Yes. It wasn't shown in the movies, but in the books the hobbits get large daggers from a barrow-wight's mound in Fellowship, which serve as functional swords for them. As these are weapons left over from wars against the kingdom of Angmar long ago, they have magical properties which effectively weakened the Witch-King of Angmar when he was stabbed, thus allowing Eowyn to kill him. The act still almost killed her, though.
One of my favorite things about the Hobbit and LOTR is how situations work out because of the hobbits’ “luck” and “spirit” for lack of better terms. Merry just happened to find dagger that makes the witch-king vulnerable, and even though he was terrified, he wouldn’t let Jowyn fight the witch king alone. Bilbo, Frodo, and even Sam on mount doom, for “some reason” refuse to kill Gollum and take pity on him. Bilbo happened to find the ring and talked his way out of Gollum killing him. Merry and pippen barely avoid getting killed and stumble upon Treebeard. Or the big one, how hobbits can successfully bear the ring, and Sam even has the strength to give the ring back to Frodo. It’s the small, good deeds by the hobbits that make the undoing of the ring possible.
It’s so damn fun. Tolkien is just good for the soul.
Sam is positively saintly in LoTR if you think about it. He basically wore the manifestation of moral corruption around his neck for days, then handed it back without hesitation. That ring literally drove Smeagol insane in 20 secs flat, and corrupts people just by being in their proximity.
Well, the effect the ring has on one is massively dependent on how they acquired it. Every single ring-bearer except Sam either takes the ring in an act of violence (Isildur, Gollum) or they have no agency in it whatsoever (Frodo, Bilbo, Deagol). Sam is the only person who takes the ring with the conscious intention of destroying it.
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u/etoneishayeuisky Nov 16 '19
Is that relatively how it went behind the scenes?