# Got questions about the One Ring of Sauron? Get your answers here! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** middle-earth\ **Created:** [December 19, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921 "2008-12-19T16:36:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/21 "2008-12-19T17:52:49Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Ah, but like the One Ring, the One Buttplug’s size would have adjusted to that of its user. A handy feature, no? Don’t you wish your buttplug did that? Gee, I never thought of it that way, Mistah Mercotan! [/scrappy 1930’s street kid] ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/22 "2008-12-19T17:53:10Z")
How many rings were unaccounted for at the end of LOTR? Gandalf and Galadriel had one each. The Nazgul had theirs. The Dwarf ones were lost? What about the other Elf ones? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/23 "2008-12-19T17:54:56Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > How many rings were unaccounted for at the end of LOTR? Gandalf and Galadriel had one each. The Nazgul had theirs. The Dwarf ones were lost? What about the other Elf ones? Gandalf, Galadriel and Elrond all held a Ring. There were only 3 Elven ones so they’re all accounted for. The Nazguls’ Rings had been taken back by Sauron, so they were in Barad-dur when it fell. The Dwarven Rings were mostly lost…quite a few in the bellies of dragons, or so it’s said. It didn’t really matter, as they all went dead when The One was destroyed. After that, they were all just metal and gems. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/24 "2008-12-19T17:55:42Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > How many rings were unaccounted for at the end of LOTR? Gandalf and Galadriel had one each. The Nazgul had theirs. The Dwarf ones were lost? What about the other Elf ones? The nazgul rings were held by Sauron, and didn’t survive his downfall. Gandalf had the third elven ring. Sauron also held all dwarf rings not destroyed by dragonfire. A few ‘lesser’ rings might have been out there, but were not deemed powerful enough for anything other than minor mischief (like sneaking into the girls’ locker room). ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/25 "2008-12-19T17:56:30Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > I still think this whole “ring thing” wasn’t well thought out. A ring goes on a finger, which as we saw, is an easily severed body part resulting in loss of the ring. Now if he had gone with the “One Buttplug” it would have been much, much more difficult for anyone to deprive Sauron of it. Most would, in fact, be reluctant to even touch it. Making it of appropriate size would have prevented a hobbit-sized creature from using it at all. The ring could change size. Obviously a ring suitable for a halfling is not going on Isildur’s finger, and one suitable for a Numenorean isn’t staying on Frodo’s. As I began this post I thought that was an odd ability for Sauron to give the Ring, but in fact it makes sense. He forged the Ring before the Downfall of Numenor, which was when he lost the ability to assume a fair shape. I can easily imagine him assuming a large form for some purposes and a smaller one for others; when he was trading under the name “Annatar,” for instance, he was probably about the average height of an Noldo, whereas when forced to battle he might have decided “You know, being 12 feet tall would be an asset right about now.” ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/26 "2008-12-19T17:57:23Z")
So–how did Sauron hang the Ring around his neck when his hands were busy at fell work? (Up to the elbows in grue, no doubt.) What particularly clever & cunning contrivance kept the Ring safe yet ever at the ready? At least he had no scruples about using vegan ingredients for said necklace. In fact, he probably preferred inclusion of leather or other fiber ripped from a living (or recently living) creature. I’ll bet Fell Beast skin is pretty tough. (Perhaps strands of Shelob’s webs could have added a bit of spidery strength. Or even some relics of Ungoliant.) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/27 "2008-12-19T17:57:50Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Ah, but like the One Ring, the One Buttplug’s size would have adjusted to that of its user. A handy feature, no? Don’t you wish your buttplug did that? [Bender] I’m not allowed to use use buttplugs. Court order. [/Bender] ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/28 "2008-12-19T17:58:46Z")
Yes, yes…I understand the size changing aspects. Nonetheless, something on a finger is easier to lose than something lodged in his evil colon. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/29 "2008-12-19T17:59:16Z")
Thank you. I’d forgotten Elrond had one. Wonder if there was a dwarf ring in Smaug’s hoard. One bling to rule them all… ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/30 "2008-12-19T18:02:37Z")
