Chapter 0: The One Ring is Found
KilroywasNOTHere
"BEEP!"
Summary: By sheer chance, Frodo and Sam fall into the river after the skirmish at Amon Hen and are captured by a force of Mordor orcs. With the One Ring found and returned to its true lord, the two hobbits fear the worst. But as one cannot judge a book by it's cover, not all things are as they seem, and some things are not always so black and white.
Author's note: I originally gave an idea of how the Lord of the Rings more morally gray or nuanced, so I thought maybe I could try to make a story out of it.
Now let me say I am no Tolkien; I'm not going to pretend to be Tolkien. I'm doing this mainly for fun and as a sort of writing challenge. I'm mostly taking from the movies though I may pull stuff from the books as well as the Shadow of Mordor series That being said I'd still l some critique as I still want the story to be entertaining. Maybe if it's good enough I can use it as a foundation for an original story. (Hey if worked for E. L. James...)
Disclaimer: Lord of The Rings is property of the Tolkien estate
Frodo felt his arms and his shoulders throb as he continued to roll across the Great River of Amon Hen. The weight of the One Ring did not help manners. it seemed like the closer they edged to Morder the more suffocating the One Ring felt, yet for one reason or another he could not bear to take it off. In a way, it was precious to him.
"Come to me little Hafling I have such sights I can show you."
Frodo felt his eyes grow heavy.
"Come to me...come..."
"Mr. Frodo?"
Frodo felt himself almost immediately snap back to reality as he gazed upon the face of his companion Samwise.
"Are you alright Mr. Frodo?"
Frodo gave a fake smile, but he could only keep it for less than a second. "It feels so heavy." He moaned as if his very soul was grieving.
"Hang in there Mr. Frodo." Sam assured. "Soon we will get to Mordor will destroy that cursed ring, and we'll go back to the shire. We'll have a nice little adventure that we can tell all our friends back at the Green Dragon inn, just like your uncle Bilbo."
"Just like Bilbo..." Frodo spoke but his voice gave a weary inflection, as if he was distant or his soul was overstretched, like butter spread over too much bread as his uncle would say. "It feels so heavy...so...so... Frodo found himself falling out of consciousness as his body slumped and toppled over the lifeboat and into the waters below.
"Mr. Frodo!" Sam shouted and plunged headfirst into the water instinctively trying to save his friend. It was only after his body touched the water did, he remember that he couldn't swim. Desperately he flailed his arms only to lose consciousness himself.
Meanwhile in the distance, the heavy steps of Mordor orcs could be heard. After the failure of the Nazgul to retrieve the one ring on Weathertop, Sauron had sent a squad of his best orcs to chase after the fellowship in hopes of retrieving the hobbits before the white wizard had managed to do so.
They were led by one of his prized Captains, Oga the Great Eater. Much larger than most of her peers both in stature, strength, and girth, she was one of Sauron's best Captains and had followed him from the beginning as she was among those who were originally elves and one of the few females of her kind to fight in war. following the creature Gollum, she had managed to track the fellowship to the river but had ordered her men to fall back while the fellowship and the forces of the white hand were in a skirmish.
Now the way was clear. The Ranger Elf and Dwarf chased after the uruk hai who had captured two of the hobbits and the captain of Gondor was nowhere to be found. The question now was where the other two hobbits were.
Leaving the trees, she signaled her troops to follow slowly. "Search the area." She commanded. "They couldn't have gotten far."
"Shouldn't we be chasing after them other two?" one of the grunts asked. "If they have the ring, then it's as good as in the hands of the white Wizard if we don't intercept them."
"They don't." Oga assured.
"How can you be so sure?"
"Call it a hunch. Besides, the Heir of Isildur and his friends are chasing after them. They'll be fine."
"Captain Look," an orc named Grogut shouted pointing to a boat washed up against the shore. Next to it was the crumpled form of two hobbits, neither were dead, but they were certainly dancing on its edge. Grogut turned them over and checked their respective pulses. "They ain't dead. They look worse for wear though. Especially the dark haired one. Must have took quite the tumble into the river."
