Everything about The Rings Of Power totally explained
The
Rings of Power are fictional artifacts of
J. R. R. Tolkien's
Middle-earth legendarium. They are first described early in
The Lord of the Rings in a rhyme of
lore told to
Frodo Baggins by
Gandalf:
» Three Rings for the
Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the
Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
» Nine for
Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the
Dark Lord on his dark throne,
» In the land of
Mordor where the shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
» One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them,
In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.
Literature
History
After the fall of
Morgoth,
Sauron begged for the pardon of the
Valar, but reneged on his promise to submit to judgment and fled. As the
Second Age progressed he presented himself disguised in a beautiful shape as 'Annatar', Lord of the Gifts, to the leaders of the remaining
Eldar in Middle-earth with offers of aid.
Gil-galad and
Círdan both distrusted him, but he was welcomed by the smiths of
Eregion, who were eager to increase their knowledge and technical achievement. According to Appendix B of
The Lord of the Rings, the forging of the Rings of Power began circa S.A. 1500. The Seven and the Nine Rings were forged by the Elves with Sauron's direct assistance. The Three Rings, the greatest of the Elven Rings, were forged by
Celebrimbor, a grandson of
Fëanor and leader of the Eregion smiths. He accomplished this alone, without Sauron's aid but with knowledge obtained from him, completing them around S.A. 1590. It is also strongly implied that many lesser rings were forged as well with limited and unspecified powers.
Sauron forged the last Ring, the
One Ring or Ruling Ring, secretly in the fires of
Mount Doom in Mordor, in S.A. 1600. Its purpose was domination over the other Rings and their powers; and the opening of the thoughts and wills of their wearers to his view and control. However, as soon as Sauron put on the One Ring, the Elves became aware of him and, immediately understanding his purpose, they took off their Rings.
About 90 years later Sauron invaded and conquered Eregion before overrunning nearly all of Eriador. Celebrimbor was captured, and under torture revealed the locations of the Seven and the Nine, but he died without revealing where the Three were hidden. Sauron took the Seven and the Nine, and these he distributed to leaders of the Dwarves and Men, respectively.
Common powers of the Rings
The primary purpose and power of all the Rings made by the Elves was the "prevention or slowing of decay (for example 'change' viewed as a regrettable thing)".
Letters #131 It was through the Elves' desire to preserve things of beauty that Sauron was able to seduce them.
The Rings apparently granted the ability to see things that are normally unseen, such as Frodo's ability to see the
Ringwraiths in their true form while wearing the One Ring and
Nenya,
Galadriel's ring (which his companion
Samwise couldn't see). However, this power is said to have been "more directly derived from Sauron" than the other powers of the Rings and thus may not have been present in the Three, which Sauron never touched.
It is unclear whether these effects were always present in the sixteen or were added after Sauron had taken them from the Elves. It is said in
Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age that Sauron "perverted" the Nine and the Seven such that they cursed and betrayed those who used them. This 'curse' can be seen in the deaths of the Dwarves
Thrór and
Thráin, both driven to undertake lethal dangers by the Ring of their house.
The Nine were presented to Kings and Sorcerers among Men, including
Black Númenóreans. These were swiftly dominated and ultimately became mere shadows (see
Nazgûl). The Nine proved quite useful to Sauron in the Third Age, especially when he was too weak to take action personally.
The Seven were presented to the seven heads of the Dwarf houses, but because of the unique ancestry of Dwarfs, Sauron could neither control them nor read their minds. One of Sauron's goals in the Third Age was to recover as many of the Seven as still existed. In the end, only three survived dragon-fires and wound up in his clutches. The only evil perpetrated by the Seven was to inflame an existing Dwarf covetousness of gold, jewels, and worked objects and to allow the wearer to become wealthy. This wealth in turn attracted Dragons, and most of the Seven were incinerated (along with their wearers). This is alluded to at the
Council of Elrond, but it's stated that the One was too mighty for any known Dragon to destroy in this way.
In an unused draft text, Tolkien indicated that
Calaquendi, such as
Glorfindel, could use the invisibility power of a Ring to choose to appear fully in either the physical or invisible world rather than existing in both at the same time. This might be similar to the way that Sauron and
Tom Bombadil were apparently able to remain visible while wearing the One.
