Tolkien - LOTR: The Rings of Power

Black Speech (written in Tengwar)

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Black Speech (Romanised)

Ash nazg durbatulûk,

   ash nazg gimbatul,

Ash nazg thrakatulûk

   agh burzum-ishi krimpatul

---

English translation.

One ring to rule them all,

   one ring to find them,

One ring to bring them all

   and in the darkness bind them.

Related Articles

• Full Index to All Things Tolkien incld Rings of Power
• Tolkien - The History and Ages of Arda
• Cosmology of Tolkien's Legendarium
• Tolkien - The Ainur and Maiar of Middle-earth
• Tolkien - The Elves of Middle-earth and Valar of Vala
• The Inspiration of William Morris upon JRR Tolkien's Middle-Earth
• Tolkien's Tropes and Listings
• Tolkien - LOTR: The Rings of Power
• Middle-Earth: The Fall of Gondolin
• Middle-Earth: Beren and Luthien
• Middle-Earth: The Age of Numenor
• Middle-Earth: It's History, Unfinished Tales, Tom Bombadil, & the Lands of Beleriand
• Middle-Earth: The Many Worlds of the Silmarillion
• Middle-Earth: Sorting Out Tolkien's Many Titles & Works
• Middle-Earth: Lore, Legends, Symbols & Maps
• Middle-Earth: JRR Tolkien's Biography
• Middle-Earth: JRR Tolkien's Titles

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Rings of Power

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This article is about the fictional artefacts. For the ring that rules over the other Rings of Power, see One Ring. For the three Elven Rings of Power, see Three Rings. For the television show, see The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. For other uses, see Power ring (disambiguation).

Rings of Power
First appearance	The Hobbit (1937: a magical ring) The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955: Rings of Power)
Created by	J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre	Fantasy
In-story information
Type	Magical rings

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, also conferring invisibility, that it could control, including the Three Rings of the Elves, Seven Rings for the Dwarves, and 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, while the Nine Rings enslave their bearers as the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths), Sauron's most deadly servants.

Proposed sources of inspiration for the Rings of Power range from Germanic legend with the ring Andvaranaut and eventually Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelungen, to fairy tales such as Snow White, which features both a magic ring and seven dwarfs. One experience which may have been pivotal was Tolkien's professional work on a Latin inscription at the temple of Nodens; he was a god-hero linked to the Irish hero Nuada Airgetlám, whose epithet is "Silver-Hand", or in Elvish "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".^[1]

Fictional history

See also: Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

"Annatar" convinces Celebrimbor to forge the Rings of Power

"But wherefore should Middle-earth remain for ever desolate and dark, whereas the Elves could make it as fair as Eressëa, nay even as Valinor? And since you have not returned thither, as you might, I perceive that you love this Middle-earth, as do I. Is it not then our task to labour together for its enrichment, and for the raising of all the Elven-kindreds that wander here untaught to the height of that power and knowledge which those have who are beyond the Sea?"

— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, "The Rings of Power and the Third Age"

The Rings of Power were forged by the Elven-smiths of the Noldorin settlement of Eregion.^{[T 1]} 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 (Moria) 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.^{[T 2]} 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.^{[T 1]} He was shunned by the Elven leaders Gil-galad and Elrond in Lindon, but managed to persuade the Noldorin Elves of Eregion.^{[T 2]} With Sauron's help, they learnt to forge Rings of Power, creating the Seven and the Nine. While Celebrimbor created a set of Three on his own, Sauron left for Mordor and forged the One Ring, a master ring to control all the others, in the fires of Mount Doom.^{[T 1]}

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.^{[T 2]} When Sauron set the completed One Ring upon his finger, the Elves quickly hid their rings.^{[T 2]} Celebrimbor entrusted one of the Three to Galadriel and sent the other two to Gil-galad and Círdan.^{[T 3][T 4]} In an attempt to seize all the Rings of Power for himself, Sauron waged an assault upon the Elves.^{[T 2]} He destroyed Eregion and captured the Nine. Under torture, Celebrimbor revealed where the Seven were, but refused to reveal the Three.^{[T 5]}

Toward the end of the Second Age, the Númenóreans took Sauron prisoner.^{[T 2]} Sauron however managed to corrupt the Men of Númenor, leading to their civilisation's eventual downfall.^{[T 2]} The exiled Númenóreans who survived, led by Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion, established the realms of Arnor and Gondor.^{[T 2]} Together with the Elves of Lindon, they formed the last alliance against Sauron and emerged victorious.^{[T 2]} 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.^{[T 6]} 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.^{[T 7]} The Seven given to the Dwarves failed to subject them directly to Sauron's will but ignited a sense of avarice within them.^{[T 2]} 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.^{[T 6]} During the Third Age, the One Ring was discovered by Bilbo Baggins (in The Hobbit) and a Fellowship was formed to destroy it, led by Bilbo's heir Frodo.^{[T 8][T 6][T 7]} Following the successful destruction of the One Ring and the ultimate fall of Sauron, the power of the rings faded. While the Nine were destroyed, the Three were rendered powerless; their bearers left Middle-earth for Valinor at the end of the Third Age, inaugurating the Dominion of Men.^{[2][T 9][T 2]}

Description

The Ring Verse

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.

— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Epigraph

As observed by Saruman, each Ring of Power was adorned with its "proper gem", except for the One Ring, which was unadorned.^{[T 7]}

The One

Main article: One Ring

Unlike the other Rings of Power, the One was created as an unadorned gold band, though it bore Sauron's incantation, the Rhyme of the Rings, in the Black Speech; it became visible only when heated, whether by fire or by Sauron's hand.^{[T 6]} As the other Rings were made under the influence of Sauron, the power of all the Rings depended on the One Ring's survival.^{[2][T 9]} 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.^{[T 10]} A prospective possessor could, if sufficiently strong, overthrow Sauron and usurp his place; but they would become as evil as him.^{[T 10]} As the One was made in the fires of Mount Doom, it could only be unmade there.^{[T 7]} 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.^{[T 10]}

The Three

Main article: Three Rings

The Rings of Power, their stones, and their bearers^{[T 2]}

Named for the three elements of fire, water, and air, the Three were the last to be made before Sauron's solo creation of the One. While Celebrimbor forged the Three Rings alone in Eregion, they were moulded by Sauron's craft and were bound to the One.^{[T 1]} 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.^{[T 2]} They are:

• Narya (the Ring of Fire, the Red Ring) was set with a ruby. Its final bearer was the Wizard Gandalf, who received it from Círdan at the Grey Havens during the Third Age.^{[T 4]}
• Nenya (the Ring of Water, the White Ring, the Ring of Adamant) was made of mithril and set with a "shimmering white stone". Galadriel used it to protect and preserve the realm of Lothlórien.^{[T 2]}
• Vilya (the Ring of Air, the Blue Ring) 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.^{[T 2]}

The Seven

"Seven Rings" redirects here. For the Ariana Grande song, see 7 Rings.

