[RosieCotton]

OK, NOW explain why Elrond didn't take the ring from Isildur in the first place! In the discussion I had with my family, we said it's possible that it would have destroyed Isildur (for the same reasons that Gandalf couldn't forcibly take the ring from Bilbo), but doesn't the good of the many outweigh the good of the one here?

And I don't buy the "if I touch it for the one second it takes me to through it in, I'll become corrupted and powerful and terrible and mess up the world" excuse!

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

And I don't buy the "if I touch it for the one second... excuse!"

Why not? Gandalf wouldn't even touch it in the movie, and Galadriel got dark and scary-looking just thinking about taking the ring....

[RosieCotton]

if I touch it for the one second it takes me to through it in,

Err...make that throw. Oops...

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't think he let him go because he didn't want to destroy Isildur... He wasn't afaid to break Isildur's spirit... That wasn't the reason.

I think the question would have been whether he should have pushed Isildur in. And I think it was questionable whether he would have been able to do that. It was a mistake, in the end, not to try, and I saw considerable regret in Elrond's face when he retold that story.

My question, from a historical standpoint, (and I realize the exact scene we are discussing was not really true to the book) BUT, was Elrond already a ring-bearer at that point in the story? - or did his ring come later? To me, that may change everything about whether he could have taken out Isildur at that moment.