Ring of fire, Ring of Air, Ring of ? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Vairë · 12-07-2008, 10:42 AM

This is an interesting thread. I'd always thought of the One Ring as the ring of aether.
The dwarves' rings (collectively) as rings of earth makes some sense.
The Men's rings . . . well, I would not worry about them too much. Aside from the One, the three eleven rings seem most potent to me, partly because of their bearers.
The nine rings for mortal men would not need to be anywhere near the potency of the three or even the seven. Men, especially kings of men, tend to be proud, ambitious, hubristic in a rediculously short life span (that is, compared to other races). Doesn't take much to put them over the edge; they can be easily tempted to avarice. Also, just a little *magic* (Galadriel might have a problem with my use of the word) would go a long way with Men. Maybe the Men's rings are not identified with an element, but with some compound or are a lower order ring connected to the greater ones only by Sauron's binding-verse. There were many other rings in the earlier Age; any one of them would have been too much for a Man to handle, don't you think?
Just wanted to put this quirky idea forward. Hope it sparks some debate!

12-07-2008, 10:42 AM	#10
Vairë Newly Deceased Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Mar Vanwa Tyaliéva, Kortirion, Tol Eressëa Posts: 4	The One Ring This is an interesting thread. I'd always thought of the One Ring as the ring of aether. The dwarves' rings (collectively) as rings of earth makes some sense. The Men's rings . . . well, I would not worry about them too much. Aside from the One, the three eleven rings seem most potent to me, partly because of their bearers. The nine rings for mortal men would not need to be anywhere near the potency of the three or even the seven. Men, especially kings of men, tend to be proud, ambitious, hubristic in a rediculously short life span (that is, compared to other races). Doesn't take much to put them over the edge; they can be easily tempted to avarice. Also, just a little magic (Galadriel might have a problem with my use of the word) would go a long way with Men. Maybe the Men's rings are not identified with an element, but with some compound or are a lower order ring connected to the greater ones only by Sauron's binding-verse. There were many other rings in the earlier Age; any one of them would have been too much for a Man to handle, don't you think? Just wanted to put this quirky idea forward. Hope it sparks some debate!