The Nine
The Nine Rings caused
Men wearing them to become invisible. They also extended the lifespans of Men who possessed them, although this eventually led to the Men becoming
wraiths under Sauron's complete control. It is implied by
Gandalf that all the Great Rings would have the same effects on Men, but Tolkien wrote that this was untrue of the Three and there are no instances of a Man bearing one of the Seven.
The wraiths of the Men who received the Nine were the
Nazgûl, the Ringwraiths, Sauron's most feared servants. None are mentioned specifically in
The Lord of The Rings except their leader, the
Witch-king of Angmar. His second-in-command is named in
Unfinished Tales as
Khamûl, the Black
Easterling. What is known is that three of the nine Ringwraiths were originally 'great lords' of
Númenor in the mid Second Age.
The Nine were held by the Nazgûl after the fall of Sauron at the end of the Second Age, and they went on to wreak great evil with their powers in the East and South of Middle-earth, as well as the kingdom of
Angmar, which warred on and destroyed the Dúnedain in the North. Later, Sauron was said to have gathered the Nine to himself, but this could also be construed as having the Nazgûl close at hand, rather than physically having these rings at
Barad-dûr as was certainly the case with the remaining Dwarf-rings.
The Seven
As there were seven Dwarf 'Houses' or nations, it's tempting to assume that the king of each House was given his own Ring, but this isn't stated. However, It is mentioned by Gandalf that the seven hoards of the Dwarves were rumored to have each been started with a single golden ring. The Dwarves used their Rings to increase their treasure hoards, the rings bringing great wealth to their owners.
Tolkien wrote that the Rings couldn't make Dwarves invisible, turn them into wraiths, dominate their wills, or extend their lives due to essential traits of their kind. This greatly frustrated Sauron's plans, but through the Rings he was still able to influence them to anger and greed.
At the time of
The Lord of the Rings, four of the Seven had been destroyed by
dragon-fire and the remaining three recaptured by Sauron. The last of the Seven was taken from
Thráin II, who had been captured, imprisoned, and tormented by Sauron at
Dol Guldur nearly one hundred years before the beginning of
The Hobbit in .
In the year before Frodo and Sam left the Shire with the One Ring, Sauron, through an unnamed emissary, promised to return the remaining three of the Seven to the Dwarves if they'd recover "a little ring, the least of rings" from the "thief" who "stole" it. The emissary's words suggest Sauron hoped to convince the Dwarves that Bilbo's ring was one of the lesser rings forged by the Eregion smiths and not a Great Ring of Power. This offer was made repeatedly over the course of the year, and each time the Dwarves declined to answer. Distrustful of Sauron, who in fact correctly believed this ring to be the One, and not wanting to endanger Bilbo, the Dwarves instead sought out advice from Elrond. This is what brought
Glóin and
Gimli to
Rivendell for the
Council of Elrond in
The Fellowship of the Ring.
There is a tradition among the Dwarves that
Durin III of Moria wasn't given a Ring by Sauron, but received his directly from Celebrimbor.
The Three
Unlike the other Rings, the Three didn't confer invisibility or bear a curse beyond their vulnerability to the One (as Sauron himself never laid hand on them), but the rings themselves were invisible when worn. Only a few, such as other
Ring-bearers, could see them.
The Three are the only Rings of Power other than the One that Tolkien depicted in the narrative. Narya, the Ring of Fire, was set with a ruby; Nenya, the Ring of Water or Ring of Adamant, was of
mithril and set with a "white stone", presumably a diamond (although never stated explicitly, the usage of the word "adamant", an old synonym, is strongly suggestive); and Vilya, the Ring of Air, and "mightiest of the Three", was of gold and set with a sapphire. They remained hidden, and their possessors were not revealed until the end of the Third Age.
Before the sack of Eregion, Celebrimbor gave Vilya and Narya to
Gil-galad, and Nenya to
Galadriel. Gil-galad gave Vilya to
Elrond shortly before he died. In
The Lord of the Rings it's said that Gil-galad gave Narya to
Círdan shortly after he received it from Celebrimbor, but in
Unfinished Tales it's said this happened in S.A. 3430.