Sauron recovered the Seven Rings from information provided by Celebrimbor, and gave them to the leaders of the seven kindreds of the Dwarves: Durin's Folk (Longbeards), Firebeards, Broadbeams, Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks, and Stonefoots,^[3] though a tradition of Durin's Folk claimed that Durin received his ring from the Elven-smiths.^{[T 11][T 1]} Over the years, Sauron was able to recover only three of the Seven rings from the Dwarves. The last of the three was seized from Thráin II during his captivity in Dol Guldur. Gandalf recounts to Frodo that the remaining four were consumed by dragons.^{[T 6]} Before the outbreak of the War of the Ring, an envoy from Sauron attempted to bribe Dain II Ironfoot of the Lonely Mountain with the three surviving rings and the lost realm of Moria in exchange for information leading to the recovery of the One Ring, but Dain refused.^{[T 7]}

The Nine

Further information: Nazgûl

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.^{[T 2]} 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.^{[T 12]}

Powers

Powers and effects of the Rings

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, extended lifespan	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".^{[T 13]} 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.^{[T 6]} As the Ruling Ring, the One enables a sufficiently powerful bearer to perceive what is done using the lesser rings and to govern the thoughts of their bearers.^{[T 2]} To use the One Ring to its full extent, the bearer needs to be strong and train their will to the domination of others.^{[T 14]}

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.^{[T 6][4][T 13]} However, they also "fade"; the Rings unnaturally extend their life-spans, but gradually transform them into permanently invisible wraiths.^{[T 15][T 6][T 16]} 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.^{[T 2]} Tom Bombadil, the only person unaffected by the power of the One Ring, could both see its wearer and remained visible when he wore it.^{[T 17]}

Unlike the other Rings, the main purpose of the Three was to "heal and preserve", as when Galadriel used Nenya to preserve her realm of Lothlórien over long periods.^[1] The Three do not make their wearers invisible as they were made without Sauron's direct involvement, but can render themselves invisible to all but another Ring-bearer.^{[T 14]} 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.^{[T 2]}

Analysis

Plot device to core element

The One Ring first appeared in Tolkien's children's fantasy The Hobbit in 1937 as a plot device, a mysterious magic ring which the titular character had stumbled upon, but its origin was left unexplained.^[5] Following the novel's success, Tolkien was persuaded by his publishers Allen & Unwin to write a sequel.^{[T 18][6]} Intending to give Bilbo another adventure, he instead devised a background story around the Ring with its power of invisibility, forming a framework for the new work.^{[T 19]} He tied the Ring to mythical elements from the unfinished manuscripts for The Silmarillion to create an impression of depth in The Lord of the Rings.^[7] Gollum's characterisation in The Hobbit was revised for the second edition to bring it into line with his portrayal in The Lord of the Rings as a being addicted to the One Ring.^{[T 20]}

Tolkien's conception of Ring-lore was closely linked to his development of the One Ring.^[8] He initially made Sauron instrumental in forging the Rings.^{[T 21]} He then briefly considered having Fëanor, creator of the Silmarils, forge the Rings of Power, under the influence of Morgoth, the first Dark Lord. He settled on Celebrimbor, a descendant of Fëanor, as the Ring's principal maker, under the tutelage of Sauron, Morgoth's chief servant.^{[T 22]} While writing the lore behind the One Ring, Tolkien struggled with giving the Elven rings a "special status" – somehow linked to the One, and thus endangered by it, but also "unsullied", having no direct connection with Sauron.^[9] By the time he was writing the chapter "The Mirror of Galadriel", Tolkien had decided that the Seven and the Nine were made by the Elven-smiths of Eregion under Sauron's guidance and that the Three were made by Celebrimbor alone.^[9] He considered setting the Three free from the One when it was destroyed but dropped the idea.^[9] Tolkien's posthumous works, including The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and The History of Middle-earth offer further glimpses of the creation of the Rings.^{[T 1][T 23][T 24]}

Inspiration

Apparent influence of archaeological and philological work at Nodens' Temple on Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium^[10]

The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey thought that Tolkien's work on a Latin inscription at a Roman temple at Lydney Park a "pivotal" influence, combining as it did a god-hero, a ring, dwarves, and a silver hand. The god-hero was Nodens, whom Tolkien traced to the Irish hero Nuada Airgetlám, "Nuada of the Silver-Hand", and the inscription carried a curse on a stolen ring. "Silver-Hand" is the English translation of "Celebrimbor", the Elven-smith who made the Rings of Power, in association with the Dwarven-smith Narvi. The temple was at a place called Dwarf's Hill.^{[T 25][11][10][12][13]}

Magical rings occur in classical legend, in the form of Plato's Ring of Gyges which grants the power of invisibility to its wearer, though there is no suggestion that this influenced Tolkien.^[14] He was certainly influenced, however, by the Germanic legend: Andvaranaut is a magical ring that can give its wielder wealth, while Draupnir is a self-multiplying ring that holds dominion over all the rings it creates. Richard Wagner's opera series Der Ring des Nibelungen adapted Norse mythology to provide a magical but cursed golden ring.^[15] Tolkien denied any connection, but scholars agreed that Wagner's Ring powerfully influenced Tolkien.^[16] The scholar of religion Stefan Arvidsson writes that Tolkien's ring differs from Wagner's in being concerned with power for its own sake and that he turned one ring into many, an echo of the self-multiplying ring.^[16]

"Magic rings are a frequent motif in fairy tales; they confer powers such as invisibility or flight; they can summon wish-granting djinns and dwarves", writes the Tolkien and feminist scholar Melanie Rawls "identify the enchanted princess, hold the tiny golden key to the secret room, give one the power to transform oneself into any form — animal, vegetable, or mineral: duck, lake, rock or tree on a plain, and so escape the ogre."^[17] As Tolkien was well acquainted with fairy tales like The Brothers Grimm's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which involves a magic ring, Jeanette White from Comic Book Resources suggested that his choice "to gift seven rings of power to the Dwarf Lords of the seven kingdoms is probably no accident".^[18][19]

Symbolism

Further information: Addiction to power in The Lord of the Rings

According to the scholars of philosophy Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson, the Rings of Power can be seen as a modern representation of the relationship between power and morality, remarking that it portrays an idea that "absolute power is in conflict with behaviour that respects the wishes and needs of others".^[4] They also observed that several of Tolkien's characters have responded in different ways when faced with the possibility of possessing the One Ring—characters such as Samwise Gamgee and Galadriel have rejected it; Boromir and Gollum were seduced by its power; and Frodo Baggins, though in limited use, ultimately succumbs to it; while Tom Bombadil can transcend from its power entirely.^[4] They also noted that for Tolkien, the crucial moment of each character in the story is the moment in which they are tempted to use a Ring, a choice which will determine their fate.^[20] The science fiction author Isaac Asimov described the Rings of Power as symbols of industrial technology.^[21][22] While Tolkien denied that The Lord of the Rings was an allegory, he stated that it could be applied to situations and described it as an examination of "placing power in external objects".^[1]

In a 2019 article published by Kaspersky Lab, Nikolay Pankov analysed Sauron's efforts to dominate or ensnare the bearers of the Rings of Power from a modern perspective, with reference to the context of Tolkien's enthusiasm in the field of cryptanalysis as well as his participation in a language course run by the Government Code and Cypher School during the late 1930s.^{[23][24][25][26]} Pankov used analogies to real-world information security terms such as supply chain attacks, phishing techniques, and botnet software to describe the struggles between Sauron and the various Ring-bearers who are representatives of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.^[24]