He then proceeded to try and lift Sam. "Ugh, the blonde one feels heavy for one so small."
Oga rolled her eyes. "Thier Haflings their appetite for food nearly matches my own. Here, I'll carry the fat one, you take his friend."
Grogut proceeded to lift frodo and place him on a dock. "This one ain't looking so good captain, looks as white as an albino rat. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was hit hard with some sort of curse."
That got Oga's attention. "Check him."
Grogut ripped off Frodo's tunic letting out a whistle. "Little one's got mithril underarmor on him." he then noticed the Ring on his neck. "Well, what do we have here?"
the orc found himself almost immediately enamored by the golden ring, almost like a cat being attracted to dangling string. "It's so...beautiful."
"Grogut..."
Grogut turned to see his captain's hand on the hilt of her sword. Her eyes glared with a tense expression. "Give me the ring." she commanded
Grogut walked slowly almost as if he were resisting a great force pulling at his body. Time seemed to stretch on forever as all of the orcs anxiously waited to see how this would go down. Everyone in Mordor whether man or orc knew the power of The One Ring. Whispers were told of how if one kept it too long, they would become enthralled by it. People would do anything to keep it, even kill for it. So one could imagine the universal sigh of relief when Grogut turned his palm over and the ring fell into Oga's hand. Grogut shuttered.
"That thing really can take a hold of you. Gives me the willies it does."
Oga nodded. "With us going back to Mordor it's hold is likely to lessen. It wants to return to its master. Still, I don't want to take a chance." She quickly passed the ring in a pouch.
She walked over and wrapped Sam's arms around her torso carrying her on her back. "Get the other one. We'll head to the mountains and camp for the night. From there we march to The Black Gate."
"Wait, we're taking them with us? Why not just let them rot? We got what we need from them."
"I will not leave them to die of exposure in the elements or worse become pray to wolves or spiders. Besides, Lord Sauron will want to talk to this ring bearer personally."
Everyone nodded and proceeded to march in line. The One Ring would be united with its true master once more. Mordor had won the war before it even started, but that is not where this story ends.
Author's note: I originally gave an idea of how the Lord of the Rings more morally gray or nuanced, so I thought maybe I could try to make a story out of it.
Let me make something clear right off the bat. Anytime you subvert or deconstruct a series you have to change some of the lore from the original intention of the author because people do naturally write their biases into their stories. Tolkien was devoted catholic, Lucas was a love child of the 60s and it shows in their respective works. With Star Wars in particular The EU did fundamentally change Lucas's narrative especially in terms of the nature of the force. Gone was new age "Property and attachment is theft and reproduction is abuse" and replaced with "No emotion and attachment are not what lead to the darkside, Obsession, narcissism and corruption do." and it worked because it made for better stories. *Cough cough clone wars and Mandalorian wars cough cough*
You could theoretically make LOTR more morally complicated, but you'd have to be extra careful and making sure to write nuance. if you simply reversed the alignments, you'd just be making the same "Writing mistakes" as the story your trying to deconstruct. Not to mention you'd have to make sure to explain what parts that "The forces of light" and by extension us were either missing or misunderstanding some key information and have Sauron straight own up to pass mistakes. Like getting the numanorians to try to invade the Undying lands.
It could be done. I'll try to list some examples off the top of my head.
Sauron attempted to conquer the free peoples of middle earth before the alliance of men and elves resisted him: Sauron conquered the east to stop the massive tribal infighting and when the men of the west saw this they feared that they would be conquered and convinced the elves to help them invade Morder in a preemptive strike not realizing that the East conquest of the East was mostly bloodless and the quality of life was greatly improved in terms of economy and infostructure (We don't see anything about the easterlings except for their armies so that gives enough of a blank slate to work with) and that Sauron really had no interest in the affairs of the west.
