OOTS #1215 - The Discussion Thread

[bunsen_h]

The magic in this case, IMO, was the oath the people who were now dead swore. An oath, in middle earth, is magic anyone can work.

The living men, then, were the ones who bound themselves to this fate when they swore the oath to Isildur. And since the oath was sworn to Isildur only Isildur or his heir could release them from it. Any king of Isildur's lineage could have done so, but none ever did. And thus they lingered after death in an awful half-life until they could be freed from the power of their own words.

I don't think it's as simple as that. For example, if Sam had sworn an oath to Frodo that he wouldn't rest until the Ring was destroyed, and then been killed, I don't think his shade would have been hanging around. Frodo just didn't have the mojo... at least, not in the early days. In the later days, if he'd sworn to Frodo while Frodo was holding the Ring -- i.e. the same circumstances as when Frodo told Gollum to back off or else -- that might have been a different matter. Whereas Isildur could invoke such a binding.

EDIT:

That's not really true.

Jordan had written EXTENSIVE notes on exactly how pretty much every major plot thread was to be resolved.

George RR Martin has done no such thing, and actively avoids telling anybody concrete information.

Is it known definitively that he hasn't written such notes?