The One Ring: A Thing of Beauty?

[Estelyn Telcontar]

In "The Shadow of the Past" (FotR), we read what Gandalf reports about Déagol's finding of the Ring:

...there in his hand lay a beautiful golden ring; and it shone and glittered in the sun so that his heart was glad.
Sméagol... strangled him, because the gold looked so bright and beautiful.

Then, in the same chapter, we read of Frodo's impression of the ring's appearance:

The gold looked very fair and pure, and Frodo thought how rich and beautiful was its colour, how perfect was its roundness. It was an admirable thing and altogether precious.

Modern design has shown that beauty can be in the shape of an object, even without any adornment. Additionally, in this case the metal itself appeared beautiful to the beholder. I wonder if that was a trick of the Ring? Did it enchant its viewers to think it beautiful, or was it so perfectly formed that it was indeed beautiful? If so, that is interesting: in Tolkien's writings, evil does not normally appear to be beautiful - unless it deceives.