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tolkiens legendarium - They defeated a ring-bearing Sauron once, why couldn't they do it again?


Why did everyone believe that if Sauron reclaimed the One Ring the world would succumb to him, just like that?


Didn't he already fail twice in attempts at world domination, and once even while wearing the One Ring?



Answer



Elrond and Boromir (at the Council of Elrond) lay out a few good reasons why it's imperative that Sauron's ring is destroyed now;


He'll just keep coming back



His Ring was lost but not unmade. The Dark Tower was broken, but its foundations were not removed; for they were made with the power of the Ring, and while it remains they will endure.




The Alliance that defeated him the last time is now totally untenable



Many Elves and many mighty Men, and many of their friends. had perished in the war. Anárion was slain, and Isildur was slain; and Gil-galad and Elendil were no more. Never again shall there be any such league of Elves and Men; for Men multiply and the Firstborn decrease, and the two kindreds are estranged. And ever since that day the race of Númenor has decayed, and the span of their years has lessened.



Sauron is already more powerful than ever before



We were outnumbered, for Mordor has allied itself with the Easterlings and the cruel Haradrim; but it was not by numbers that we were defeated. A power was there that we have not felt before.


Some said that it could be seen, like a great black horseman, a dark shadow under the moon. Wherever he came a madness filled our foes, but fear fell on our boldest, so that horse and man gave way and fled. Only a remnant of our eastern force came back, destroying the last bridge that still stood amid the ruins of Osgiliath.




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