In adaptations

Rings of Power and their wearers as depicted in Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring— (above, from left) The Three Rings being worn by the Elves Gil-galad, Círdan, and Galadriel; (middle) The Dwarves raising their Seven Rings; (below) The Nine Kings of Men wielding their Rings

Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film The Lord of the Rings begins with the forging of the Rings of Power and the events of the War of the Last Alliance against Sauron, all of which are animated in a silhouette against a red background using rotoscoping.^[27]

The forging of the Rings of Power opens the prologue of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film series in the 2001 The Fellowship of the Ring. The Three Elven Rings are shown being cast using a cuttlebone mould, an ancient casting technique. These were given to Gil-galad (portrayed by Mark Ferguson), Círdan (Michael Elsworth), and Galadriel (Cate Blanchett).^[28] The Tolkien illustrator Alan Lee, employed as a conceptual designer for the films, had a cameo as one of the nine human Ring-bearers who later became the Nazgûl. Sauron (Sala Baker) is seen forging the One Ring at the chamber of Mount Doom.^[29] The One Ring was shown to have the ability to adjust in size to the finger of its wearer, such as when it became smaller to fit Isildur (Harry Sinclair). In the extended version, Galadriel properly introduces Nenya, the Ring of Adamant, to Frodo. In the concluding film, The Return of the King (2003), the final wearers of the Three Rings—Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Elrond (Hugo Weaving), and Galadriel, appear openly at the Grey Havens wearing the Three, with Galadriel proclaiming the end of its power and the beginning of the Dominion of Men.^[30]

Four Rings of Power appeared in Jackson's The Hobbit film series. In An Unexpected Journey (2012), the One Ring was found by Bilbo Baggins (portrayed by Martin Freeman).^[31] In the extended version of the succeeding film The Desolation of Smaug (2013), Gandalf discovers that Sauron took the Ring of Thrór (a Dwarf-Lord) from Thráin (Antony Sher), who revealed in a flashback scene his possession of the Ring during a siege of Moria.^[32] In the concluding film The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), Galadriel (Blanchett) reveals Nenya in rescuing Gandalf (McKellen) from Sauron (Benedict Cumberbatch), aided by Saruman (Christopher Lee) and Elrond (Weaving), who is wearing Vilya, the Ring of Air.^[33]

In the 2014 video game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, the wraith-like spirit of Celebrimbor (fused with the body of the Ranger Talion) recalls how Sauron had deceived him into forging the Rings of Power.^[34] In the sequel, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Celebrimbor forges a new Ring of Power unsullied by Sauron's influence.^[35]

See also

• The Palantíri – indestructible crystal stones that enable their users to communicate with users of the other stones
• The Silmarils – three jewels containing the light of the Two Trees of Valinor and the chief objects of The Silmarillion

References

Primary

This list identifies each item's location in Tolkien's writings.

1. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f} Tolkien 1980, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn"
2. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s} Tolkien 1977, p. 298, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
3. ^ Tolkien 1955, Appendix B: "The Third Age"
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b Tolkien 1980, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn": The original published edition of The Lord of the Rings states that Gil-galad and Círdan each received a Ring of Power, though in his subsequent works Gil-galad received both and later gave one to Círdan.
5. ^ Tolkien 1980, "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn": Christopher Tolkien notes that though it is implied that Sauron had taken possession of the Seven, there is no text detailing how those came into possession of the Dwarves, and the Dwarves of Moria maintained that their ring had come directly from Celebrimbor.
6. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g h} Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 2 "The Shadow of the Past"
7. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e} Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 2 "The Council of Elrond"
8. ^ Tolkien 1937, ch. 5 "Riddles in the Dark"
9. ^ Jump up to:^a b Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 9 "The Grey Havens"
10. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Carpenter 1981, p. 155, Letter #131 to Milton Waldman, late 1951
11. ^ Tolkien 1955, Appendix A: III. "Durin's Folk"
12. ^ Tolkien 1955, Appendix B "The Tale of Years"
13. ^ Jump up to:^a b Carpenter 1981, p. 155, Letter #121 to Allen & Unwin, 13 July 1949
14. ^ Jump up to:^a b Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 7 "The Mirror of Galadriel"
15. ^ Tolkien 1988, p. 78, "Of Gollum and the Ring"
16. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 1 "Many Meetings"
17. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 7 "In the House of Tom Bombadil"
18. ^ Carpenter 1981, p. 155, Letter #19 to Stanley Unwin, 16 December 1937
19. ^ Carpenter 1981, Letter #21 to Allen & Unwin, 1 February 1938
20. ^ Tolkien 1937: In the first published edition of The Hobbit, Gollum is portrayed as less obsessed with the One Ring, even offering it as a prize to Bilbo Baggins.
21. ^ Tolkien 1989, p. 155
22. ^ Tolkien 1989, p. 255
23. ^ Tolkien 1988, ch. 3 "Of Gollum and the Ring"
24. ^ Tolkien 1989, chs. 6, 7 "The Council of Elrond" (parts 1 & 2)
25. ^ Tolkien, J. R. R., "The Name Nodens", Appendix to "Report on the excavation of the prehistoric, Roman and post-Roman site in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire", Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1932; also in Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review, Vol. 4, 2007

Secondary

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Bassham & Bronson 2013, pp. 23–25.
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b Drout 2006, p. 573.
3. ^ Strachan & Moseley 2017, p. 62.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Bassham & Bronson 2013, p. 6-7
5. ^ Köberl 2006, p. 4.
6. ^ Köberl 2006, p. 1.
7. ^ Rérolle 2012.
8. ^ Drout 2006, p. 572.
9. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Köberl 2006, p. 16
10. ^ Jump up to:^a b Anger, Don N. (2013) [2007]. "Report on the Excavation of the Prehistoric, Roman and Post-Roman Site in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. Routledge. pp. 563–564. ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
11. ^ Lyons, Mathew (2004). There and Back Again: In the Footsteps of J. R. R. Tolkien. London: Cadogan Guides. p. 63. ISBN 978-1860111396.
12. ^ Armstrong, Helen (May 1997). "And Have an Eye to That Dwarf". Amon Hen: The Bulletin of the Tolkien Society (145): 13–14.
13. ^ Bowers, John M. (2019). Tolkien's Lost Chaucer. Oxford University Press. pp. 131–132. ISBN 978-0-19-884267-5.
14. ^ Radeska, Tijana (28 February 2018). "The idea of "the Ring" existed centuries before Tolkien's epic saga". The Vintage News.
15. ^ Simek 2005, pp. 165, 173
16. ^ Jump up to:^a b Arvidsson, Stefan (2010). "Greed and the Nature of Evil: Tolkien versus Wagner" (PDF). Journal of Religion and Popular Culture. 22 (2). article 7. doi:10.3138/jrpc.22.2.007.
17. ^ Rawls, Melanie (1984). "The Rings of Power". Mythlore. 11 (2). Article 5.
18. ^ White, Jeannette (20 February 2021). "Are Lord of the Rings and Disney's Snow White Part of the Same Universe?". CBR. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
19. ^ Grundhauser, Eric (25 April 2017). "The Movie Date That Solidified J.R.R. Tolkien's Dislike of Walt Disney". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
20. ^ Bassham & Bronson 2013, p. 10.
21. ^ Asimov 1996, p. 155, Concerning Tolkien.
22. ^ Bassham & Bronson 2013, p. 21.
23. ^ Garth, John (2003). Tolkien and the Great War. Harper-Collins. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-00-711953-0.
24. ^ Jump up to:^a b Pankov, Nikolay (1 March 2019). "Cybersecurity report from Middle-earth". Kaspersky Lab. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
25. ^ "JRR Tolkien trained as British spy". The Telegraph. 16 September 2009. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
26. ^ "JRR Tolkien was keen to become a cryptanalyst". Government Communications Headquarters. 1 September 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
27. ^ Gilkeson 2018.
28. ^ Pak, Jaron (24 July 2019). "The most powerful elves in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings". Looper.com. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
29. ^ "Interview: December 16, 2005". The Book Report, Inc. 16 December 2005. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
30. ^ Elvy, Craig (8 November 2019). "Lord Of The Rings: What Happened To The OTHER Rings Of Power". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
31. ^ "Gollum and Bilbo Meet in New Clip From The Hobbit". CraveOnline. 12 December 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
32. ^ "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Extended Edition Scene Guide". TheOneRing.net. 21 October 2014. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
33. ^ Nuwer, Rachel (19 December 2014). "The Tolkien Nerd's Guide to "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies"". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
34. ^ Beck, Kellen (9 June 2017). "There's a new ring of power in Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' universe". Mashable. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
35. ^ Kain, Erik (27 February 2017). "New Ring Of Power Probably A Bad Idea In 'Middle-earth: Shadow of War'". Forbes. Retrieved 2 December 2019.

