What if Gandalf Took the One Ring? Theory (Updated)

[Music] well if you want my ring yourself say so quite bilbo but you won't get it i won't give my precious away i tell you his hand strayed to the hilt of his small sword gandalf's eyes flashed it will be my turn to get angry soon he said if you say that again i shall then you will see gandalf the grey uncloaked he took a step towards the hobbit and he seemed to grow tall and menacing his shadow filled the little room all was still in that room of bag end on that fair september day of 3001 of the third age of the world i'm not trying to rob you i'm trying to help you gandalf said to his friend who of old aided in the retaking of erebor from the dragon smaug gandolf had known of bilbo's magic ring for some time but had only begun to wonder about its nefarious powers and history more recently my friend you have had that ring for long enough let it go i shall look after it for i fear the power and danger of this ring is greater than you or i know in saying this gandalf's own ring narya gave some of its power to bilbo some of its strength of courage and warding off of despair for indeed gandalf was trying to help his friend bilbo still wondering if gandalf wanted the ring for himself in the depths of his heart wanted also to give up this burden that had weighed on him since his adventure 60 years before bilbo took the envelope with the ring in it and attempted to place it on the mantle above the fireplace but his hand jerked back and it fell up on the floor gandolf then stooped and picked it up and anger came to the old hobbit but it passed just as quickly goodbye for the present bilbo said gandalf and the two bade their farewells and the hobbit was off back on the road for more adventure yandolf's smile faded as he watched the hobbit go off into the quiet shower night but he looked back at the envelope in his hand he thought he could almost hear the ring call by his true name genov went to the fireside and took the ring out of the envelope and he pondered it for some time he did wonder could this be the lost ring of sauron the seal door's bane if it was would it not bring the greatest danger to the shire to the hobbits whom gandalf loved so much gandalf's pity strengthened in him by nienna of the valliere was great then for it was unfair he thought that this burden should also go to frodo bilbo's air and he would have to carry it no my heart tells me that this is a matter for the wise i will bear this burden until the council can decide what should be done gandalf spoke this to himself in the darkness of the night beside the fire the next morning he bade farewell to frodo into the other hobbits telling frodo that he had matters to attend to concerning bilbo's ring if frodo gave him permission to take it which of course the hobbit did having always trusted the wizard all of his life gandalf rode with haste to rivendell the ring in one of his bags he would not draw it forth until all of the wise were gathered for even then doubt and fear about its safe keeping began to nod his heart especially concerning saruman for many decades gandalf had wandered at sauron's intent did the white wizard seek the one ring for himself and so it was that in the fall of that year gandalf came to the last homely house east of the sea and lord elrond called together a great white council galadriel and caliborn came from lorien saruman from isengard kierdan from the sea lorfendel and others from rivendell among the wise as well when the meeting began the head of the white council and the order of the astari started off many are the minor essays in the craft of ringlord gandolf the grey i do hope you have not gathered us here for nothing and that your guess that this ring may be a sealed bane is not unfounded rather than in your incomprehensible love for the halflings gandalf shook his head and placed on a table of carving stone the golden ring though his hand could only take leave of it through great effort of will gandalf began his tale of what bilbo had told him of this thing how the hobbit had taken it from gollum and where he did how he had used it during the quest of erebor and so forth for indeed bilbo had aged little because of this ring but his anger and greed over the ring had grown fierce to behold gandalf spoke of the ranger he and alrond knew too well strider and how he had sent word to strider to pursue the creature golem so that they might learn much from him when he was finished gandalf sat back down in his seat the white council was silent before long glorfendell asked mithrandir have you put the ring on yet and discovered for yourself its effects surely those here who bear the three elven rings would know if one of your power wore the ruling ring if it is indeed a ring of minor lore it would mean nothing however there's also great risk involved if it is so i would caution against such an action at this saddumon had a dark expression in the white wizard's mind he guessed too that this was the one ring but out of jealousy of gandalf he feared that the grey fool would seek to claim it i am the head of this order it should be me to test this ring galadriel quickly interjected no saruman this does not belong to you and it is not your burden to bear gandalf of any