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THE ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL
The
One Ring was created by the Dark Lord Sauron during the Second Age in order to gain dominion over the remaining Elves 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. In secret, he then forged the One Ring himself in the fires of Mount Doom. Since the other
Rings were extremely powerful, Sauron was obliged to place most of his native power and will into it to effect his purpose.
The risk to Sauron was that if he were to lose the Ring, he would also lose a great deal of his own power. The Ring appeared to be made of simple gold, but due to the vast power within it, it was virtually impervious
to damage. It could only be destroyed by throwing it into the pit of the volcanic Mount Doom where it had originally
been forged. Unlike the lesser Rings, it bore no gem, but its identity could be determined by a simple (though little-known)
test: when heated, it displayed a fiery Tengwar inscription in the Black Speech of Mordor. The lines were later taken up into
a rhyme of lore describing the Rings, but it was evidently part of the spell that caused the One to function since the Elves
heard Sauron utter the same words, whereupon they took off their own Rings and foiled his plan. When a person wore the Ring, he would be partly "shifted" out of the physical realm into the spiritual
realm. There, if he managed to consciously subdue the Ring's will with his own, he could wield all the powers that Sauron
had before he lost the ring; notably, he could control and enslave the will of others. A side effect (but usually the first
effect noticed) of the Ring was that it made the wearer invisible to physical beings like living Men but highly visible to
spiritual beings like the Nazgűl, dimmed the wearer's sight, and sharpened his hearing. This "shadow world" was the world
the Nazgűl were forced to live in always, but it was also a world in which the Calaquendi (Elves of Light) held great power:
therefore Glorfindel was able to stay the Witch-king at the Battle of Fornost and later again at the ford of Bruinen at Rivendell. The enigmatic Tom Bombadil was unaffected by the Ring, or rather, the Ring had no
effect on him. This may be explained in many ways. In Peter Jackson's Lord of
the Rings movie trilogy, the wearer of the Ring is always portrayed as moving to a shadowy realm where everything is distorted.
Neither Bilbo Baggins nor Frodo Baggins ever mentioned anything about this while using the Ring, but when Sam puts on the
Ring at the end of The Two Towers he does experience something similar to this. This is the only time that this is mentioned
in the books and could be attributed to Sauron's power increasing, and because Sam is within the borders of Mordor at the
time he uses the Ring. Sam never wore the Ring in Jackson's movie. Part of the nature of the Ring is that it slowly but inevitably
corrupted its wearer, regardless of any intentions to the contrary. Whether this was specifically designed into the Ring's
magic or is simply an artefact of its evil origins is unknown. (Sauron might be expected to endow his One Ring with such a
property, but he probably never intended anyone besides himself to wear it.) For this reason the Wise, including Gandalf,
Elrond and Galadriel, refuse to wield it in their own defence, but instead determine that it must be destroyed. It appears
that hobbits, being more pure of heart than Men, and far less powerful than Elves are the ideal vessels to resist its seductive
power. This explains why Frodo and Bilbo bore it for long periods of time with relatively little ill effect, although Gollum,
who bore it for over 500 years was twisted out of recognition. After its original
forging, the Ring was cut from Sauron's hand by Isildur, who lost it in the River Gladden just before he was killed (some
time just after 3434 of the Second Age). The Ring remained hidden in the river bed for almost two millennia, until it was
discovered on a fishing trip by a Stoor Hobbit named Déagol. He was murdered by his cousin Sméagol, who stole the Ring, and
was changed by the Ring's influence over many ages into the creature known as Gollum. The Ring, which Sauron had endowed with
a will of its own, manipulated Gollum into settling in the Misty Mountains near Mirkwood,
where Sauron was beginning to resurface. There he and it remained for nearly five hundred years, until the Ring tired of him
and fell off his finger as he was returning from killing an Orc. As is told in
The Hobbit, Bilbo found the Ring while he was lost in the caverns of the Misty Mountains, near Gollum's
lair. (When The Hobbit was written, Tolkien had not yet conceived of the Ring's sinister back-story.) After losing the Riddle
Game to Bilbo, Gollum went to get his "Precious" (as he always called it) so he could kill and eat him, but flew into a rage
when he found it missing. Deducing that Bilbo had it from his last riddle—"What have I got in my pocket?"—Gollum
chased him through the caves, not knowing that the Hobbit had discovered the Ring's powers of invisibility and was following