Bibliography

• Asimov, Isaac (1996). Magic: The Final Fantasy Collection. New York: Harper Prism. ISBN 0-061-05205-1.
• Bassham, Gregory; Bronson, Eric (2013). The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All. Chicago: Open Court. ISBN 978-0-812-69806-0.
• Drout, Michael (2006). Drout, Michael D.C (ed.). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Abingdon: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203961513. ISBN 1-135-88034-4.
• Gilkeson, Austin (13 November 2018). "Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings Brought Tolkien from the Counterculture to the Big Screen". Tor.com. Tor Books. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
• Köberl, Johann. "The Lord of the Rings: Genesis" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 February 2008. Retrieved 14 June 2006.
• Rérolle, Raphaëlle (5 December 2012). "My Father's 'Eviscerated' Work – Son Of Hobbit Scribe J.R.R. Tolkien Finally Speaks Out". Le Monde/Worldcrunch. Archived from the original on 10 February 2013.
• Simek, Rudolf (2005). Mittelerde: Tolkien und die germanische Mythologie [Middle-earth: Tolkien and the Germanic Mythology] (in German). C. H. Beck. ISBN 978-3406528378.
• Strachan, Jackie; Moseley, Jane (2017). The Order of Things: How hierarchies help us make sense of the world. United Kingdom: Hachette. ISBN 978-1-472-13991-7.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1937). Douglas A. Anderson (ed.). The Annotated Hobbit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (published 2002). ISBN 978-0-618-13470-0.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954a), The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, OCLC 9552942
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1955), The Return of the King, The Lord of the Rings, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, OCLC 519647821
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1977), Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 978-0-395-25730-2
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1989), Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Treason of Isengard, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 978-0-395-51562-4
• Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (1981), The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 978-0-395-31555-2
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1988), Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Return of the Shadow, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 978-0-395-49863-7
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1980), Christopher Tolkien (ed.), Unfinished Tales, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 978-0-395-29917-3

* * * * * * *

One Ring

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Several terms redirect here. For other uses of "One ring", see One ring (disambiguation). For other uses of "Great Ring", see Great Ring (disambiguation).

The One Ring
Artist's representation
First appearance	The Hobbit (1937)
Created by	J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre	Fantasy
In-story information
Type	Magical ring
Function	Invisibility Power augmentation Will domination Control over other Rings of Power
Specific traits and abilities	Plain gold ring; glowing inscription appears when ring is placed in flames; can change in size by its own will

The One Ring, also called the Ruling Ring and Isildur's Bane, is a central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). It first appeared in the earlier story The Hobbit (1937) as a magic ring that grants the wearer invisibility. Tolkien changed it into a malevolent Ring of Power and re-wrote parts of The Hobbit to fit in with the expanded narrative. The Lord of the Rings describes the hobbit Frodo Baggins's quest to destroy the Ring.

Critics have compared the story with the ring-based plot of Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen; Tolkien denied any connection, but at the least, both men drew on the same mythology. Another source is Tolkien's analysis of Nodens, an obscure pagan god with a temple at Lydney Park, where he studied the Latin inscriptions, one containing a curse on the thief of a ring.

Tolkien rejected the idea that the story was an allegory, saying that applicability to situations such as the Second World War and the atomic bomb was a matter for readers. Other parallels have been drawn with the Ring of Gyges in Plato's Republic, which conferred invisibility, though there is no suggestion that Tolkien borrowed from the story.

Fictional description

Purpose

The One Ring was forged by the Dark Lord Sauron during the Second Age to gain dominion over the free peoples of Middle-earth. In disguise as Annatar, or "Lord of Gifts", he aided the Elven smiths of Eregion and their leader Celebrimbor in the making of the Rings of Power. He then forged the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom.^{[T 1]}

Sauron intended it to be the most powerful of all Rings, able to rule and control those who wore the others. Since the other Rings were powerful on their own, Sauron was obliged to place much of his own power into the One to achieve his purpose.^{[T 2]}

Creating the Ring simultaneously strengthened and weakened Sauron. With the Ring, he could control the power of all the other Rings, and thus he was significantly more powerful after its creation than before;^{[T 3]} but by binding his power within the Ring, Sauron became dependent on it.^{[T 1][T 3]}

Appearance

The Ring seemed to be made simply of gold, but it was completely impervious to damage, even to dragon fire (unlike other rings).^{[T 1]} It could be destroyed only by throwing it into the pit of the volcanic Mount Doom where it had been forged. Like some lesser rings, but unlike the other Rings of Power, it bore no gem. It could change size, and perhaps its weight, and could suddenly expand to escape from its wearer.^{[T 1]} Its identity could be determined by placing it in a fire, when it displayed a fiery inscription in the Black Speech that Sauron had devised. This was written in the Elvish Tengwar script, with two lines in the Black Speech from the rhyme of lore describing the Rings:^{[T 4]}

Black Speech written in Tengwar	Black Speech (Romanised)	English translation
	Ash nazg durbatulûk,    ash nazg gimbatul, Ash nazg thrakatulûk    agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.	One ring to rule them all,    one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all    and in the darkness bind them.

