Rings of Power
The Rings of Power are magical artefacts in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, most prominently in his high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. The One Ring first appeared as a plot device, a magic ring in Tolkien's children's fantasy novel, The Hobbit. Tolkien later gave it a backstory and much greater power: he added nineteen other Great Rings which also conferred powers such as invisibility, and which the One Ring could control. These were the Three Rings of the Elves, the Seven Rings for the Dwarves, and the Nine for Men. He stated that there were in addition many lesser rings with minor powers. A key story element in The Lord of the Rings is the addictive power of the One Ring, made secretly by the Dark Lord Sauron; the Nine Rings enslave their bearers as the Nazgûl, Sauron's most deadly servants.
Proposed sources of inspiration for the Rings of Power range from Germanic legend with the ring Andvaranaut and eventually Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, to fairy tales such as Snow White, which features both a magic ring and seven dwarfs. One experience that may have been pivotal was Tolkien's professional work on a Latin inscription at the temple of Nodens, a god-hero linked to the Irish hero Nuada Airgetlám. Nodens's epithet is "Silver-Hand"; in Tolkien's Elvish, this would be "Celebrimbor", the name of the Elven-smith who made the Rings of Power. The inscription contained a curse upon a ring, and the site was called Dwarf's Hill.
The Rings of Power have been described as symbolising the way that power conflicts with moral behaviour; Tolkien explores the way that different characters, from the humble gardener Sam Gamgee to the powerful Elf ruler Galadriel, the proud warrior Boromir to the Ring-addicted monster Gollum, interact with the One Ring. Tolkien stated that The Lord of the Rings was an examination of "placing power in external objects".
Fictional history
The Rings of Power were forged by the Elven-smiths of the Noldorin settlement of Eregion. Best-known were the twenty Great Rings, which conferred powers including invisibility, but many lesser rings with minor powers were also created at that time. The smiths were led by Celebrimbor, the grandson of Fëanor, the greatest craftsman of the Noldor, working with Dwarves from Khazad-dûm led by his friend Narvi. Sauron, powerful and ambitious, but humiliated by the fall of his evil master Morgoth at the end of the First Age, had evaded the summons of the godlike Valar to surrender and face judgment; he chose to remain in Middle-earth and seek dominion over its people. In the Second Age, he arrived disguised as a handsome emissary of the Valar named Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, offering the knowledge to transform Middle-earth with the light of Valinor, the home of the Valar. He was shunned by the Elven leaders Gil-galad and Elrond in Lindon, but managed to persuade the Noldorin Elves of Eregion. With Sauron's help, they learnt to forge Rings of Power, first creating many lesser rings as an essay of their skill. Then they created the Seven and the Nine, and Celebrimbor himself forged the Three Great Rings. In Mordor, Sauron then invested much of his power in forging the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom, to serve as a master ring to control all the others.When the One Ring was made using the Black Speech, the Elves immediately became aware of Sauron's true motive to control the other Rings. When Sauron set the completed One Ring upon his finger, the Elves quickly hid their rings. Celebrimbor entrusted one of the Three to Galadriel and sent the other Two to Gil-galad and Círdan. In an attempt to seize all the Rings of Power for himself, Sauron waged an assault upon the Elves. He destroyed Eregion and captured the Nine. Under torture, Celebrimbor revealed where the Seven were, but refused to reveal the Three.
Toward the end of the Second Age, the Númenóreans took Sauron prisoner. Sauron however managed to corrupt the Men of Númenor, leading to their civilisation's eventual downfall. The exiled Númenóreans who survived, led by Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion, established the realms of Arnor and Gondor. Together with the Elves of Lindon, they formed the last alliance against Sauron and emerged victorious. Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand and kept it, refusing to destroy it; he was later killed in an ambush, and the Ring was lost for centuries. During this time, the Elves were able to use the Three Rings, while the Nine given to the leaders of Men corrupted their wearers and turned them into the Nazgûl. The Seven given to the Dwarves failed to subject them directly to Sauron's will but ignited a sense of avarice within them. Over the years, Sauron sought to recapture the Rings, primarily the One, but was only successful in recovering the Nine and three of the Seven.
During the Third Age, the One Ring is discovered by Bilbo Baggins. At the start of The Lord of the Rings, the Wizard Gandalf explains the One Ring's history to Bilbo's heir Frodo, and recites the Rhyme of the Rings. A Fellowship is formed to destroy it, led by Frodo. Following the successful destruction of the One Ring and the fall of Sauron, the power of the rings fades. While the Nine are destroyed, the Three are rendered powerless; their bearers leave Middle-earth for Valinor at the end of the Third Age, inaugurating the Dominion of Men.
