Has someone written the story where Sauron doesn’t do all that swords in the dark art nonsense and just sends the Witch King to Hobbiton to file a lawsuit instead?
It’s not a strategy that would work in any other jurisdiction in Middle-Earth but hobbit law does not recognize wergild and does have the right of first finder, with the time limit being the death of the original owner, which works out great for Sauron who never died (?)
The litigation comes down to “Is this Dark Lord fellow actually alive and if so can he prove it” “has he consistently been alive” “what is being alive, actually, when you think about it” and “has he been making a good faith effort to recover his lost property for the last few thousand years”. All very tricky to adjudicate, especially with the entire Shire peeking into the court room. The whole case eventually gets thrown out when a strange tall man abducts Frodo in the night but it’s quite the philosophical crisis in the meantime.
@hamletthedane
