What Powered The Three?

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

It isn't apparent to me why Celebrimbor would have endowed the Three with different respective powers. They weren't intended for any specific user, and the "Fire", "Air", and "Water" designations may have thus been only for cosmetic reasons with respect to their stones.

The purpose behind their making was to promote general healing and preservation, and that power would have to have been drawn from the fea of the maker(s). The specific use of that power and its manifestation would have been colored by the individual will and desires of the keeper.

I agree. I think the way the Three were used does not necessarily correlate with some "specialisation" on the part of the respective Rings, just the priorities and necessities of their wielders. For instance, Rivendell was not quite a "Land out of Time" to the same extent as Lothlórien, but it seems to me that similar effects of "staying" and preservation were used through Vilya and Nenya in their respective locations.

What Círdan said of Narya, by this logic, could probably be applied to all of them; it may have simply been that Narya was the one Círdan was discussing at the time.

Interestingly, Círdan's claim that Narya was "idle" in his care suggests that Lindon was not under the same "staying" effect as Rivendell or Lórien.