The orcs were once elves but became corrupted by Sauron: The Orcs that reside in Mordor were elves who fell in love with middle earth and wished to settle into middle earth and possibly intermarry with its inhabitants. However, their metaphysical and immortal nature made this impossible as all elves who do not give up their immortality or return to their homeland are destined to fade. Sauron was able to find a way to give the elves a more corporeal body that could bear their immortality, but the process by its nature greatly changed them. while the Wizards see this as a form of corruption, the orcs themselves take pride in their forms as it's an ultimate symbol of their resolve to keep that which they love, and they have a proud code of honor.
Keep in mind these are Mordor orcs specifically we are talking about, the goblins of the wild and orcs of Saruman are much more feral but neither Sauron's doing.
The Ringwraiths are shadows of the men they once were: This was primarily a way to punish them for misusing their rings of power and becoming arrogant and self-absorbed. They were turned into Ringwraiths to learn humility. Nearly all of them learned said lesson save one (the witch king) plus covert work is a lot easier to accomplish when you can move as swiftly and a silently as a shadow.
Sauron invaded Gondor:
1. Gondor declared war on Mordor first.
2. You have seen Denathor right?
The Ring of power corrupts the hearts of those that wield it:
Power does not corrupt it enables. The funny thing about power is that those who want it and take it for themselves are typically the ones who are not fit to use it. Meanwhile those who can use it without being "Corrupted" by it do not desire it or will use it openly. Golem was always a selfish slimy worm, Isildur and Boromir were always self-absorbed with an overblown sense of importance. Aragorn wisely rejected the temptation to bear the ring because he knew that part of him deep down wanted glory for himself and his people. Even Bilbo and Frodo for all of their virtues still desired glory and no wizard or High Elf would be fit to bear the ring as they see themselves as mighty Shepards destined to guide the poor mortal sheep.
Meanwhile those like Samwise and Tom Bombadil had little to no trouble resisting the ring as they had everything they could possibly want.
The story could be less a fairy tale about good and evil and more a debate and philosophical discussion. Is it better to be pure even if living in a constant state of pure goodness means living in ignorance and having no sense of the world around you while always living under someone's wing (As the hobbits lived) or is it better to be independent self-actualized and wise even if the journey leaves scared battle hardened and not near as pleasing to the eyes or pleasant to the ears? (As this new theoretical take on orcs would be) There doesn't have to be a blatant right or wrong answer in fact it may be better for the reader to decide for themselves.
to be fair I don't think Tolkien would shy away from exploring such a story. he was friends with the man that gave us this quote Afterall.
You could theoretically make LOTR more morally complicated, but you'd have to be extra careful and making sure to write nuance. if you simply reversed the alignments, you'd just be making the same "Writing mistakes" as the story your trying to deconstruct. Not to mention you'd have to make sure to explain what parts that "The forces of light" and by extension us were either missing or misunderstanding some key information and have Sauron straight own up to pass mistakes. Like getting the numanorians to try to invade the Undying lands.
It could be done. I'll try to list some examples off the top of my head.
Sauron attempted to conquer the free peoples of middle earth before the alliance of men and elves resisted him: Sauron conquered the east to stop the massive tribal infighting and when the men of the west saw this they feared that they would be conquered and convinced the elves to help them invade Morder in a preemptive strike not realizing that the East conquest of the East was mostly bloodless and the quality of life was greatly improved in terms of economy and infostructure (We don't see anything about the easterlings except for their armies so that gives enough of a blank slate to work with) and that Sauron really had no interest in the affairs of the west.
The orcs were once elves but became corrupted by Sauron: The Orcs that reside in Mordor were elves who fell in love with middle earth and wished to settle into middle earth and possibly intermarry with its inhabitants. However, their metaphysical and immortal nature made this impossible as all elves who do not give up their immortality or return to their homeland are destined to fade. Sauron was able to find a way to give the elves a more corporeal body that could bear their immortality, but the process by its nature greatly changed them. while the Wizards see this as a form of corruption, the orcs themselves take pride in their forms as it's an ultimate symbol of their resolve to keep that which they love, and they have a proud code of honor.
