Hello and welcome, TW, and congratulations on an interesting first post. You’ve made a fascinating argument with your anti-definition of the symbolic meaning of the Ring. Your interpretation seems to fit well with certain traditional Christian themes: the Ring symbolizes the ultimate rejection of selflessness and, if we take the next logical step, the ultimate defiance of God’s (or in this case, Eru’s) will. I’d like to cogitate on that for a while before I reply more specifically. In any case – welcome, and keep on posting!
Old Man – well done!
Aliquando et insanire iucundum est.
Gadzooks, but you’ve unearthed a whole new stratum of subtext. Let me see if I can dig a few artifacts of my own from your find.
I’m most interested in two aspects of what you’ve said: first, your intriguing observation that the rings – and especially
the Ring – represent not only substitutes for women (the circle being an ancient and potent symbol for the feminine), but also a sort of means of accessing the feminine sphere of mystical energy; secondly, your characterization of Sauron’s forging of the One Ring as a Promethean act of creation.
Sharkû has taken some heat outside of this thread for this audacious first point, but his argument has quite a bit of mythological weight behind it. In LotR, we have two expressions of the rings as instruments of access to the feminine spirit realm. The first, of course, is Sauron’s twisted, corrupted version. I’ve always thought it curious that Sauron’s power should be increased merely by dividing a portion of his power and strength from himself and putting it into a ring. But viewed in the context of the mythological construct under discussion, the increase of his power through this division begins to make more sense. Sauron pre-Ring is pure yang, pure aggressive male energy – potent and powerful, to be sure, but incomplete. By separating a portion of his native energy from himself and imbuing the feminine symbol of the Ring with it, he creates a yin to complement himself, and his power is increased. Here I would say that a comparison to Adam and Eve is even more apt than your Prometheus analogy, Sharkey. Of course, it is a distorted, dysfunctional, evil twist on the story, and hence all that proceeds from it is evil and corrupted. Sauron has committed the ultimate objectification of the feminine – literally embodying it as an object that is completely subject to his will and only useful as a tool for gratifying his desires. Interestingly, this interpretation also helps us understand Bombadil’s utter disinterest in the Ring. Bombadil is already part of a complete, healthy union with Goldberry, so the false lure of the Ring as a complementary yin holds no temptation for him.
The second, more pure expression of the rings as implements by which access is gained to the feminine spirit realm are the Three. They are not offensive weapons, but instruments of healing, nurturing, and protection. Still, even these “good” rings are objectifications of the feminine, and we see that ultimately they exhibit the same fundamental flaw as the One, and what they have wrought must ultimately wane and fail.
With regards to the broader, more abstract marriage symbolism, the Three are not anomalous – they adhere to the symbolic structure under discussion. When the twisted terms of the union with Sauron are revealed, the bearers of the Three reject it with a vivid and easily recognizable symbolic act -- they
take off their rings when Sauron dons his, and refuse to wear them until such time as Sauron no longer wears his.
There’s also no contradiction of the interpretation in the fact that Galadriel is a female and wears a Ring. While she is literally married, Tolkien goes to some trouble to demonstrate that on the symbolic plane, Galadriel has a high proportion of masculine energy – she’s as tall as Celeborn, has an unusually deep voice, and, although she is ostensibly coequal with her mate, in truth there is little question of who is the
real master of Lothlórien. This is the realization of a long-held ambition: in
The Silmarillion, we’re told…
Quote:
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“…she yearned to see the wide unguarded lands and to rule there a realm at her own will.”
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At her first meeting with the Fellowship in Lórien, she stares down each member until they avert their eyes (with the exceptions of Aragorn and Legolas, who do not submit), a classic alpha-male method of establishing dominance. Her ring completes her and balances her masculine energy in a way that Celeborn cannot – to such an extent that when its power is negated by the destruction of the One, she sails to her own symbolic death in the West without him.
Still, she
is a woman, and her own native access to the feminine spiritual realm is extraordinarily magnified during the time that she does wield her ring – little is hidden from her foresight (intuition; Gandalf and Elrond also exhibit this power – enhanced by their rings?), and she gains the power to extend the umbrella of her maternal protection over her entire realm.
Fascinating! By viewing LotR through this mythological prism, certain events that are befuddling without it begin to make sense.