Return the Hx to the fires of Mount Doom

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, Waldo Glatisant 
<waldoglatisant at y...> wrote:

Waldo:
> I know that the Tolkein parallels in the HP epic are
> old news for the Old Crowd, but I just had a
> forehead-slapping moment when I realized the
> similarities between "The One Ring" and the
> Hinkeypunks. It was he "The One Ring" that Isildur
> failed to destroy in the fires of Mount Doom  -
> containing some part of Sauron / the dark lord / the
> one who shall not be named - that allowed Sauron to
> continue to survive as vapor and shadow in the dark
> forest - biding his time until his return to power. It
> was therefore Frodo's destiny to destroy the ring (the
> hockeypux) in order to destroy Sauron. 
> 
> The good news for our hero is that DD already
> destroyed "The One Ring."  The bad news is ... LV
> liked to accessorize ... and has more Higgley-pigglies
> out there, and our hero doesn't know into which firey
> mountains the other Horseradishes need to be shoved. 

Geoff:
I think that there are limitations to the parallels which can be 
drawn between the destruction of the Hinkeypunks and that of Colonel 
Tolkien's Middle-earth Fried Onion Ring.

First, we need to remember that Sauron was not human – and never was; 
some folk do consider that Voldemort is not human after the way he 
has changed himself, but he was originally.

Both Gandalf and Sauron were Maiar, "spirits whose being also began 
before the World, of the same order as the Valar but of less degree" 
(Silmarillion, "Valaquenta"). 

Sauron was originally a servant of Melkor (He who arises in might), 
one of the two  mightiest of the Valar. Melkor is no longer counted 
among the Valar. "From splendour, he fell through arrogance to 
contempt for all things save himself, a spirit wasteful and pitiless" 
(ibid.) When he fell and became Morgoth (The black enemy), many Maiar 
joined him. 

"Among those of his servants that have names the greatest was that 
spirit whom the Eldar called Sauron...  ...But in after years, he 
rose like a shadow of Morgoth and a ghost of his malice and walked 
behind him on the same ruinous path down into  he void." (ibid.)

Looking at the Ring, it does not perform the same task as a Horcrux; 
it is not holding a piece of Sauron's soul. "He only needs the One; 
for he made that Ring himself, it is his and he let a great part of 
his former power pass into it so that he could rule the others. If he 
recovers it, then he will command them (the other rings) all again, 
wherever they may be
" (FOTR "The Shadow of the Past").

In another section, which I trying to locate, we are told (by Gandalf 
IIRC) that if the Ring is destroyed, Sauron will lose virtually all 
his power – reminiscent of Godric's Hollow perhaps – will fall so low 
that no one will foresee him ever rising again.

So there are similarities and differences between He who must not be 
named and the One the Gondorians name not. And that is the crux of 
the matter.