[radagastly]

Originally posted by Lalwendë:

I don't think that any lesser rings would have possessed any great power as we know that it wasn't until Sauron in the guise of Annatar came along, that Celebrimbor managed to create the Three rings. And if you consider that the greater Rings all seemed to possess qualities specific to the three main races of Middle-earth, then these lesser/early rings may also have only been designed to work for the Elves who crafted them.

In "The Tale of Years" at the end of Return of the King it says:

Second Age:
1200--Sauron endeavors to seduce the Eldar. Gil-galad refuses to treat with him; but the smiths of Eregion are won over.
1500--The Elven-smiths instructed by Sauron reach the height of their skill. They begin the forging of the Rings of Power.
1600--Sauron forges the One Ring in Orodruin. He completes the Barad-dur. Celebrimbor perceives the designs of Sauron.

So three-hundred years of instruction preceded the beginning of the work on the Great Rings which took another hundred years to complete, before Sauron forged the One to trap them. I think that in three-hundred years many lesser rings, or practice rings, were made under Sauron's tutelage and likely had ever improved skill and ever increasing power and scope.

It may also be significant that it specifies "the smiths" of Eregion, rather than "the elves" of Eregion. Perhaps these smiths were already making rings with some kind of power, or "magic" even before Sauron showed up. Maybe they did invent the idea after all, and Sauron merely guided their development in a direction of his choosing.

Legate of Amon Lanc: (just a little side note)

Even the English word "propriety" does not denote something "correct", but simply something that belongs to someone.

This is true in a strict sense, but it does carries a connotation of something "correct," especially when considered against its opposite, "impropriety," as in, "The politician commited an act of impropriety by dating his secretary."


Originally posted by Legate of Amon Lanc:

I think what you bring up are interesting thoughts about the Three (or possibly the rest of the Great Rings, or the Rings in general), that there might be something special about the stones chosen as well. However, while I agree with the positive interpretation (the proper stone can make the Ring fulfil its ultimate purpose in the best possible manner), I do not think it works in the negative way (if a Ring does not have its proper stone, something is wrong).

Originally posted by Formendacil:

What crops up in my mind is this: in HoME X, aptly titled Morgoth's Ring, there is an essay where Tolkien compares Melkor's diffusion of his own power into the whole matter of Arda to Sauron's infusion of his power into the Ring, and Tolkien says that Sauron specifically used gold in the creation of the One Ring because it had, as an element or ore, particularly high amounts of Melkor-ness. Silver, on the other hand, is singled out as being one of the purest metals (I would speculate that, in a like manner, water could be assumed to be one of the purest elements of Arda's physical matter, and maybe the air of Manwë).

Learning to make rings is beginning to sound to me like learning to cook. For example, you can scoop out an avacado and mash the flesh and you have guacamole. But it'll turn brown in just a few minutes so you add some lime juice to stop the reaction. But it still tastes kinda bland, so you throw in some jalepino and onion and garlic and cilantro. But all the extra flavors make the buttery flavor of the avacado taste kinda watery so you stir in some sour cream. But the dairy mutes the heat of the jalapino so you add a spicier chile like cerrano or scotch bonnet. And so on and so on and so on . . .

So when making a ring do you use gold? or silver? or mithril or platinum or iron? Copper or brass or bronze or lead? Pure metal or alloy? Do you set it with diamond or ruby or saphire or emerald or maybe nothing at all? It becomes a whole alchemical world. And then then there is the personality of the ring-smith to consider. Sauron infused a part of himself into the One Ring. Celebrimbor did the same with the three, so we can guess that was part of the process. Two different ring-smiths could each make a ring that performed essentially the same kind of charm or effect, but one might need to use mithril and the other needed gold? And how much more commitment from these Elven-smiths would be required as this craft transitioned from rings of "enhancement" to rings of "control?"

Originally posted by littlemanpoet:

Has anyone mentioned the symbolism of the shape of a ring? A circle, it binds the finger. It holds the ring-bearer prisoner, symbolically. This suggests to me that a ring as a crafted Elvish item holds a different kind of power by virtue of being a ring, as opposed to lembas, elven rope, elven cloaks, silmarilli, phials, or what have you. That Elves made many items other than rings, as exampled above, bespeaks to me the significance and symbolism of the shape itself.

Somewhere (I forget which book at the moment, perhaps someone else remembers) it says that the Elves put some of themselves into all they make. This is true of all art, whether on the page or the painting or the performance. When the artist bares his soul this honesty makes the subsequent art compelling and powerful in a way that cannot be faked or mechanically reproduced. Combining this naked honesty with the perfect circle, a symbol of binding and of eternity, of commitment, and the subsequent art would inevitably become a ring of power (at least some power.) It occurs to me that the simple invention of "magic" rings, considering the escalating commitment and subsequent escalating power involved, may well have been the beginning of the end for the elves in Middle-Earth, regardless of Sauron's influence. Perhaps the path he led them down was, after all, almost pre-ordained. He "enhanced" them to "control" them, but ended up destroying them instead. Only Celebrimbor, by creating the Three Rings of healing and preservation, seems to have provided any hope.