him to the cave's exit. Bilbo escaped Gollum and the Orcs who inhabited the Misty Mountains by remaining
invisible, but left that power out of the story he told the Dwarves he was travelling with. Gandalf, who was also travelling
with the Dwarves, later forced the real story out of Bilbo, and was immediately suspicious of the Ring's powers. Gollum, meanwhile, eventually left the Misty Mountains to track
down and reclaim the Ring. He wandered for decades, to be captured and interrogated by Sauron himself, to whom he revealed
the existence of Bilbo and the Shire. In 3001 of the Third Age, following Gandalf's
counsel, Bilbo gave the Ring to his nephew and adopted heir Frodo. This first willing sacrifice of the Ring in its history
sparks the chain of events which eventually led to its unmaking. It is one example of the frequent interplay between apparent
chance and destiny, an ubiquitous theme in The Lord of the Rings. By this time
Sauron had begun to regain his power, and the Dark Tower in Mordor had
been rebuilt. In order to prevent the recapture of the Ring, Frodo and eight other companions set out from Rivendell for Mordor
in an attempt to destroy the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. During the quest,
Frodo gradually became more and more susceptible to the Ring's power, and feared that it was going to corrupt him. When he
and Sam discovered that Gollum was on their trail and "tamed" him into guiding them to Mordor, he began to feel a strange
bond with the wretched, treacherous creature, seeing a possible future of himself that he felt he had to save in order to
save himself. Gollum gave in to the Ring's temptation, however, and betrayed them to the spider Shelob. Believing Frodo to
be dead, Sam bore the Ring himself for a short time and experienced the temptation it induced, although he never gave in to
it. Sam rescued Frodo from a band of Orcs at the Tower of Cirith Ungol and returned the Ring to him, but feared that the toll it was taking was too great. It nearly was: although Frodo
and Sam, followed by Gollum, eventually arrived at Mount Doom, Frodo was overcome
by its corrupting nature and claimed the Ring for himself rather than destroy it. However, he was attacked by Gollum, who
bit off the finger holding the Ring before falling into the fires of Mount Doom, finally destroying
the Ring and Sauron with it. Physically, the Ring is an unadorned and geometrically
perfect circle of pure gold; this perfection and purity is part of its allure. It seems to have been able to expand and contract
in order to snugly fit its wearer's finger or slip from it treacherously. In Peter Jackson's film The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring, the Ring can be seen contracting to fit Isildur's finger. When heated in fire, the Ring would bear
the following inscription in Elvish (Fëanorian) Tengwar letters in the Black Speech of Mordor:
Ash nazg durbatulűk, ash nazg gimbatul,
ash nazg thrakatulűk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.
These
are two lines from the end of a verse about the Rings of Power:
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
The
power of the One Ring was foremost the power to impose the Ring-bearer's own will upon others. Anyone who wears it and has
the strength of mind to overcome the influence of Sauron could control the wielders of other Rings of Power as well as anyone
else of lesser mind. A general wearing the Ring could stand alone before a rival army and convince them to fall on their own
swords. He could cow his greatest enemies into taking up arms for his cause. The hearts and minds of whole nations could be
turned to his adoration. The Ring-bearer could build an empire of slaves if he so wanted. In short, the Ring grants the ability
of mind-control. Even though the Ring could not grant the wielder the physical power to control or destroy near-omnipotent
angelic beings such as Sauron or the Valar unless he already had that power within him, it would still be a very useful tool
to aid in world domination. The One Ring could also perform other functions beyond
mind control. It could multiply the inherent power of its owner. It has been shown to give the wearer the ability to understand
other languages. While wearing the Ring, Sam Gamgee was able to understand the Black Speech of the orcs. It also might give
the wielder the ability to read people's minds. Galadriel suggested this to Frodo when he asked if he could learn to communicate
with thoughts like her. Finally, the True One Ring has the powers of all the other Rings. Whether Tolkien meant the Ring could
reproduce their powers or he was just reiterating the Ring's ability to control others who wore Rings of Power is unknown. However, to fully realize all of these abilities, the person wearing Sauron's Ring
would have to already have an extremely well-trained mind and high spiritual development. As a result, the weak, such as the
hobbits and men, would gain very little benefit initially from the Ring, let alone figure out what it truly does. That is
of course in the unlikely instance that they could avoid becoming Sauron's slave through the Ring, which was virtually impossible.