When Isildur cut the Ring from Sauron's hand, it was burning hot, its inscription legible; he transcribed it before it faded. Gandalf learned of the secret inscription from Isildur's account, and heated Frodo's ring to reveal it, proving it to be the One Ring. Gandalf recited the inscription (Pronunciation) in Black Speech at the Council of Elrond, causing everyone to tremble:^{[T 5]}

The change in the wizard's voice was astounding. Suddenly it became menacing, powerful, harsh as stone. A shadow seemed to pass over the high sun, and the porch for a moment grew dark. All trembled, and the Elves stopped their ears.^{[T 5]}

Internal history

Further information: Celebrimbor

After forging the ring, Sauron waged war on the Elves. He destroyed Eregion and killed Celebrimbor, the maker of the three Elf-rings. King Tar-Minastir of Númenor sent a great fleet to Middle-earth, and with this aid Gil-galad destroyed Sauron's army and forced Sauron to return to Mordor.^{[T 2]}

Later, Ar-Pharazôn, the last and most powerful king of Númenor, landed at Umbar with an immense army, forcing Sauron's armies to flee. Sauron was taken to Númenor as a prisoner.^{[T 6]} Tolkien wrote in a 1958 letter that the surrender was both "voluntary and cunning" so he could gain access to Númenor.^{[T 7]} Sauron used the Númenóreans' fear of death to turn them against the Valar, and manipulate them into worshipping his master, Morgoth, with human sacrifice.^{[T 6]}

Sauron's body was destroyed in the Fall of Númenor, but his spirit travelled back to Middle-earth and wielded the One Ring in renewed war against the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.^{[T 6]} Tolkien wrote, "I do not think one need boggle at this spirit carrying off the One Ring, upon which his power of dominating minds now largely depended."^{[T 7]}

Gil-galad and Elendil destroyed Sauron's physical form at the end of the Last Alliance, at the cost of their own lives. Elendil's son, Isildur, cut the Ring from Sauron's hand on the slopes of Mount Doom. Though counselled to destroy the Ring, he was swayed by its power and kept it "as weregild for my father, and my brother". A few years later, Isildur was ambushed by Orcs by the River Anduin near the Gladden Fields; he put on the Ring to escape, but it chose to slip from his finger as he swam, and, suddenly visible, he was killed by the Orcs. Since the Ring indirectly caused Isildur's death, it was known in Gondorian lore as "Isildur's Bane".^{[T 2]}

The Ring remained hidden on the river bed for almost two and a half millennia, until it was discovered on a fishing trip by a Stoor hobbit named Déagol. His friend and relative Sméagol, who had gone fishing with him, was immediately ensnared by the Ring's power and demanded that Déagol give it to him as a "birthday present"; when Déagol refused, Sméagol strangled him and took the Ring. It corrupted his body and mind, turning him into the monstrous Gollum. The Ring manipulated Gollum into hiding in a cave under the Misty Mountains near Mirkwood, where Sauron was beginning to resurface. There Gollum remained for nearly 500 years, using the Ring to hunt Orcs. The Ring eventually abandoned Gollum, knowing it would never leave the cave whilst he bore it.^{[T 1]}

As told in The Hobbit, Bilbo found the Ring while lost in the tunnels near Gollum's lair. In the first edition, Gollum offers to surrender the Ring to Bilbo as a reward for winning the Riddle Game. When Tolkien was writing The Lord of the Rings, he realized that the Ring's grip on Gollum would never permit him to give it up willingly. He therefore revised The Hobbit: in the second edition, after losing the Riddle Game to Bilbo, Gollum went to get his "Precious" to help him kill and eat Bilbo, but found the Ring missing.^[1] Deducing from Bilbo's last question—"What have I got in my pocket?"—that Bilbo had found the Ring, Gollum chased him through the caves, not realizing that Bilbo had discovered the Ring's power of invisibility and was following him to the cave's mouth. Bilbo escaped Gollum and the goblins by remaining invisible, but he chose not to tell Gandalf and the dwarves that the Ring had made him invisible. Instead he told them a story that followed the first edition: that Gollum had given him the Ring and shown him the way out. Gandalf was immediately suspicious of the Ring, and later forced the real story from Bilbo.^{[T 1][T 8][T 9]}

Gollum eventually left the Misty Mountains to track down the Ring. He was drawn to Mordor, where he was captured. Sauron tortured and interrogated him, learning that the Ring had been found and was held by one "Baggins" in the land of "Shire".^{[T 1]}

The Ring began to strain Bilbo, leaving him feeling "stretched-out and thin", so he decided to leave the Shire, intending to pass the Ring to his adopted heir Frodo Baggins. He briefly gave in to the Ring's power, even calling it "my precious"; alarmed, Gandalf spoke harshly to his old friend to persuade him to give it up, which Bilbo did, becoming the first Ring-bearer to surrender it willingly.^{[T 10]}

By this time Sauron had regained much of his power, and the Dark Tower in Mordor had been rebuilt. Gollum, released from Mordor, was captured by Aragorn. Gandalf learned from Gollum that Sauron now knew where to find the Ring.^{[T 11]} To prevent Sauron from reclaiming his Ring, Frodo and eight other companions set out from Rivendell for Mordor to destroy the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom.^{[T 12]} During the quest, Frodo gradually fell under the Ring's power. When he and his faithful servant Sam Gamgee discovered Gollum on their trail and "tamed" him into guiding them to Mordor, Frodo began to feel a bond with the wretched, treacherous creature, while Gollum warmed to Frodo's kindness and made an effort to keep his promise.^{[T 13]} Gollum however gave in to the Ring's temptation, and betrayed Frodo to the spider Shelob.^{[T 14]} Believing Frodo to be dead, Sam bore the Ring himself for a short time and experienced the temptation it induced.^{[T 15]}

Sam rescued Frodo from Orcs at the Tower of Cirith Ungol.^{[T 16]} The hobbits, followed by Gollum, reached Mount Doom, where Frodo was overcome by the Ring's power and claimed it for himself. At that moment, Gollum bit off his finger, taking back the Ring, but, gloating, he and the Ring fell into the fires of Mount Doom. The Ring and Sauron's power were destroyed.^{[T 17]}

Powers

The Ring's primary power was control of the other Rings of Power and domination of the wills of their users.^{[T 3]} The Ring also conferred power to dominate the wills of other beings whether they were wearing Rings or not—but only in proportion to the user's native capacity. In the same way, it amplified any inherent power its owner possessed.^{[T 3]}

A mortal .. who keeps one of the Great Rings, does not die, but he does not grow or obtain more life, he merely continues, until at last every minute is a weariness. And if he often uses the Ring to make himself invisible, he fades: he becomes in the end invisible permanently, and walks in the twilight under the eye of the dark power that rules the Rings.

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring^{[T 1]}

A mortal wearing the Ring became effectively invisible except to those able to perceive the non-physical world, with only a thin, shaky shadow discernible in the brightest sunlight.^{[T 3]} All the same, when Sam wore the ring on the edge of Mordor, "he did not feel invisible at all, but horribly and uniquely visible; and he knew that somewhere an Eye was searching for him".^{[T 15]} Sam was able to understand the Black Speech of Orcs in Mordor during his brief possession of the One Ring.^{[T 18]}

The Ring extended the life of a mortal possessor indefinitely, preventing natural aging. Gandalf explained that it did not grant new life, but that the possessor merely continued until life became unbearably wearisome.^{[T 1]} The Ring did not protect its bearer from destruction; Gollum perished in the Crack of Doom,^{[T 19]} and Sauron's body was destroyed in the downfall of Númenor. Like the Nine Rings, the One Ring physically corrupted mortals who wore it, eventually transforming them into wraiths. Hobbits were more resistant to this than Men: Gollum, who possessed the ring for 500 years, did not become wraith-like because he rarely wore the Ring.^{[T 1]} Except for Tom Bombadil, nobody seemed to be immune to the corrupting effects of the One Ring, even powerful beings like Gandalf and Galadriel, who refused to wield it out of the knowledge that they would become like Sauron himself.^{[T 5]}