Keep in mind these are Mordor orcs specifically we are talking about, the goblins of the wild and orcs of Saruman are much more feral but neither Sauron's doing.
The Ringwraiths are shadows of the men they once were: This was primarily a way to punish them for misusing their rings of power and becoming arrogant and self-absorbed. They were turned into Ringwraiths to learn humility. Nearly all of them learned said lesson save one (the witch king) plus covert work is a lot easier to accomplish when you can move as swiftly and a silently as a shadow.
Sauron invaded Gondor:
1. Gondor declared war on Mordor first.
2. You have seen Denathor right?
The Ring of power corrupts the hearts of those that wield it:
Power does not corrupt it enables. The funny thing about power is that those who want it and take it for themselves are typically the ones who are not fit to use it. Meanwhile those who can use it without being "Corrupted" by it do not desire it or will use it openly. Golem was always a selfish slimy worm, Isildur and Boromir were always self-absorbed with an overblown sense of importance. Aragorn wisely rejected the temptation to bear the ring because he knew that part of him deep down wanted glory for himself and his people. Even Bilbo and Frodo for all of their virtues still desired glory and no wizard or High Elf would be fit to bear the ring as they see themselves as mighty Shepards destined to guide the poor mortal sheep.
Meanwhile those like Samwise and Tom Bombadil had little to no trouble resisting the ring as they had everything they could possibly want.
The story could be less a fairy tale about good and evil and more a debate and philosophical discussion. Is it better to be pure even if living in a constant state of pure goodness means living in ignorance and having no sense of the world around you while always living under someone's wing (As the hobbits lived) or is it better to be independent self-actualized and wise even if the journey leaves scared battle hardened and not near as pleasing to the eyes or pleasant to the ears? (As this new theoretical take on orcs would be) There doesn't have to be a blatant right or wrong answer in fact it may be better for the reader to decide for themselves.
to be fair I don't think Tolkien would shy away from exploring such a story. he was friends with the man that gave us this quote Afterall.
I just don't think it's a story he wanted to explore in LOTR.
Now let me say I am no Tolkien; I'm not going to pretend to be Tolkien. I'm doing this mainly for fun and as a sort of writing challenge. I'm mostly taking from the movies though I may pull stuff from the books as well as the Shadow of Mordor series That being said I'd still l some critique as I still want the story to be entertaining. Maybe if it's good enough I can use it as a foundation for an original story. (Hey if worked for E. L. James...)
Disclaimer: Lord of The Rings is property of the Tolkien estate
Frodo felt his arms and his shoulders throb as he continued to roll across the Great River of Amon Hen. The weight of the One Ring did not help manners. it seemed like the closer they edged to Morder the more suffocating the One Ring felt, yet for one reason or another he could not bear to take it off. In a way, it was precious to him.
"Come to me little Hafling I have such sights I can show you."
Frodo felt his eyes grow heavy.
"Come to me...come..."
"Mr. Frodo?"
Frodo felt himself almost immediately snap back to reality as he gazed upon the face of his companion Samwise.
"Are you alright Mr. Frodo?"
Frodo gave a fake smile, but he could only keep it for less than a second. "It feels so heavy." He moaned as if his very soul was grieving.
"Hang in there Mr. Frodo." Sam assured. "Soon we will get to Mordor will destroy that cursed ring, and we'll go back to the shire. We'll have a nice little adventure that we can tell all our friends back at the Green Dragon inn, just like your uncle Bilbo."
"Just like Bilbo..." Frodo spoke but his voice gave a weary inflection, as if he was distant or his soul was overstretched, like butter spread over too much bread as his uncle would say. "It feels so heavy...so...so... Frodo found himself falling out of consciousness as his body slumped and toppled over the lifeboat and into the waters below.
