Skip to main content

tolkiens legendarium - Why didn't Sauron find Bilbo when he put on the ring like Frodo?


When Frodo put on the One Ring, both the Nazgul and Sauron himself found Frodo. However when Bilbo had the ring and possibly used it many times, Sauron sought Gollum to get a hint on where to look for the ring and send the Nazgul after it.


Sauron sought Gollum before Bilbo wore the ring at his birthday party, slightly after that time, he was very effective at locating Frodo when Frodo put on the ring. So I guess it's not a matter of Sauron gaining any extra powers with time.


Also Bilbo seemed to use the ring without it bothering him at any point, unlike Frodo who seemed to be very troubled when using the ring. How is that possible?



Answer



Sauron doesn't find Frodo when he puts on the Ring.



In the narrative of LotR Frodo puts on the Ring 6 times:




  • In the House of Tom Bombadil: Sauron doesn't find Frodo.

  • In the Prancing Pony: Sauron doesn't find Frodo.

  • On Weathertop: Sauron doesn't find Frodo, but Frodo puts the Ring on in the presence of the Nazgul who are then able to physically harm him.

  • On Amon Hen: Sauron doesn't find Frodo; Frodo's gaze is drawn towards Barad-dur, Frodo feels the Eye, and only at that point does Sauron become aware of Frodo.

  • At the Breaking of the Fellowship: Sauron doesn't find Frodo (it's significant that this is only moments after the previous time).

  • At the Cracks of Doom: Frodo claims the Ring for himself and then Sauron becomes aware of him.


This is not including an unspecified number of times when Frodo may have worn the Ring between Bilbo's party and the Shadow of the Past.




In the above list there are only two times when Sauron is aware of Frodo: the first time is after Frodo explicitly goes looking for Sauron, and the second time is when Frodo is in the heart of Sauron's realm and claims the Ring for his own.


It's very significant that the first of these times happens on Amon Hen, the ancient Numenorean hill of seeing:



He was sitting upon the Seat of Seeing, on Amon Hen, the Hill of the Eye of the Men of Númenor.



And that immediately afterwards, when Frodo resolves to leave the Fellowship, he puts the Ring on again without any similar difficulties. This makes it clear that the Hill and Seat of Seeing were an influencing factor in what happened first time round.


As for the second time:



And far away, as Frodo put on the Ring and claimed it for his own, even in Sammath Naur the very heart of his realm,the Power in Barad-dur was shaken, and the Tower trembled from its foundations to its proud and bitter crown. The Dark Lord was suddenly aware of him...




It should be clear that it's not putting on the Ring that was the main factor here (although it was still a very dangerous thing to do at this particular place), but rather Frodo's claiming of it.



So to answer your questions:



  • The Reason why Sauron doesn't find Bilbo when he puts on the Ring is because putting on the Ring isn't enough for Sauron to find you.

  • Sauron was not effective at finding Frodo; Frodo wore the Ring at least 4 times (out of 6) without Sauron finding him.


  • Frodo's troubles when using the Ring occur in very specific circumstances:



    • in the Barrow (where despite temptation he doesn't use it)


    • in the presence of the Nazgul (where he only used it once: on Weathertop)

    • on Amon Hen, and only at the very end, after Frodo had explicitly gone looking for Sauron

    • at Orodruin, in the heart of Sauron's realm, after claiming it for himself.




  • Otherwise Frodo can use the Ring without trouble - in Bombadil's house, at Bree, at the Breaking, and a possible unspecified number of times in the Shire - in just the same manner as Bilbo did.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...
Post a Comment
Read more