Within the land of Mordor where it was forged, the Ring's power increased so significantly that even without wearing it the bearer could draw upon it, and could acquire an aura of terrible power. When Sam encountered an Orc in the Tower of Cirith Ungol while holding the Ring, he appeared to the terrified Orc as a powerful warrior cloaked in shadow "[holding] some nameless menace of power and doom".^{[T 16]} Similarly at Mount Doom, when Frodo and Sam were attacked by Gollum, Frodo grabbed the Ring and appeared as "a figure robed in white... [that] held a wheel of fire". Frodo told Gollum "in a commanding voice" that "If you touch me ever again, you shall be cast yourself into the Fire of Doom", a prophecy soon fulfilled.^{[T 17]}

As the Ring contained much of Sauron's power, it was endowed with a malevolent agency. While separated from Sauron, the Ring strove to return to him by manipulating its bearer to claim ownership of it, or by abandoning its bearer.^{[T 20]}

To master the Ring's capabilities, a Ring bearer would need a well-trained mind, a strong will, and great native power. Those with weaker minds, such as hobbits and lesser Men, would gain little from the Ring, let alone realize its full potential. Even for one with the necessary strength, it would have taken time to master the Ring's power sufficiently to overthrow Sauron.^{[T 20]}

The Ring did not render its bearer omnipotent. Three times Sauron suffered military defeat while bearing the Ring, first by Gil-galad in the War of Sauron and the Elves, then by Ar-Pharazôn when Númenórean power so overawed his armies that they deserted him, and at the end of the Second Age with his personal defeat by Gil-galad and Elendil.^{[T 2]} Tolkien indicates in a speech by Elrond that such a defeat would not have been possible in the waning years of the Third Age, when the strength of the free peoples was greatly diminished. There were no remaining heroes of the stature of Gil-galad, Elendil, or Isildur; the strength of the Elves was fading and they were departing to the Blessed Realm; and the Númenórean kingdoms had either declined or been destroyed, and had few allies.^{[T 5]}

Fate of the Ring-bearers

Of the Ring-bearers, three were alive after the Ring's destruction, the hobbits Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam. Bilbo, having borne the Ring the longest, had his life much prolonged. Frodo was scarred physically and mentally by his quest. Sam, having only briefly kept the Ring, was affected the least. In consideration of the trials Bilbo and Frodo faced, the Valar allowed them to travel to the Undying Lands, accompanying Galadriel, Elrond, and Gandalf. Sam is also said to have been taken to the Undying Lands, after living in the Shire for many years and raising a large family. Tolkien emphasized that the restorative sojourn of the Ring-bearers in the Undying Lands would not have been permanent. As mortals, they would eventually die and leave the world of Eä.^{[T 20]}

Analysis

Further information: J. R. R. Tolkien's influences

Norse mythology and Wagner

Critics have noted parallels with Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, as seen here in Josef Hoffman's 1876 set design for Das Rheingold, though they disagree on its influence on Tolkien.

Further information: Gollum § Wagner

Tolkien's use of the Ring was influenced by Norse mythology. While at King Edward's School in Birmingham, he read and translated from the Old Norse in his free time. One of his first Norse purchases was the Völsunga saga. While a student, he read the only available English translation,^[2][3] the 1870 rendering by William Morris of the Victorian Arts and Crafts movement and Icelandic scholar Eiríkur Magnússon.^[4] That saga and the Middle High German Nibelungenlied were coeval texts that used the same ancient sources.^[5][6] Both of them provided some of the basis for Richard Wagner's opera series, Der Ring des Nibelungen, featuring in particular a magical but cursed golden ring and a broken sword reforged. In the Völsunga saga, these items are respectively Andvaranaut and Gram, and they correspond broadly to the One Ring and the sword Narsil (reforged as Andúril).^[7]

Tolkien dismissed critics' direct comparisons to Wagner, telling his publisher, "Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases."^{[T 21][T 22]} Some critics hold that Tolkien's work borrows so liberally from Wagner that it exists in the shadow of Wagner's.^[8] Others, such as Gloriana St. Clair, attribute the resemblances to the fact that Tolkien and Wagner had created works based on the same sources in Norse mythology.^[9][8] Tom Shippey and other researchers hold an intermediary position, stating that the authors indeed used the same source materials, but that Tolkien was indebted to some of the original developments, insights and artistic uses of those sources that first appeared in Wagner, and sought to improve upon them.^[10][11][12]

Nodens

Tolkien visited the temple of Nodens at a place called "Dwarf's Hill" and translated an inscription with a curse upon the thief of a ring. It may have inspired his dwarves, mines, rings, and Celebrimbor "Silver-Hand", the Elven-smith who forged Rings of Power.^[13]

Further information: Nodens

In 1928, a 4th-century pagan mystery cult temple was excavated at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire.^[14] Tolkien was asked to investigate a Latin inscription there, which mentioned the theft of a ring, with a curse upon its thief:

For the god Nodens. Silvianus has lost a ring and has donated one-half [its worth] to Nodens. Among those who are called Senicianus do not allow health until he brings it to the temple of Nodens.^[15]

The Anglo-Saxon name for the place was Dwarf's Hill, and in 1932 Tolkien traced Nodens to the Irish hero Nuada Airgetlám, "Nuada of the Silver-Hand".^{[T 23]} Shippey thought this "a pivotal influence" on Tolkien's Middle-earth, combining as it did a god-hero, a ring, dwarves, and a silver hand.^[13] The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia notes the "Hobbit-like appearance of [Dwarf's Hill]'s mine-shaft holes", and that Tolkien was extremely interested in the hill's folklore on his stay there; it cites Helen Armstrong's comment that the place may have inspired Tolkien's "Celebrimbor and the fallen realms of Moria and Eregion".^[13][16] The scholar of English literature John M. Bowers writes that the name of the Elven-smith Celebrimbor, who forged the Elf-rings, is the Sindarin for "Silver Hand".^[17]

Applicability not allegory

Tolkien stated that The Lord of the Rings was not a point-by-point allegory, particularly not of political events of his time such as the Second World War.^{[T 24]} At the same time he contrasted "applicability", which he described as "within the "freedom of the reader", and "allegory" as "the purposed domination of the author".^{[T 24]} He stated that had the Second World War "inspired or directed the development of the legend" as an allegory, then the fate of the Ring, and of Middle-earth, would have been very different:^{[T 24]}

Tolkien's analysis of how the One Ring would have appeared in an allegory^{[T 24]}

Story element	The Lord of the Rings	Allegory in Foreword
The Ring	Destroyed	Seized, used against Sauron
Sauron	Annihilated	Enslaved
Barad-dur	Destroyed	Occupied
Saruman	Fails to get the Ring, is killed	Goes to Mordor; in the confusion and treachery learns to make his own Ring, makes war on the new Ruler of Middle-earth
Outcome	Peace, the Shire restored	War, hobbits enslaved and destroyed

Anne C. Petty, writing in The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, notes that Tolkien was all the same quite capable of using "allegorical elements when it suited his purpose", and that he agreed that the approach of war in 1938 "had had some effect on it": The Lord of the Rings was applicable to the horror of war in general, as long as it was not taken as a point-by-point allegory of any particular war, with false equations like "Sauron=Satan or Hitler or Stalin, Gandalf=God or Churchill, Aragorn=Christ or MacArthur, the Ring=the atomic bomb, Mordor=Hell or Russia or Germany".^[18]