"Mr. Frodo!" Sam shouted and plunged headfirst into the water instinctively trying to save his friend. It was only after his body touched the water did, he remember that he couldn't swim. Desperately he flailed his arms only to lose consciousness himself.
Meanwhile in the distance, the heavy steps of Mordor orcs could be heard. After the failure of the Nazgul to retrieve the one ring on Weathertop, Sauron had sent a squad of his best orcs to chase after the fellowship in hopes of retrieving the hobbits before the white wizard had managed to do so.
They were led by one of his prized Captains, Oga the Great Eater. Much larger than most of her peers both in stature, strength, and girth, she was one of Sauron's best Captains and had followed him from the beginning as she was among those who were originally elves and one of the few females of her kind to fight in war. following the creature Gollum, she had managed to track the fellowship to the river but had ordered her men to fall back while the fellowship and the forces of the white hand were in a skirmish.
Now the way was clear. The Ranger Elf and Dwarf chased after the uruk hai who had captured two of the hobbits and the captain of Gondor was nowhere to be found. The question now was where the other two hobbits were.
Leaving the trees, she signaled her troops to follow slowly. "Search the area." She commanded. "They couldn't have gotten far."
"Shouldn't we be chasing after them other two?" one of the grunts asked. "If they have the ring, then it's as good as in the hands of the white Wizard if we don't intercept them."
"They don't." Oga assured.
"How can you be so sure?"
"Call it a hunch. Besides, the Heir of Isildur and his friends are chasing after them. They'll be fine."
"Captain Look," an orc named Grogut shouted pointing to a boat washed up against the shore. Next to it was the crumpled form of two hobbits, neither were dead, but they were certainly dancing on its edge. Grogut turned them over and checked their respective pulses. "They ain't dead. They look worse for wear though. Especially the dark haired one. Must have took quite the tumble into the river."
He then proceeded to try and lift Sam. "Ugh, the blonde one feels heavy for one so small."
Oga rolled her eyes. "Thier Haflings their appetite for food nearly matches my own. Here, I'll carry the fat one, you take his friend."
Grogut proceeded to lift frodo and place him on a dock. "This one ain't looking so good captain, looks as white as an albino rat. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was hit hard with some sort of curse."
That got Oga's attention. "Check him."
Grogut ripped off Frodo's tunic letting out a whistle. "Little one's got mithril underarmor on him." he then noticed the Ring on his neck. "Well, what do we have here?"
the orc found himself almost immediately enamored by the golden ring, almost like a cat being attracted to dangling string. "It's so...beautiful."
"Grogut..."
Grogut turned to see his captain's hand on the hilt of her sword. Her eyes glared with a tense expression. "Give me the ring." she commanded
Grogut walked slowly almost as if he were resisting a great force pulling at his body. Time seemed to stretch on forever as all of the orcs anxiously waited to see how this would go down. Everyone in Mordor whether man or orc knew the power of The One Ring. Whispers were told of how if one kept it too long, they would become enthralled by it. People would do anything to keep it, even kill for it. So one could imagine the universal sigh of relief when Grogut turned his palm over and the ring fell into Oga's hand. Grogut shuttered.
"That thing really can take a hold of you. Gives me the willies it does."
Oga nodded. "With us going back to Mordor it's hold is likely to lessen. It wants to return to its master. Still, I don't want to take a chance." She quickly passed the ring in a pouch.
She walked over and wrapped Sam's arms around her torso carrying her on her back. "Get the other one. We'll head to the mountains and camp for the night. From there we march to The Black Gate."
"Wait, we're taking them with us? Why not just let them rot? We got what we need from them."
"I will not leave them to die of exposure in the elements or worse become pray to wolves or spiders. Besides, Lord Sauron will want to talk to this ring bearer personally."
Everyone nodded and proceeded to march in line. The One Ring would be united with its true master once more. Mordor had won the war before it even started, but that is not where this story ends.
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