Description
As observed by Saruman, each one of the Great Rings of Power, in contrast to the lesser rings, was adorned with its "proper gem", except for the One Ring, which was unadorned.The One
Unlike the other great rings, the One was created as an unadorned gold band similar in appearance to the lesser rings, though it bore Sauron's incantation, the Ring Verse, in the Black Speech; it became visible only when heated, whether by fire or by Sauron's hand. As the other Rings were made under the influence of Sauron, the power of all the Rings depended on the One Ring's survival. To make the One Ring, Sauron had to put almost all his power into it—when worn, it enhanced his power; unworn, it remained aligned to him unless another seized it and took control of it. A prospective possessor could, if sufficiently strong, overthrow Sauron and usurp his place; but they would become as evil as he. As the One was made in the fires of Mount Doom, it could only be unmade there. Sauron, being evil, never imagined that anyone might try to destroy the One Ring, as he imagined that anyone bearing it would be corrupted by it.The Three
Named after the three elements of fire, water, and air, the Three were the last to be made before Sauron's solo creation of the One. Although Celebrimbor forged the Three Rings alone in Eregion, they were moulded by Sauron's craft and were bound to the One. Only after Sauron's defeat, when the One Ring was cut from his finger at the end of the Second Age, did the Elves begin to actively use the Three to ward off the decay brought by time. Even then, the Rings could be worn without being seen. After the One Ring, they are the most powerful of the twenty Rings of Power. They are:- , from Quenya nár, "fire", was set with a ruby. Its metal is not stated. It gave its wielder resistance to the weariness of time, and evoked hope and courage in others. Its final bearer was the Wizard Gandalf, who received it from Círdan at the Grey Havens during the Third Age.
- , from Quenya nén, "water", was made of mithril and set with a "shimmering white stone". Galadriel used it to protect and preserve the realm of Lothlórien. "Adamant" means both a type of stone, usually a diamond, and "stubbornly resolute", a description that equally well suits the quality of Galadriel's resistance to Sauron.
- , from Quenya vilya, "air", was the mightiest of the Three. It was made of gold and set with a sapphire. Elrond inherited Vilya from Gil-galad and used it to safeguard Rivendell.
The Seven
The Nine
Sauron gave Nine of the Rings of Power to leaders of Men, who became "mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old". They gained unending lifespans, and the ability to see things in worlds invisible to mortal Men. One by one, the Men fell to the power of the One Ring; by the end of the Second Age, all nine had become invisible ring-wraiths – the Nazgûl, Sauron's most terrible servants. In particular, they helped him search for the One Ring, to which they were powerfully attracted.Powers
| Type of Ring | Powers granted | Effects on bearer |
| Ruling Ring | Invisibility, extended lifespan, control, knowledge of all other Rings | Corruption to evil |
| Elven-Rings | To heal and preserve | Nostalgia, procrastination |
| Dwarf-Rings | To gain wealth | Greed, anger |
| Rings for Men | Invisibility, extended lifespan, terror | Enslavement, fading to permanent invisibility |
The Rings of Power were made using the craft taught by Sauron to give their wearers "wealth and dominion over others". Each Ring enhances the "natural power" of its possessor, thus approaching its "magical aspect", which can be "easily corruptible to evil and lust of domination". Gandalf explains that a Ring of Power is self-serving and can "look after itself": the One Ring, in particular, can "slip off treacherously" to return to its master Sauron, betraying its bearer when an opportunity arrives. As the Ruling Ring, the One enables a sufficiently powerful bearer to perceive what is done using the other rings and to govern the thoughts of their bearers. To use the One Ring to its full extent, the bearer needs to be strong and train their will to the domination of others.
A mortal Man or Hobbit who takes possession of a Ring of Power can manifest its power, becoming invisible and able to see things that are normally invisible, as the bearer is partly transported into the spirit world. However, they also "fade"; the Rings unnaturally extend their life-spans, but gradually transform them into permanently invisible wraiths. The Rings affect other beings differently. The Seven are used by their Dwarven bearers to increase their treasure hoards, but they do not gain invisibility, and Sauron was unable to bend the Dwarves to his will, instead only amplifying their greed and anger. Tom Bombadil, the only being unaffected by the power of the One Ring, could both see its wearer and remained visible when he wore it.
Unlike the other Rings, the main purpose of the Three is to "heal and preserve", as when Galadriel used Nenya to preserve her realm of Lothlórien over long periods. The Elves made the Three Rings to try to halt the passage of time, or as Tolkien had Elrond say, "to preserve all things unstained". This was seen most clearly in Lothlórien, which was free of both evil and the passage of time.
The Three do not make their wearers invisible. The Three had other powers: Narya could rekindle hearts with its fire and inspire others to resist tyranny, domination, and despair; Nenya had a secret power in its water that protected from evil; while Vilya healed and preserved wisdom in its element of air.