Rings of Power talk!

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Radtech51

I had always thought that the three rings of power were slowly loosing their power over time once the one ring was destroyed but not all at once. I had thought that Galadriel's final display of power from her ring of power to Frodo was a parting reminder to him about their talk and about the rings of power coming to and end.

This is one of the many puzzlements in The Lord of the Rings. At that time Frodo is unaware that Elrond and Gandalf were bearers of two of the three Elven-rings and presumably only knows that Galadriel is a ring-bearer, yet the text says:

But at length all was said, and they parted again for a while, until it was time for the Three Rings to pass away.

Of course since Frodo later knows to set out with Sam to meet with Galadriel and Elrond on September 21st of the year 1421 Shire Reckoning, he presumably has received messages from the Elves about their planned return over the Seas and learned that Bilbo is to go with them, and he himself may go with them if he wishes, and that to Sam also permission is given to at last depart. It may well be that among these communications Frodo had been informed that Elrond and Gandalf were bearers of two of the Elven-rings but that he had not explicitly said so in his writing. It is only explicitly said so in the last pages of The Lord of the Rings which must be derived from Sam’s writing.

Then of course Tolkien is to be imagined as himself retelling the story in the third person, at which point the phase “until it was time for the Three rings to pass away” may be understood to have entered the tale.

When and at what point the three Elven-rings lost all their power is not told. Indeed, they may still have some power in them again when last seen. The story does not tell, just as it does not tell whether they may not have become completely powerless immediately upon the destruction of the One Ring.