Middle-earth Mysteries

[alatar]

I'd given up on the Entwives, and if Treebeard really can't remember what they specifically looked like...And think that I commented on this in the SbS, as Peter Jackson adds a little ent lore to The Two Towers, but come on. Was any other race so doomed to extinction? Not only can the Ents not remember the Entwives, but they also forget to go back and visit for a billion years or so. As far as we know, the entwives crossed with elves or humans and begat the Hobbits - not that I have any evidence, but am only adding 2+2 to get 22.

The Blue Wizards, like Saruman and Radagast, went native and so stayed to play in Middle Earth. With the little information known about the blue two (noted above) one is free to speculate. Possibly they are 'the great evil' of the Fourth Age?

Saruman's ring is also intriguing. We know that he made a ring, and also that he had access to a palantir, which presumably could see across both space and time. Did he watch the hands of Annatar and the elven smiths? Not that that is 100% helpful, as I can read (and rewrite) Bêthberry's posts but still cannot recreate her style of posting (and hopefully no one would ever want to emulate mine ). So even if Saruman could watch the making of even the One, he still lacked both the skill, the individual talents and the superhot furnace of Sammath Naur.

But he made something.

One then needs to look at Saruman's personality to discover what kind of Ring this being would desire. A ring that begat control? That read person's minds? That increased one's cunning and skill in making things? That hides one from other's scrutiny?

Another thought: Was the reason that Gandalf the White easily bested Saruman of Many Colors due to Saruman's Ring? Do rings, in their making, require a bit of the maker, subtracting from the maker's original power (i.e. Sauron)? Are rings both givers and takers, and one hopes to be lucky enough to stay on the plus side?

And here are my thoughts on old Tom.

[Balin999]

Another thought: Was the reason that Gandalf the White easily bested Saruman of Many Colors due to Saruman's Ring? Do rings, in their making, require a bit of the maker, subtracting from the maker's original power (i.e. Sauron)? Are rings both givers and takers, and one hopes to be lucky enough to stay on the plus side?

As far as I can remember, Gandalf was sent back to more or less replace Saruman, since the original white wizard had failed. Gandalf himself says that in a way he IS Saruman.
Although I think that you're right with your theory of losing some of yourself to the ring you create. BUT, if you're wearing the ring, you can use its power, so that doesn't necessarily make you weaker.

[narfforc]

I have always seen the Rings as amplifiers, if the person wearing it was of a certain persuasion, he/she could make their inner most desires become greater through the use of a Ring of Power. If we apply this to Saruman, maybe what his Ring did was add power to the Power of his Voice. If we take Narya and add this statement:

Take this Ring, For thy labours and thy cares will be heavy, but in all it will support thee and defend thee from weariness. For this is the Ring of Fire, and herewith, maybe, thou shalt rekindle hearts to the valour of old.....
(The Silmarillion, Of The Rings Of Power).

Then add this statement:

Warm and eager was his spirit (and it was enhanced by the ring Narya), for he was the enemy of Sauron, opposing the fire that devours and wastes with the fire that kindles, and succours in wanhope and distress; but his joy, and his swift wrath, were veiled in garments grey as ash, so that only those that knew him well glimpsed the flame that was within.
(Unfinished Tales, The Istari).

I do not think that The Ring of Fire was created with the intention of burning thousands of orcs, I think the ring enhanced Gandalf's already inherent power to move people to great deeds and bring them back to hope.

[Rhod the Red]

The Blue Wizards dissapeared just North of Mordor on a mission. We don't know of their fate, Tolkien apparently decided to have a little mystery about them.

The One Ring was an amplifier, I agree.

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Rhod the Red

The Blue Wizards dissapeared just North of Mordor on a mission. We don't know of their fate, Tolkien apparently decided to have a little mystery about them.

Where do you get that from- the "North of Mordor" bit? Everything that I've ever heard says that the Blue Wizards went East- in Rhûn, way east of Mordor, and we simply have no idea what happened to them. (Tolkien gives us a few "canonical" speculations, and fanfics abound, but you're correct that it is truly a mystery).

[Rhod the Red]

Rhun is North of Mordor, plus I have a copy of the Unfinished Tales.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Rhod the Red

Rhun is North of Mordor, plus I have a copy of the Unfinished Tales.

Formy limps off, a broken & humiliated shadow of his former self...

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Rhod the Red

Rhun is North of Mordor, plus I have a copy of the Unfinished Tales.

No, Rhûn is East. It means it, to begin with, and secondly, the name "Rhûn" runs down the East side of the map. The land north of Mordor is Rhovannion, and it runs right up to the Sea of Rhûn. Rhûn, or East, is all the lands East of there.