However, already powerful beings, such as Galadriel and Saruman would immediately realize its strengths. They might even have
strength enough to destroy Sauron. Yet, though they could overthrow Sauron once they claimed the Ring, in the end, the Ring's
inherent ability to corrupt its owner would have eventually twisted them into another "Dark Lord". Although the One Ring could be claimed by a being of great power and used for evil, the The Lord of the
Rings books constantly reiterated the greatest threat to be Sauron reuniting with his Ring and returning to full power. Indeed,
he would have made the best use of it, as the power within it was ultimately his. The Last Alliance that separated Sauron
from his Ring in the Second Age was made up of legendary heroes of great strength and divine blood who fought during what
was a golden age for Middle Earth. Even then, it was a concerted effort between the races of Elves, Dwarves, and Men. That
war lasted several years and saw the deaths of many great Men before it was finally over. This would not have been the case
during the waning years of Middle Earth near the end of the Third Age when the strength of the free peoples were greatly diminished.
By that time, the Elves were sailing west, the Dwarves had become increasingly isolated, and the kingdoms of Men were broken
and disorganized. In that environment, Sauron wielding his Ring would have been able to conquer the entire continent easily
with little resistance. Finally, despite its dangerous reputation, the Ring was
not omnipotent, nor its power over other people's minds absolute. Even when Sauron used the Ring to command his troops to
attack the Numenoreans during the War of the Last Alliance, his armies still fled in terror before the splendour of his enemies.
THE THREE RINGS OF THE ELVES
Narya,
The Ring of Fire, set with a ruby; originally worn by Círdan, who gave it to Gandalf.
Created by Celebrimbor after Annatar had left Eregion, it was free of Annatar's (Sauron's) influence due to the fact
that the Elves hid their three rings from him upon discerning his intent, but it was still bound to the One Ring. According
to Unfinished Tales, at the start of the War of the Elves and Sauron, Celebrimbor gave Narya together with the Ring Vilya
to Gil-galad, High King of the Ńoldor. Gil-galad entrusted Narya to his lieutenant Círdan, Lord of the Havens of Mithlond,
who kept it after Gil-galad's death. According to The Lord of the Rings, Gil-galad receives only Vilya, while Círdan receives
Narya from the very beginning. In the Third Age Círdan, recognizing Gandalf's true nature as one of the Maiar from Valinor,
gave him the ring to aid him in his labours. It is described as having the power to inspire others to resist tyranny, domination
and despair, as well as (in common with the other Three Rings) hiding the wielder from remote observation (except by the wielder
of the One) and giving resistance to the weariness of time: '"Take this ring, master," he said "for your labours will be heavy;
but it will support you in the weariness that you have taken upon yourself. For this is the Ring of Fire, and with it you
may rekindle hearts in a world that grows chill."' - Círdan the Shipwright.
Nenya,
The Ring of Water, also called the Ring of Adamant, made of mithril with a shimmering white stone; originally worn by Celebrimbor
himself but given to Galadriel. Nenya was made by Celebrimbor and the Gwaith-i-Mírdain
of Eregion in the Second Age, along with the other two Elven Rings, Narya and Vilya. Their existence was hidden from Sauron,
so they were untouched by his evil. Nenya is described as being made of mithril
and set with a "white stone", presumably a diamond (this is never stated explicitly, although the usage of the word "adamant",
an old synonym, is strongly suggestive). The ring is wielded by Galadriel of Lórien, and not normally visible; while Frodo
Baggins can see it by virtue of being a Ring-bearer, Sam Gamgee tells Galadriel he only "saw a star through your fingers"
(This appears in many editions as "finger" - which sounds more magical, since it suggests that her finger has somehow become
transparent - but The Treason of Isengard, ch. 13, note 34, mentions it as an error.)
Nenya's power was preservation, protection, and concealment from evil. Galadriel used these powers to create and sustain
Lothlórien, but it also increased in her the longing for the Sea and her desire to return to the Undying Lands. After the
destruction of the One Ring and the defeat of Sauron, its power faded along with the other Rings of Power. Galadriel bore
Nenya on a ship from the Grey Havens into the West, accompanied by the other two Elven Rings and their bearers. With the ring
gone, the magic and beauty of Lórien also faded and it was gradually depopulated, until by the time Arwen came there to die
in F.A. 121 it was deserted and in ruin.