The Three remained hidden from Sauron and untouched by him, and during the Third Age after he lost the One they were used for the preservation and enhancement of the three remaining realms of the Eldar. Vilya was used by Elrond at Rivendell, Nenya by Galadriel at
Lothlórien, and Narya at
Mithlond by
Círdan. When the Istari arrived about, Círdan gave Narya to Gandalf, who bore it until the end of the Third Age.
The One
The Rings of Power were objects of great potency, and so to accomplish their domination Sauron was obliged to transfer most of his own power into the One Ring, a necessity that later led to his downfall.
In Eregion, a great many lesser rings were forged as "essays in the craft", of unknown but far lesser powers than the Great Rings. These were all "simple and unadorned" metal bands without any markings or gemstones. In contrast, the Great Rings other than the One were each set with 'their proper gem'. As with the lesser rings, the One was a plain band, apparently of ordinary gold, and with no visible markings. However, if the One was made hot enough an inscription of two lines of
Black Speech in
tengwar script could be made out in fiery letters covering both sides of the ring:
» Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,
ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
These words were spoken by Sauron when he first put on the One, and it was when they heard him speaking them that the Elves became aware of his purpose. Later, after Sauron had captured and distributed the Seven and the Nine, a translation of them was incorporated into the rhyme told to Frodo by Gandalf:
» One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
Because the Elves didn't use their Rings while Sauron possessed the One his original plan was unsuccessful, but the force he could bring to bear with the Ring upon the wills of others was vast nonetheless. With the Ring in his possession, Sauron was quickly able to corrupt the Númenóreans into Dark worship,
human sacrifice, and open rebellion against the
Valar, which led to their destruction by
divine intervention.
As with the Nine, a mortal who wore it would become invisible. Gandalf told Frodo that while he wore the Ring he was invisible to his friends but even more visible to the Nazgûl since he then existed more fully in the spirit world they inhabited. With repeated use a mortal might 'fade' and become a wraith dominated by Sauron. It granted power to dominate the wills of others in proportion to the native abilities of its wearer. Thus, although Frodo was able to dominate Gollum for a time, he could never have done so with anyone greater. Any powerful being who possessed the Ring, such as Gandalf, would be so corrupted by it that he'd simply take Sauron's place as Dark Lord.
It may have granted Sam the ability to understand the speech of
Orcs in Mordor, and
Bilbo Baggins the ability to understand the speech of the Great Spiders in
Mirkwood.
The One possessed a kind of sentience or will of its own and could slip on or off at inopportune times or influence the bearer (cf.
Isildur at the "
Disaster of the Gladden Fields.") in an effort to return to its creator. It could even influence and corrupt those who had never touched it, such as when it drove
Sméagol to murder
Déagol.
Final disposition of the Rings
In the climactic scene of
The Lord of the Rings, the One was destroyed in the
Cracks of Doom at
Orodruin, where it was originally forged, causing the downfall of Sauron and the undoing of all he created with it.
Galadriel tells Frodo that with the destruction of the One, the power of the other surviving Rings, though no longer bound to it, would fail. At the end of the Third Age, the three were taken to
Valinor by their bearers.
Dragons destroyed four of the Seven Rings, and after Sauron's return in the Third Age he recaptured the remaining three. What came of them following Sauron's demise isn't known, but they were likely destroyed in the collapse of
Barad-dûr. Had they survived, their power would have failed as with the Three.
The fate of the Nine was likely the same as that of the remaining Seven.
Adaptations
The bearers of the Rings of Power in Jackson. From top to bottom: Elves, Dwarves, Men, Sauron
Ralph Bakshi's 1978
animated film begins with the forging of the Rings of Power and the events of the Last Alliance's war against Sauron, all portrayed in silhouette against a red background.
Peter Jackson's begins with a similar prologue, though longer and more detailed.
Notably, Tolkien illustrators
John Howe and
Alan Lee, employed as conceptual designers for the films, have cameoes as two of the nine human Ring-bearers (the future Nazgûl).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Rings Of Power'.
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