The Lesser Rings

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by mark12_30

I have always wondered why "The Voice Of Sauron" was so steenkin' old, without being one of the Nine, and how he wasn't faded, but he wasn't dead either, and how or why that happened. Lesser ring maybe...?

ps. Great point about Beorn, bearskins, and elven experimentation. "But I don't want to be a bear. Who wants this? You do, woodsman? Okay, here, take it."

Ahem... okay, from the reactions I should not have said that Before any more people start about it, no, no and no. It was a joke. Just as elempi says, it was a natural ability for Beorn, it is explicitely stated in The Hobbit (by Gandalf when he is describing Beorn).

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Healing and preservation seem to be the overriding concern of the Elves. I think, too, that the powers of any ring were limited by the abilities of the maker. The Elves were specially gifted as healers; not as shape-shifters or whatnot.

Certainly. But as for healing and preservation, I disagree - it was not the main concern for all Elves, most of all, not for Noldor, who are exactly the ones in question here. Creating, enrichening the world, making beautiful things was the main concern for them, I believe (and that does not mean just jewels, but also cities, or songs... also e.g. if you imagine Teleri, it was ships, so it does not really go only with Noldor. Healing and preserving became prevailing concern only for the late Elves, when Middle-Earth had already reached significant stage of decay, so to say).

Therefore, I am inclined to believe the lesser Rings could be attempts to make one able to e.g. speak with animals like in my previous example (Elves were known for their love in teaching creatures to speak etc, and also understanding was very important for them, at least in their prime); or could enable the bearer to, I don't know, "boost ambient light" or something (along the lines of that you walk into a room lit by a couple of dim candles and then you use your Ring - however one does that - and lo, it seems as if the sunlight had pierced... you get the point), most of all (isn't it even implied somewhere?) to boost one's skills in e.g. singing, or crafting itself (so, one could wear a Ring that would help him make better Rings, or make "magic" weapons akin to the ones of Gondolin, etc.).

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

I also think it worthwhile to distinguish between the Elvish Arts and Dark Sorcery. The former the Elves did not even name "magic", whereas the latter were not called "magic" either, but sorcery. Is there reference to the Dark Arts in the ouvre?

I believe we can basically distinguish two main types of, for the lack of a better word, "magic" in Middle-Earth: the sorcery (which is the evil thing and usually would operate with controlling something) and then what I would call "Art": because that is what it is, the good thing, the way to e.g. create enchanted weapons (like Glamdring or the Sting), or Silmarils, or even the Elven-cloaks, and similar things. I believe it simply requires one to sort of "enhance" or "imbue" certain thing (in case of the artifacts) with something, like in the case of Silmarils: trivially speaking, you catch some light into a crystal. So this is what I believe would happen with the Rings.

I think what happened with Sauron coming into the process was that he started showing the Elves how to upgrade their works, but also he started slowly introducing his own concepts into them; once you start operating with "control", you are slipping to the sorcery side.