of us has the power to restrain himself from indulging its power and must be the one to put it on if the council decides it is wise galadriel struggled to say this for her naldorin ambitions made her desire the ring as well if it was the one the fury on sauron's face was not so well hidden but he knew then if he tried to get the ring he would have to fight the entire white council to get it as for elrond and kirdan they remembered back to the war of the last alliance and they did believe it was the one ring but they did not know for certain for the markings upon it which they had seen when a sealed or picked it up had faded the wise discussed what options they had such as sending the ring into the west or the ocean or giving it to tom bombadil but just as the council of elron discussed in the original timeline such alternatives would only delay the inevitable or put them in a situation worse than what they were in the immortal beings they were would have to deal with the one ring someday no it was decided then that gandolf should attempt the ring and within a moment they would know if it was the one ring indeed then he would take it off and they would take more counsel to decide a future course of action and to try to figure out how to destroy it and so it was that gandalf the grey there in nimbladris took bilbo's ring and placed it on his finger and the world was changed good council now became an active and powerful force sauron in baradur was instantly aware that a challenger gandalf mithrandir al-orin was wearing his ring and that now sauron might not know victory but his ring would elrond galadriel and gandalf himself the three bearers of the elven rings then knew the might of sauron's spirit channeled through the wizard who was of the same race as sauron and so they were ensnared from atop mount tanequitil in the west manway and varda saw a new cloud of darkness fall upon middle earth as their servant had failed in his task within gandalf a great power had awoken but yet he still wore narya and was himself a kind and gentle spirit and off saw a vision of the lands of middle earth where people were compassionate and took pity on one another by threat of force the dark tower would be thrown down and mordor would be cleansed and gandalf would oversee middle earth and order all its folk to his liking for he was more powerful than any that walked the earth but he was not alone for galadriel and elrond the bearers of the two other rings were also now under his sway and were inspired by gandalf for the inspirational and courageous powers of the ring of fire narya were only enhanced by the ruling ring for they knew it to be that gandalf looked fair to them no longer old and grey but young and full of heavenly light a king of the vanyar the highest of elves and akin to aeonwei the herald of manwe did he seem to gladdrill and elrond but to kierdan who was the furthest seeing of all elves saw the image of evil that gandalf would truly become sauron was frightened that gandalf had taken the ring for himself and he would attempt to leave the meeting but gandalf commanded him to sit with the power of his voice reinforced with his new possession saruman i did not say you could go gandalf's voice was powerful to behold and those of weak will might have fallen into despair to hear it my friends this is the one ring indeed and it is ours we shall take the fight to sauron now just as we did when he hid in dol guldor all those years ago but this time we shall destroy him utterly and rip out the dreadful foundation of baradur so he may not ever return let us prepare our forces and i shall ride to airborne the north and gondor in the south to ensure the armies of our allies saddam on you shall rally the men of rohan under the banner of isengard elrond glorphone dylan gather the dunadine rangers and all your folk from here to linden the ladreel and caliborn gather the galatreem and the elves of merkwood in one year's time our great army shall sunder the black gates of mordor and throw down the dark tower indeed it was pointless to resist the will of gandalf the ringlord for the power of the one ring and narya as well as now the forthright power that he revealed of his my our kind was great sadoman's spirit of resistance broke and even he submitted to the will and power of gandalf kirdan would attempt to remind gandalf of his true purpose saying that he was only meant to advise the free peoples but gandalf could not accept that he believed sauron could only be defeated through force like melkor being defeated in the war of wrath in the elder days and so it was that a year went by and in 3002 of the third age the host of the west was assembled outside of mordor indeed this was years before sauron would have been ready to make war and he knew that he would not have a chance of victory not in this way even the nazgul had been dominated by gandalf and his command over the one and they were released by his mercy and allowed to accept the gift of a louvitar and die therefore so even as gandalf led the armies in the name of the valar sauron's forces threw open his own gates and sauron himself and the weak physical embodiment he had came forth and surrendered before the mighty wizard gandalf was wary of this but indeed he still