One aspect of such applicability, that the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes is rarely picked up by readers, is that Tolkien chose dates of symbolic importance in Christianity for the quest to destroy the Ring. It began in Rivendell on 25 December, the date of Christmas, and ended on Mount Doom on 25 March, a traditional Anglo-Saxon date for the crucifixion.^[19]

Parallels with Plato's Republic

The shepherd Gyges finds the magic ring, setting up a moral dilemma. Ferrara, 16th century

Further information: Ring of Gyges

A source that Tolkien "might have borrowed"^[20] from, though there is no evidence for this, is Plato's Republic. Its second book tells the story of the Ring of Gyges that gave its owner the power of invisibility. In so doing, it created a moral dilemma, enabling people to commit injustices without fearing they would be caught.^[20] In contrast, Tolkien's Ring actively exerts an evil force that destroys the morality of the wearer.^{[T 1]}

The scholar of humanities Frederick A. de Armas notes parallels between Plato's and Tolkien's rings, and suggests that both Bilbo and Gyges, going into deep dark places to find hidden treasure, may have "undergone a Catabasis", a psychological journey to the Underworld.^[21]

Frederick A. de Armas's comparison of Plato's and Tolkien's rings^[21]

Story element	Plato's Republic	Tolkien's Middle-earth
Ring's power	Invisibility	Invisibility, and corruption of the wearer
Discovery	Gyges finds ring in a deep chasm	Bilbo finds ring in a deep cave
First use	Gyges ravishes the Queen, kills the King, becomes King of Lydia	Bilbo puts ring on "by accident", is surprised Gollum does not see him
Moral result	Total failure	Bilbo emerges strengthened

The Tolkien scholar Eric Katz, without suggesting that Tolkien was aware of the Ring of Gyges, writes that "Plato argues that such [moral] corruption will occur, but Tolkien shows us this corruption through the thoughts and actions of his characters".^[22] In Katz's view, Plato tries to counter the "cynical conclusion" that moral life is chosen by the weak; Glaucon thinks that people are only "good" because they suppose they will be caught if they are not. Plato argues that immoral life is no good as it corrupts one's soul. So, Katz states, according to Plato a moral person has peace and happiness, and would not use a Ring of Power.^[22] In Katz's view, Tolkien's story "demonstrate[s] various responses to the question posed by Plato: would a just person be corrupted by the possibility of almost unlimited power?"^[22] The question is answered in different ways: Gollum is weak, quickly corrupted, and finally destroyed; Boromir begins virtuous but like Plato's Gyges is corrupted "by the temptation of power"^[22] from the Ring, even if he wants to use it for good, but redeems himself by defending the hobbits to his own death; the "strong and virtuous"^[22] Galadriel, who sees clearly what she would become if she accepted the ring, and rejects it; the immortal Tom Bombadil, exempt from the Ring's corrupting power and from its gift of invisibility; Sam who in a moment of need faithfully uses the ring, but is not seduced by its vision of "Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age"; and finally Frodo who is gradually corrupted, but is saved by his earlier mercy to Gollum, and Gollum's desperation for the Ring. Katz concludes that Tolkien's answer to Plato's "Why be moral?" is "to be yourself".^[22]

Object of the quest

Diagram of Brian Rosebury's analysis of The Lord of the Rings, as a combined Quest (to destroy the Ring) and Journey (as a series of Tableaux of places in Middle-earth); the two support each other, and must interlock tightly to do so^[23]

The scholar of the humanities Brian Rosebury noted that The Lord of the Rings combines a slow, descriptive series of scenes or tableaux illustrating Middle-earth with a unifying plotline in the shape of the quest to destroy the Ring. The Ring needs to be destroyed to save Middle-earth itself from destruction or domination by Sauron. The work builds up Middle-earth as a place that readers come to love, shows that it is under dire threat, and – with the destruction of the Ring – provides the "eucatastrophe" for a happy ending. The work is thus, Rosebury asserted, very tightly constructed, the expansive descriptions and the Ring-based plot fitting together exactly.^[23]

Addiction to power

Main article: Addiction to power in The Lord of the Rings

The Ring offers power to its wearer, and progressively corrupts the wearer's mind to evil.^[24][25] The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey applies Lord Acton's 1887 statement that "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men" to it. He notes that the opinion is distinctively modern, and that other modern authors such as George Orwell with Animal Farm (1945), William Golding with Lord of the Flies (1954), and T. H. White with The Once and Future King (1958) similarly wrote about the corrupting effects of power. When the critic Colin Manlove described Tolkien's attitude to power as inconsistent, arguing that the supposedly overwhelming Ring was handed over easily enough by Sam and Bilbo, and had little effect on Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, Shippey replies in "one word" that the explanation is simple: the Ring is addictive, increasing in effect with exposure.^[26] Other scholars concur about its addictive nature.^{[24][25][27][28]}

Adaptations

The One Ring in Peter Jackson's films.

In the 1981 BBC Radio serial of The Lord of the Rings, the Nazgûl chant the Ring-inscription; the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's sound effects for the Nazgul and the Black Speech of Mordor have been described as "nightmarish".^[29][30]

In Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the wearer of the Ring is portrayed as moving through a shadowy realm where everything is distorted. The effects of the Ring on Bilbo and Frodo are obsessions that have been compared with drug addiction; the actor Andy Serkis, who played Gollum, cited drug addiction as an inspiration for his performance.^[31] The actual ring for the films was designed and created by Jens Hansen Gold & Silversmith in Nelson, New Zealand, and was based on a simple wedding ring.^[32][33] Polygon highlighted that "the workshop produced approximately 40 different rings for the films. Most expensive were the 18 carat solid gold 'hero' rings, sized ten for Frodo’s hand and 11 for the chain. [...] To save money — though not time — the workshop used gold-plated sterling silver for most of the rings. [...] For many fans, the ring used in close-ups — like the scene where the Ring slips away from Frodo to lure Boromir in the snow at Caradhras, or when arguing participants in the Council of Elrond are shown reflected in the Ring’s surface — is the real hero ring. In order to capture the ring’s sheen in high definition, that prop was a full eight inches wide — too big even for Hansen’s tools. Instead, a local machine shop made and polished the shape that Hansen’s team then plated".^[33]

A tabletop roleplaying game set in Middle-earth and called "The One Ring" was manufactured by Cubicle 7;^[34] a new edition is planned by a partnership of Sophisticated Games and Free League Publishing from 2020.^[35][36]

References

Primary

This list identifies each item's location in Tolkien's writings.

1. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 2 "The Shadow of the Past"
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Tolkien 1977, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
3. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e} Carpenter 1981, #131 to Milton Waldman, late 1951
4. ^ A drawing of the inscription and a translation provided by Gandalf appears in Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 2 "The Shadow of the Past"
5. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 2, "The Council of Elrond"
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Tolkien 1977, "Akallabêth"
7. ^ Jump up to:^a b Carpenter 1981, #211 to Rhona Beare, 14 October 1958
8. ^ Tolkien 1937, ch. 5 "Riddles in the Dark"
9. ^ Tolkien 1954a, Prologue "Of the Finding of the Ring"
10. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 1, ch. 1 "A Long-expected Party"
11. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 2 "The Council of Elrond"
12. ^ Tolkien 1954a, book 2, ch. 3 "The Ring goes South"
13. ^ Tolkien 1954, book 4, ch. 1 "The Taming of Sméagol"
14. ^ Tolkien 1954, book 4, ch. 9 "Shelob's Lair"
15. ^ Jump up to:^a b Tolkien 1954, book 4, ch. 10 "The Choices of Master Samwise"
16. ^ Jump up to:^a b Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 1 "The Tower of Cirith Ungol"
17. ^ Jump up to:^a b Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 3 "Mount Doom"
18. ^ Tolkien (1954), book 4, ch. 10 "The Choices of Master Samwise"
19. ^ Tolkien 1955, book 6, ch. 4, "The Field of Cormallen"
20. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Carpenter 1981, #246 to Mrs Eileen Elgar, September 1963 drafts
21. ^ Carpenter 1981, #229 to Allen & Unwin, 23 February 1961
22. ^ Carpenter 1977, p. 206
23. ^ J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Name Nodens", Appendix to "Report on the excavation of the prehistoric, Roman and post-Roman site in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire", Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1932; also in Tolkien Studies: An Annual Scholarly Review, Vol. 4, 2007
24. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Tolkien 1954a, "Foreword to the Second Edition"

Secondary

1. ^ Hammond & Scull 2005, pp. 38–39.
2. ^ Byock 1990, p. 31
3. ^ Carpenter 1977, pp. 71–73, 77
4. ^ Morris, William; Magnússon, Eiríkur, eds. (1870). Völsunga Saga: The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs, with Certain Songs from the Elder Edda. London: F. S. Ellis. p. xi.
5. ^ Evans, Jonathan. "The Dragon Lore of Middle-earth: Tolkien and Old English and Old Norse Tradition". In Clark & Timmons 2000, pp. 24, 25
6. ^ Simek 2005, pp. 163–165
7. ^ Simek 2005, pp. 165, 173
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b Ross, Alex (22 December 2003). "The Ring and the Rings: Wagner vs Tolkien". The New Yorker.
9. ^ St. Clair, Gloriana (2000). Tolkien's Cauldron: Northern Literature and The Lord of the Rings. Carnegie Mellon University. OCLC 53923141.
10. ^ Shippey, Tom (1992). The Road to Middle-earth. Allen & Unwin. p. 296. ISBN 978-0-261-10275-0.
11. ^ Wickham-Crowley, Kelley M. (2008). "Roots and Branches: Selected Papers on Tolkien (review)". Tolkien Studies. 5 (1): 233–244. doi:10.1353/tks.0.0021. S2CID 170410627.
12. ^ Manni, Franco (8 December 2004). "Roots and Branches: A Book Review". The Valar Guild. Translated by Bishop, Jimmy. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
13. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Anger, Don N. (2013) [2007]. "Report on the Excavation of the Prehistoric, Roman and Post-Roman Site in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge. pp. 563–564. ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
14. ^ Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982]. The Road to Middle-Earth (Third ed.). Grafton (HarperCollins). pp. 40–41. ISBN 978-0261102750.
15. ^ "RIB 306. Curse upon Senicianus". Roman Inscriptions of Britain. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
16. ^ Armstrong, Helen (May 1997). "And Have an Eye to That Dwarf". Amon Hen: The Bulletin of the Tolkien Society (145): 13–14.
17. ^ Bowers, John M. (2019). Tolkien's Lost Chaucer. Oxford University Press. pp. 131–132. ISBN 978-0-19-884267-5.
18. ^ Petty, Anne C. (2013) [2007]. "Allegory". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Routledge. pp. 6–7. ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.
19. ^ Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982]. The Road to Middle-Earth (Third ed.). HarperCollins. p. 227. ISBN 978-0261102750.
20. ^ Jump up to:^a b Radeska, Tijana (28 February 2018). "The idea of "the Ring" existed centuries before Tolkien's epic saga". The Vintage News.
21. ^ Jump up to:^a b de Armas, Frederick A. (1994). "Gyges' Ring: Invisibility in Plato, Tolkien and Lope de Vega". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 3 (3/4): 120–138. JSTOR 43308203.
22. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f} Katz, Eric (2003). Bassham, Gregory (ed.). The Rings of Tolkien and Plato: Lessons in Power, Choice, and Morality. The Lord of the rings and philosophy : one book to rule them all. Open Court. pp. 5–20. ISBN 978-0-8126-9545-8. OCLC 863158193.
23. ^ Jump up to:^a b Rosebury, Brian (2003) [1992]. Tolkien : A Cultural Phenomenon. Palgrave. pp. 1–3, 12–13, 25–34, 41, 57. ISBN 978-1403-91263-3.
24. ^ Jump up to:^a b Perkins, Agnes; Hill, Helen (1975). "The Corruption of Power". In Lobdell, Jared (ed.). A Tolkien Compass. Open Court. pp. 57–68. ISBN 978-0875483030.
25. ^ Jump up to:^a b Roberts, Adam (2006). "The One Ring". In Eaglestone, Robert (ed.). Reading The Lord of the Rings: New Writings on Tolkien's Classic. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 63. ISBN 9780826484604.
26. ^ Shippey 2002, pp. 112–119.
27. ^ Sommer, Mark (7 July 2004). "Addicted to the Ring". Hollywoodjesus.com – Pop Culture From A Spiritual Point of View. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
28. ^ Yell, David M. (2007). The Drama of Man. Xulon Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-1-60266-768-6.
29. ^ "Nazgul.wav". 25 October 2009. Archived from the original (WAV) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
30. ^ "Audiobook Review: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers(1981)". The Orkney News. 22 January 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
31. ^ "Andy Serkis BBC interview". BBC News. 21 March 2003.
32. ^ "The Replica Ring or The One Ring". Jens Hansen - Gold & Silversmith. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
33. ^ Jump up to:^a b Murphy, Sara (6 October 2021). "The jeweler who forged the One Ring never got to see it". Polygon. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
34. ^ "The One Ring 2nd Ed Character Customisation". Cubicle 7. 12 September 2019. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
35. ^ "Free League Signs Deal to Publish RPGs in Tolkien's Middle-Earth". Free League. 9 March 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
36. ^ Jarvis, Matt (10 March 2020). "Tales from the Loop studio becomes new publisher for Lord of the Rings RPGs The One Ring and Adventures in Middle-earth". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 4 November 2020.

Sources

• Byock, Jesse L. (1990). The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-06904-8.
• Carpenter, Humphrey (1977), J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography, New York: Ballantine Books, ISBN 978-0-04-928037-3
• Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (1981), The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 978-0-395-31555-2
• Clark, George; Timmons, Daniel, eds. (2000). J. R. R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances: Views of Middle-Earth. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-30845-4.
• Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2005). The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-720907-1.
• Shippey, Tom (2002). J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0261104013.
• Simek, Rudolf (2005). Mittelerde: Tolkien und die germanische Mythologie [Middle-earth: Tolkien and the Germanic Mythology] (in German). C. H. Beck. ISBN 978-3406528378.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1937). Douglas A. Anderson (ed.). The Annotated Hobbit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (published 2002). ISBN 978-0-618-13470-0.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954a), The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, OCLC 9552942
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954), The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, OCLC 1042159111
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1955), The Return of the King, The Lord of the Rings, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, OCLC 519647821
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1977), Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 978-0-395-25730-2