[denethorthefirst]

Even an Elda as powerful as Celebrimbor could not create "power" ex nihilo. So the power of the 19 Rings had to come from somewhere. Sadly, Tolkien never explained that, as he never in detail wrote about "magic" in his world and how it worked exactly.

I have two theories:


1. The elven Rings as a national project.

The Elven Rings were not the work of a single Elf but a collective project. The remaining Noldor in Eregion and Lindon pooled their collective power into the Rings, like Sauron did with the One, in order to achieve their objective: re-create Valinor in Middle-Earth. That way it also becomes believable how Sauron could hope to enslave the Noldor through the rings: the nineteen rings, if worn and used by the elven leaders, would give him access and control over their collective spiritual being. I do not quite believe that, its a bit of a wonky idea.


2. The elven Rings "tapped into" the dispersed power of the Valar.

There is the fan-theory floating around that the One Ring somehow enabled Sauron to control the "Morgoth-Element". Its a convenient theory that explains how Sauron somehow became more powerful after the forging of the One Ring even though his planned scheme utterly failed. What if the other 19 Rings worked in the same way, but instead of controlling the Morgoth Element they would allow the wearers to control the "elements" of the other Valar and other powerful Maiar, who, like Morgoth, although on a lesser scale, poured their power into Arda during its shaping?

For example: Narya, the Ring of Fire, would allow the wearer to control the Aule-(or Varda?)Element, Nenya, the Ring of Water, would allow the wearer to control the Ulmo-Element, and Vilya, the Ring of Air, would allow the wearer to control the Manwe-Element, and so on. Maybe thats why those three Rings were the most powerful of the 19 Elven Rings, because they allowed the wearer to control the dispersed power of the three most powerful of the Valar: Manwe, Aule (or Varda) und Ulmo. It would also explain why Vilya was the most powerful of the Three.

In this theory the Noldor would in effect "usurp" the power the Valar, and I am not quite sure if that could be considered as a „blasphemous“ act. It would certainly rhyme with the rebellious and somewhat anti-valinorean character of the (exiled) Noldor. Was this the „Sales-Pitch“ of Annatar: to use the dispersed Power of the Valar to create a second, independent Valinor in Middle-Earth? Maybe that could be one of the reason for the rift between the Wood-Elves and the Noldor in the Second Age? The Wood-Elves under Oropher maybe moved as far away from the Noldor as possible not only for political reasons but also because they rejected this form of magic as blasphemous, unnatural and antithetical to their Way of Life and their „back to the roots“-worldview?

But, if that is the case, then why did Gandalf, an emissary of the Valar, use one of the Three? So that part does not quite work. A lot of open questions. Of course I cant back that up with quotes, its just my head canon.