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movie - Why didn't Gandalf say anything when he saw Bilbo's ring?


I don't know how the story is in the book (I would like to know), but in the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Thorin asks Bilbo why he came back, and Gandalf tries to evade the question after seeing Bilbo wearing an unusual ring and behaving oddly.


Shouldn't Gandalf have done more about it? Doesn't he know that the One Ring still exists?



Answer



Gandalf didn't know the ring was still around. He studied Bilbo's ring to try and learn its purpose for 14 years or so in the book and some time in the movie as well. It just took time to determine what it was.


Essentially, it took Gandalf a while to figure out what it was. During Bilbo's birthday party was the first sign he had that it was some kind of a ring of some power. He went through a fair bit of logic to figure out what it really was, first concluding it wasn't a dwarf, elf, or human ring. It looked like one of the lesser rings, but it had too much power for that. Finally, he concluded it was the One Ring.


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