Can you show me me one quote from the book that says Foul can be killed or defeated without Covenant? Where in the chrons is the proper attitude you speak of described? I do not see anywhere that someone else could or would wield the ring. There is no evidence anyone could defeat Foul soley with White Gold.
You misunderstood me. I was talking hypothetically. The point was that Covenant could do it with the white gold. Assuming there was someone else with an unyielding determination and refusal to despair like Covenant has, he too could use the ring to the same effect.
TC did not defeat Foul with white gold. He merely destroyed the Ill Earth stone with it, then freed himself and healed himself. Foul still had power. At any rate, Foul was NOT killed. Foul cannot be killed. He was temporarily defeated. And because of TC's own internal triumph over despair, he was the only one who could defeat him that way as well. The book is about Covenant. Not anyone else.
Ah, but he did. Foamfollower and Covenant are taken into Lord Foul's throne room. They talk for a while and Lord Foul tries to offer Covenant rewards and punishments but Covenant remains unmoved. When Lord Foul gives Covenant visions of leprous doom Covenant touches the Illearth stone and awakens his ring.
At this point they start battling each other with immense powers until Covenant manages to separate Lord Foul from his stone, imprisons him with his wild magic power and shatters the veil that hides him. So he did battle Lord Foul and defeat him using his ring. The destruction of the stone occurs later after Lord Foul is vanquished.
And can Lord Foul not be defeated? Here is a quote from The Power That Preserves: The Unbeliever
Lord Foul:
"Continue, groveler. Destroy my work if you must - slay me if you can - but make an end!"
And the specters of the dead Lords:
In one voice like thunder of abomination - one voice of outrage that shook covenant to the marrow of his bones - they cried. "Slay him! It is within your power. Do not heed his treacherous lies. In the name of all Earth and health, slay him!"
Both Lord Foul and the dead (whose knowledge is greater than those of the living) believe it is within Covenant's power at this point to slay Lord Foul and make an end of him.
Just because Covenant chose not to do this doesn't mean he couldn't. He feared that if he did this he would replace the Despiser with a new one, probably himself (i.e. he didn't want to become a monster just so he could slay a monster.)
How so?
I thought it was pretty clear that the people of the Land were hampered by their morals in their fight against their immoral enemies. For example they feel pity for the dead of burned Soaring Woodhelven and delay their mission to bury them thereby exhausting themselves and remaining in a predictable spot despite knowing that the enemies who burned the village could return to attack them. They take the two survivors of the attack and try to care for them despite their condition - a condition that means they are in all probability living booby-traps aimed against them by the Ur-vile lore master. The Ramen let Pietten live with them and learn their secrets because they're decent people that keep their promise to take care of him. But he is the obvious suspect for traitorhood. A more callous people would have got rid of him (killed him) to preserve themselves. I haven't even mentioned the effect of the Oath of Peace on the new Lords.
Kevin did not win anything. He fell into despair. He just tried to destroy Foul with the RoD and hoped the Land would come back. It was a pyhrric victory -- Kevin deserved pity, and shame.
It wasn't just Kevin and Lord Foul. They each had an army and Kevin had the people of the Land who were his responsibility. Foul was not smiting everyone by himself, he was sending his minions against Kevin's people. Kevin managed to save his people (and Land) from utter annihilation and destroyed the forces Lord Foul arrayed against him (such as the Demondim, I believe) and even greatly weakened Lord Foul himself. As far as everyone knew until Covenant came into the picture Lord Foul did die in the ritual of Desecration. There was no sign of him after that.
So if the victory of the light is all Kevin was a winner. True, the Land was desecrated for some centuries and the peoples and creatures of it had to live in exile during this time but they survived and flourished anew after that without the burden of war with superior enemies. We learn more about this subject in the last chronicles.
So their attitude to Kevin shows that victory is not the most important thing in their opinion.
You are forgetting that Covenenant did not beleive in the people of the Land. He thought it was a dream. That is why he initially didnt give a crap that he raped Lena. Thats why we was exclaming over how he could feel pain while ignoring Triock as he tried to kill him. So if he didnt even beleive in these people, how do you think he would have handled their punishing him?
I'm not sure where you're going with this argument. If he believed he was dreaming about being punished why would that make him less willing to help his dream figments than if he was beaten by another figment in the same dream? He would have handled it, I imagine, with carelessness. This is tangential to the question of his helping them.
yah...not likely but who knows.
