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In the movie LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo drops the One Ring on the floor and then leaves his house. Gandalf then goes to pick it up but just before he touches it, he sees an image of Sauron's Eye so he doesn't pick it up. A short time later, Frodo enters the house, sees the One Ring on the floor, picks it up and then shows it to Gandalf.

Gandalf then decides he has to travel to the city of Minas Tirith to do some research on the One Ring in order to find out if Bilbo's ring may be the One Ring.

Why was Gandalf unsure if Bilbo's ring was the One Ring if he had seen an image of Sauron's Eye when he was about to pick it up?

TheLethalCarrot
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You've linked together too many things that shouldn't really be linked at this point in the movie.

First of all, I wouldn't put too much weight on elements Peter Jackson put into his movies that weren't in Tolkien's books to begin with. It not just that they don't affect the story; they can't, by definition.

In Tolkien's original telling, Bilbo didn't toss the Ring on the floor. Instead, he sealed it in an envelope and put it on his mantelpiece for Frodo to collect later. The difficulty Gandalf had in getting Bilbo to give up the Ring (he actually called it "my precious") worried Gandalf enough to go off and figure out what he was dealing with.

So, you, the viewer, were shown an image of Sauron's eye when Gandalf bent to pick up the ring. That doesn't mean Gandalf saw that. It could just have been a premonition that Jackson had to illustrate somehow.

Spencer
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    Nice job of getting through the narrow gate of reconciling Jackson's additions to the story! – Mark Olson Oct 09 '21 at 13:56
  • @MarkOlson Thanks. I was going to go on about the Eye being a Mary Sue, but decided it didn't add anything. – Spencer Oct 09 '21 at 14:00
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    Just to add, Gandalf was already suspicious, which is why he didn't want Bilbo taking it with him out of the Shire. Until he knew (or could confirm) what the ring was, the safest place for it was in the virtually unknown Shire. – chepner Oct 09 '21 at 20:17
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    I interpret the vision of The Eye as Gandalf having a bad feeling about the ring. Even if Gandalf had an actual vision of The Eye: Does he know that’s the new form Sauron has taken? – Michael Oct 09 '21 at 21:19
  • @Michael Tolkien doesn't say when S started using the Eye-- presumably only since Barad-dûr was rebuilt after he was driven out of Dol Guldur. But it was on his armies' livery so it could have been much earlier. – Spencer Oct 09 '21 at 21:22
  • @Michael Tolkien only introduced this eye-dea for Frodo's vision in the Mirror of Galadriel. But CT said his father really ran with the idea afterwards. – Spencer Oct 09 '21 at 21:24
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    Even if we assume for a moment that Gandalf saw the same and could interpret it as "Sauron", that doesn't imply for sure it has to be the one ring, since most of the other rings also by this point also under his control. So it might be a hint that this ring is different, but not definitive proof. – Florian Schaetz Oct 10 '21 at 10:19
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    Sauron was already using the Eye when confronted at Dol Guldur by Gandalf & Co. in The Hobbit: The Grab for More Money, so Gandalf would clearly recognize the Eye. /s – chepner Oct 10 '21 at 13:51
  • Not only do we not know what the audience seeing the eye means, but even if Gandalf had seen that image, we don't know that Gandalf would know what that meant. There are many magics out there in Middle Earth. – Dronz Oct 10 '21 at 17:04
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    In seriousness, the first reference to the Eye of Sauron is following his return to Mordor after the fall of Númenor; it should be a familiar symbol to the White Council. – chepner Oct 11 '21 at 13:14
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    @chepner I thought about this, and since all of the Rings were tainted with Sauron, even a lesser ring might give Gandalf (wearing of one of the Three) such a premonition. – Spencer Jan 14 '22 at 20:53
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He didn't know if it was the One Ring.

According to the unpublished works, three of the Dwarven Rings survived (four being consumed by dragon fire), and had made their way back to Sauron. But Gandalf didn't know that.

It was also state at the Council of Elrond (though perhaps not in the movie version) that the location of the Human Rings were unknown.

Beyond that, there were any number of lesser magic rings made as samples or prototypes before the 20 Greater Rings were made. Indeed, Gandalf originally believed Bilbo's Ring to be one of those. But forged in the same manner, might they still have been subject to corruption by the Enemy?

So Gandalf reaches for the Ring, and feels the taint of Sauron. But he doesn't know. Could it be the One? One of the Seven? One of the Nine? Or just some minor ring, calling to its architect as Sauron grew in power? Regardless, he did not touch it, and decided to research the rings, to find a way to be sure.

Xavon_Wrentaile
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    "According to the unpublished works, three of the Dwarven Rings survived (four being consumed by dragon fire), and had made their way back to Sauron. But Gandalf didn't know that." Unpublished works? Gandalf did know that in the books (though maybe not at that point). He was the one who told everyone else that at the Council of Elrond. It was also known that Sauron always had control of the nine (though there is debate on whether by the time of Lord of the Rings, whether Sauron or the Nazgul wore them). – suchiuomizu Oct 10 '21 at 23:50
  • @suchiuomizu That was the Nine not the Seven. And after he went to do research on Bilbo's Ring. And I suppose you could say that the Silmarillion and all the incomplete story Christopher edited and released are 'published' so maybe I should have phrased it differently. But JRR didn't complete or publish them so... – Xavon_Wrentaile Oct 11 '21 at 00:16
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    "It was also state at the Council of Elrond (though perhaps not in the movie version) that the location of the Human Rings were unknown": no, at the council of Elrond Gandalf very clearly states that the Nazgûl had them. Also, regarding what @suchiuomizu said, in chapter two (The Shadow of the Past) he tells Frodo that, of the seven dwarven rings, Sauron had three, while four had been destroyed by dragons, and that he used the Nine to enslave men. So he knew all of this even before the Council, but not at time time Bilbo left. – Fabio says Reinstate Monica Oct 11 '21 at 02:06
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    All other Rings had gems, a plain ring could have been only the One. Wasn't that a well established fact for Gandalf? – Frax Oct 11 '21 at 12:36
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    @Frax It could have been, but it was much more likely to be a lesser essay in the craft of ring making. After all, he had it on good authority (Saruman) that the One Ring was lost forever. – Michael Richardson Oct 11 '21 at 12:50
  • The Council of Elrond was after he went and spent a long time researching the rings. He may not have definitively known where the 9 or 7 were originally when he interacted with Bilbo but rather learned it during his time researching the fate of all the rings. – John Meacham Jan 13 '23 at 19:44