assumed Saruman had all the answers without questioning him as to how he knew or what his sources were.

1) The White Council had chosen Saruman as it head (since he was the highest in the order of Wizards).
2) Saruman (not terribly long after the council was formed) had begun to covet the Ruling Ring.
3) He did everything in his power to keep the Council from doing anything productive against the power of Sauron.
4) So... yes, the White Council was fairly ineffective in their "leadership"... but this was because they had been betrayed from within by their chosen leader.
5) They did move against the Necromancer (Sauron) and cause him to flee from Dol Goldur at the end of the Hobbit.
So... they did do that.

 

[Dáin Ironfoot I]

I've always wandered why Galadriel wanted Gandalf to be the leader, but no one else did. I thought Elrond was the keen, foresighted one, so why didn't he put up for Gandalf too? Seems like Mama G is indeed wiser (and the only effective member of the Council it seems)...

I realize that Gandalf was loathe to accept a leadership and preferred to wander wherever, but maybe with more support he would have accepted?

 

[krash8765]

this is kind of off topic but why did Gandalf think that casting the ring into the sea would be perilous? Sauron was not allied with any Osse right? So why wouldnt that be a bad idea in the sake of keeping it from sauron?

 

[Maeglin]

In the sake of keeping it from Sauron it would not have been a bad idea. However, Sauron had enough power to defeat all of the forces of middle-earth without the ring; he didn't need it, he just wanted it. Gandalf wanted to keep the ring solely because they had to use the enemy's own weapon as a weapon against him, though in a way he would never imagine. Without the Ring, the free peoples of Middle-earth would not have been able to defeat Sauron. It's quite ironic really, isn't it?

 

[Ravenna]

this is kind of off topic but why did Gandalf think that casting the ring into the sea would be perilous? Sauron was not allied with any Osse right? So why wouldnt that be a bad idea in the sake of keeping it from sauron?

To add to the previous reply, let me quote Gandalf's words during the Council of Elrond in reply to the suggestion of the ring being safe hidden in the sea.

Not safe for ever. there are many things in the deep waters; and seas and lands may change. And it its not our part here to take thought only for a season, or for a few lives of Men, or for a passing age of the world. We should seek a final end of this menace, even if we do not hope to make one.

If the Ring had gone into the sea, who was to say that at some future time, it may have ended up acessible to Sauron once more, or owned by something else maybe as bad.
Added to which, the only chance to get rid of Sauron altogether, was to destroy the ring totally, not just to prevent Sauron from regaining it.

 

[Grond]

this is kind of off topic but why did Gandalf think that casting the ring into the sea would be perilous? Sauron was not allied with any Osse right? So why wouldnt that be a bad idea in the sake of keeping it from sauron?

Osse appears to have been an unknown. He could have been drawn to Sauron. Read on...

from The Silmarillion, Valaquenta, Of the Maiar,
Melkor hated the Sea, for he could not subdue it. It is said that in the making of Arda he endeavoured to draw Ossë to his allegiance, promising to him all the realm and power of Ulmo, if he would serve him. So it was that long ago there arose great tumults in the sea that wrought ruin to the lands. But Uinen, at the prayer of Aulë, restrained Ossë and brought him before Ulmo; and he was pardoned and returned to his allegiance, to which he has remained faithful. For the most part; for the delight in violence has never wholly departed from him, and at times he will rage in his wilfulness without any command from Ulmo his lord. Therefore those who dwell by the sea or go up in ships may love him, but they do not trust him.

I wouldn't want the Ring to have ended up in the Sea.

 

[Confusticated]

Maybe even Frodo could not have thrown the Ring into the sea. Too much like destroying it maybe, but for sure much like giving it away (a thing only Bilbo did... but perhaps others could have?).

Can not blame them for thinking it best to destroy it rather than hide it, since Sauron would always exist until its ruin. But I always ask this: They knew Sauron would last as long as the Ring did, and knew that Sauron was rising again, so why weren't they hoping to find it all along? Should the white council not have put the majority of their efforts into finding this thing and hoping and looking for the day it might turn up? It's a crock.

 

[Maeglin]

One would think that searching for it would be the wise thing to do, but we must also remember that the Council did not trust themselves with it. As Gandalf said, they would use it out of a desire to help others, but inevitably everything would turn to evil, and everyone on the council was too great and powerful to be risked turning to evil, they would end up just as bad Sauron. We also see 3 members of the Council refuse the offering of the Ring throughout the story: Elrond, Galadriel, and Gandalf.