Vilya,
The Ring of Air, gold with a sapphire stone; originally worn by Gil-galad but given to Elrond.
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, Vilya, the Ring of Air, was one of the Rings of Power made by the Elves of Eregion.
Along with Nenya and Narya, Vilya was often referred to as one of the Three Rings of the Elves, the mightiest of the Rings
of Power. Celebrimbor, lord of Eregion forged all three independent of Annatar, a guise of the Dark Lord Sauron. As a result
of this, none of the Three were stained by his evil. However, like all the Rings of the Elves, Vilya was still under Sauron's
influence when he wielded The One Ring, which held dominion over all the others. When Sauron laid waste to Eregion, Vilya
was sent to the Elven-King Gil-galad far away in Lindon, where it was later given to Elrond, who bore it through the later
years of the Second Age and all of the Third. Like the other Greater Rings of Power, Vilya was jeweled: it contained a great
blue stone set in a gold band, which contributed to its title as the Ring of Sapphire. A lesser-used title of Vilya was the
Ring of Air, signifying its preeminence even over the other Rings of the Elves; it was generally considered that Vilya was
the mightiest of these three bands. Upon Sauron's destruction, the power of Vilya
faded and it went over the sea along with Elrond at the end of the Third Age.
The
Three Rings remained hidden and their whereabouts were seldom revealed. Frodo Baggins learned that Nenya was worn by Galadriel,
who used it to protect Lórien from attack. Frodo later carelessly revealed this to Aragorn, who reprimanded him for doing
so. The other two rings were revealed at the end of the Third Age, after Frodo
destroyed the One Ring, and the Dark Lord Sauron was completely overthrown. It transpired that Elrond had wielded Vilya and
Gandalf had wielded Narya. After the defeat of Sauron, the bearers of the Three
Rings left Middle Earth, the power of their rings now gone owing to them being bound up with the One Ring.
THE SEVEN RINGS OF THE DWARVES
Sauron
gave the Seven Rings to the Dwarf Lords (although according to Dwarvish tradition the Elves gave one of them to the dwarf
Durin III). As there were Seven dwarf 'Houses' or nations, it is tempting to assume that each dwarf-king was given his own
ring, but by the Second Age the city-state of Nogrod had been destroyed, and the fate of the Broadbeam dwarves of Belegost
is uncertain. The Dwarves used their Rings to establish their treasure hoards,
but Sauron, according to portions of the Silmarillion, was unable to force the Dwarven bearers to submit to his will. Indeed,
the rings did not even turn them invisible; they were immune to some of the more detrimental of the rings' effects. It is
believed that the dwarves' natural hardiness, and the fact that it was only the more powerful dwarf lords who possessed them,
made them resistant to Sauron's control, yet allowed them to accumulate treasure. Of the Seven, at the time of The Lord of
the Rings all had either been consumed by dragon fire or acquired by Sauron. (Gandalf tells Frodo in "The Shadow of the Past"
chapter that Sauron acquired three of them, which means that the remaining four were consumed by dragons). The final of the
Seven was taken from Thráin II, who had been captured, imprisoned, and tormented by Sauron (in the guise of the Necromancer)
in 2845 of the Third Age.