had pity for that was always a core element of gandalf's being something that drove him he had pity for myron who of old he knew in the early days of the world sauron was thus taken into custody and elrond galadriel and gandalf together threw down the dark tower of baradur and green would come there once more gandalf thus ordered the world to his liking and his compassion made the world seem fair but the ring of sauron and sauron himself made it feel foul aragorn was made the king of gondor and arnor gollum was left in the wild gandalf just as it always was with him never made a permanent abode but he wandered the lands ordering things to his will sauron was at first held as a prisoner in lorian but gandalf and the one ring would come to him from time to time and ever sauron's councils were in the ears of gandalf before long gandolf and his advisor sauron would wander the world together and the shadow fell upon middle earth one that it could never escape gandalf nor the elves under his tyranny would ever go west and his policies became stricter and more tyrannical as time went on lands would be conquered in his name and rule men who arose against him to be free would be put down and the fire would spread even aragorn king elessar of gondor and arnor and theoden king of rohan would attempt to slay gandalf with their armies in the wild but they would be put to the flaming sword and they would be shown the true power of gandalf the maya and the lord of the rings gandalf's compassion and pity would be lessened and lost over the years and though sauron had lost he had won for just as he corrupted numenor and its men he corrupted middle-earth and all its folk and before long gandalf's hatred was turned to the lords of the west those who had told gandalf in the beginning to restrain his power before he went to middle earth the influence of gandalf and the one ring could be seen in all lands the shire not the least and the fires that spread there made gandalf realize if only slightly the terrible things he had done in wanting to save frodo and the other hobbits from this burden he doomed them to thrall them and fire kiridan and any who yet opposed the will of gandalf left the shores of middle earth bringing word to the valar in the west of the happenings in the east so it was the valor knew middle-earth was lost and in trying to defeat sauron they had sent another dark lore to take his place for though the ring of sauron ever wanted to return to its master it was its master's will to bring tyranny to middle earth through gandalf until such a time as he would be defeated and sauron could arise anew as it was in the war of wrath the only thing that could defeat gandalf at that time was the direct intervention of the west or as it was with numenor the direct intervention of iruluvitar and so we come to the end of our theory about what if gandalf had taken the one ring from this theory of what if gandalf had taken the one ring we see that sometimes advice and good counsel are more powerful and good in the long term than force or outright action hey everyone joist in here and i hope you all are doing well wherever you are in middle earth i hope you all enjoyed this theory remake it is one that i've wanted to remake for some years and i am glad to have finally done it as an extra video for you all since i've had some spare time on my hands i believe this updated telling is far more true to what would have happened than what i made before and i'm more confident to have published this one but let me know your thoughts would it have happened like this or some other way let me know in the comments below this theory is particularly sad because gandalf is one of the most good and moralistic characters in all of the legendarium particularly because he doesn't force his will upon anyone he only offers good advice and wisdom and inspiration to help others but nevertheless i hope you all enjoyed this theory it was fun to make to further support the channel please check out our music channel facebook twitter merch and patreon for podcast and discord server all those links are in the description below ryan and i just did a podcast on how the timeline of middle earth matches up in the lord of the rings online and we discussed many other topics and recent news as well so please check that out if you're interested on our patreon i want to shout out our val our two patrons adrian de la tour chris orton or peter shepard jonathan putnam mark crawley blair scout and tobias gold new ryan ramsey adam rick merton john hume tom bombadil reggie93 chip slade and jennifer wood thank you all so much and thank you to all of my patrons finally don't forget to subscribe and hit that bell button to join the men of the west and all of the free peoples today and i will see you all again sunday with that video on the sorrowful kinslings of the first age everyone thank you all so much for joining me on this extra adventure until the next one my great friends

Channel: Men of the West

Views: 68,627

Keywords: Yoystan, Men of the West, Tolkien, Lore, Gandalf, Theory, One Ring, Sauron, Galadriel, Saruman, Middle-earth, Wizard, Istari, Lord of the Rings

Id: sxqBter7CRw

Length: 15min 36sec (936 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2021