THE NINE RINGS OF THE HUMANS
The
nine rings for mortal men were those divided amongst those ambitious men doomed to become the Nazgűl, the Ringwraiths. None
are mentioned specifically throughout the Lord of The Rings save their leader, the Witch-king of Angmar. His second-in-command
is named in Unfinished Tales as Khaműl, the Black Easterling. The nine Nazgűl
arose as Sauron's most powerful servants in the Second Age of Middle-earth. It is said that three of the Nine were originally
"Great Lords" of Númenor. They were all powerful mortal Men to whom Sauron each gave nine Rings of Power. These proved to
be their undoing. The corrupting effect of the rings caused their bodily forms
to fade over time until they had become wraiths entirely. Given visible form only through their attire, their original form
was completely invisible to mortal eyes. The red reflection in their eyes could be plainly distinguished even in daylight,
and in a rage they appeared in a hellish fire. They had many weapons, which included long swords of steel and flame, daggers
with magical venomous properties and black maces of great strength. Their arsenal
of deadly armaments was not confined to physical weapons: they were perpetually surrounded by an aura of terror, which affected
all but the most powerful living creatures; their breath (called the Black Breath) was poisonous, and their cries caused terror
and despair. The Nazgűl first appeared around 2251 of the Second Age and were
soon established as Sauron's principal servants, less than three centuries after the rings were forged. The Nazgűl were dispersed
after the first overthrow of Sauron in 3434 at the hands of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, but their survival was nonetheless
assured while the One Ring persisted. They re-emerged around 1300 of the Third Age, when the Lord of the Nazgűl, the Witch-King
of Angmar, led Sauron's forces against the successor states of Arnor; Rhudaur, Cardolan and Arthedain. He was eventually defeated
in battle in 1975 and returned to Mordor, gathering the other Nazgűl in preparation for the return of Sauron to that realm,
having acheievd his goal of destroying all of Arnor's successor states. In 2000,
the Nazgűl besieged Minas Ithil and captured it after two years. The city thereafter became Minas Morgul, the stronghold of
the Nazgűl, from where they directed the rebuilding of Sauron's armies, also acquiring a palantír for the Dark Lord. In 2942 Sauron returned to Mordor and declared himself openly in 2951. Two or three
of the Nazgűl were sent to his fortress at Dol Guldur to garrison that outpost. In
3017, near the beginning of the story told in The Lord of the Rings, Sauron commanded the Ringwraiths to recover the One Ring
of Power from "Baggins of the Shire". Disguised as riders clad in black, they sought out Bilbo Baggins who, as Gollum had
revealed, had the One Ring in his possession. The Nazgűl at this point used specially
bred black horses for transportation. When they were swept away by the waters of the river Bruinen, their horses were drowned.
The Ringwraiths were forced to return to Mordor to regroup. They reappeared later mounted on flying creatures, at which point
they were referred to as Winged Nazgűl. The Lord of the Nazgűl himself was slain
by Éowyn, the niece of the Théoden, and Merry (known as the Magnificent thereafter), during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields:
Merry's stab with a powerfully enchanted knife broke the spell that held the Witchking immune to normal injury, allowing Eowyns
next strike to decapitate him. The remaining eight Ringwraiths attacked the Army
of the West during the last battle at the Black Gate. However, when Frodo Baggins put on the ring in the fires of Mount Doom, Sauron ordered the eight remaining Nazgűl to fly to Mount Doom to intercept Frodo.
They arrived too late, with the Ring falling into the fire along with the hapless Gollum. At the moment of the One Ring's
destruction, all the remaining Nazgűl were destroyed. Only a few of the Nazgűl
are named or identified individually in Tolkien's works. Their leader was the Witch-king of Angmar, and his second in command
was named Khaműl, 'The Black Easterling'. Tolkien stated that three of them were great Númenórean lords. Khaműl was a lord
of Easterlings, and was the only Nazgűl known by his name. Some fans also speculate that either Herumor or Fuinur, or both,
Númenóreans who rose to great power among the Haradrim, became Nazgűl. The early
Middle-earth Role Playing games and material derived from them name the eight, other than Khaműl; Er-Murazor (the Witch-king,
of Númenórean race), Dwar of Waw, Ji Indur Dawndeath, Akhorahil, Hoarmurath (Númenórean), Adunaphel the Quiet (female Númenórean),
Ren the Unclean and Uvatha the Horseman1, but none of these names or details are considered canon. It is particularly unlikely,
in the context of the books, that any of the Nazgűl would have been female. Nor is it clear who were of Númenórean descent:
only Khaműl's origin is given with certainty, and he was an Easterling. While the Witch-king is often assumed to be a Númenórean
Lord, this is not stated in any of Tolkien's texts. In the Lord of the Rings
card game, the Nazgűl are named The Witch King, Úlairë Attëa (The Easterling), Úlairë Nelya, Úlairë Cantëa, Úlairë Lemenya,
Úlairë Enquëa, Úlairë Otsëa, Úlairë Toldëa and Úlairë Nertëa. In Quenya, Úlairë means Ringwraith, and the second name is merely
a numeral from two to nine. Also called: "The Fell Riders", "the Nine Riders"
and "the Black Wings" when appropriate, and "the Shadows", "the Nine", "the Nine Servants of the Lord of the Rings", and,
by the Orcs of the Tower of Cirth Ungol, "the Shriekers".
The "nine walkers" of the Fellowship were chosen to mirror the Nazgűl "nine riders".
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