Ok, I’ve only read the books once, and I’ve seen the movies. Here’s a really basic question. What exactly does the ring do? All I got was that it made you invisible. That’s a great superpower, but surely there must be more. I mean they were in a world of magic, and I’m sure there must have been other invisibility spells and potions, as well as other tricks just as cool as invisibility. So what else did it do? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/31 "2008-12-19T18:04:00Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > So–how did Sauron hang the Ring around his neck when his hands were busy at fell work? (Up to the elbows in grue, no doubt.) What particularly clever & cunning contrivance kept the Ring safe yet ever at the ready? > > At least he had no scruples about using vegan ingredients for said necklace. In fact, he probably preferred inclusion of leather or other fiber ripped from a living (or recently living) creature. I’ll bet Fell Beast skin is pretty tough. > > (Perhaps strands of Shelob’s webs could have added a bit of spidery strength. Or even some relics of Ungoliant.) I assume Sauron wore it constantly. The Ring turned mortals invisible automatically, but I don’t think it would have done so to him unless that was what he wanted. And when he forged it, I doubt he would have needed it to become invisible anyway. He was at the height of his power as an Ainu then, and could walk invisible whenever he felt like it, as the Unseen was his natural environment anyway. My guess would be that the turn-the-wearer-invisible thing was a bug, not a feature. Sauron neither intended nor anticipated that anyone other than himself would ever have possession of the Ring; certainly he’d never have tested it out on a Child of Iluvatur. I expect that, rather, he included the ability for the ring to turn ITSELF invisible at need, and the fact that it turns mortals invisible was an unexpected and troublesome glitch he did not become aware of until it was far, far too late. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/32 "2008-12-19T18:07:56Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > (Perhaps strands of Shelob’s webs could have added a bit of spidery strength. Or even some relics of Ungoliant.) [ubergeek mode]Did you know that Ungoliant was originally called Gwerlum?[/ubergeek mode] From: [My own know me not](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4533721&postcount=37) where my enthusiasm about the subject matter nearly led to hurt feelings. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/33 "2008-12-19T18:09:45Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > What exactly does the ring do? [FAQ of the rings](http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/ringfaq.htm) delineates ring powers. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/34 "2008-12-19T18:23:36Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > Ok, I’ve only read the books once, and I’ve seen the movies. Here’s a really basic question. > > What exactly does the ring do? > > All I got was that it made you invisible. That’s a great superpower, but surely there must be more. I mean they were in a world of magic, and I’m sure there must have been other invisibility spells and potions, as well as other tricks just as cool as invisibility. So what else did it do? That’s probably a 2–no, 3–part question: 1. What did the ring enable Sauron to do? 2. What did the ring enable an immortal other than Sauron to do? 3. What did the ring enable a mortal to do? As I wrote upthread, I tend to think the invisibility was a glitch, not a feature. Sauron had no need of it. For him it served two purposes. One, it allowed him to tap into the powers of Morgoth inherent in Arda to magnify his own natural abilities. This he was able to do so long as the Ring itself existed, whether or not he had it in his physical possession, with the drawback that he was so linked to it that its destruction meant his own irreversible dimunuition. I expect that magnifying trait was most effective if he were in the Ring’s proximity, though. But his ability to dominate the minds of others was heightened when he had the Ring, and would vanish (along with him) if the ring were lost. I suspect his other supernatural talents were enhanced as well. He used the ring to set the foundations of Barad-dûr after the tower was built, for instance, which I take to mean that he magically increased the tensile strength of the building. Two, the Ring enabled Sauron to read the minds of the bearers of the three Elven rings, and to control their works. At a minimum, this meant that, so long as he possessed the One Ring, Galadriel, Elrond, and Cirdan had to remove their rings and could not access their powers; thus Galadriel would not have been able to, for instance, slow the passage of time in Lothlorien so long as Sauron had the ring. Had she, Cirdan, or Elrond been so foolish as to keep their rings on after they heard him recite the ring-rhyme, he’d have been able to dominate their minds directly. For an immortal other than Sauron, the Ring would likely have served similar purposes, with the caveat that using it was by definition communing with Morgoth and would inevitably corrupt the user. Had Gandalf or Saruman taken the ring, they could likely have mastered it given time, which would have severed Sauron’s connection to the Morgoth element and sent him into the void as surely as the ring’s being dropped into Mount Doom’s lava did. I don’t think any mortal, even Aragorn or Faramir, could have ever truly mastered the ring. Keeping it long enough to do so would have moved them into the unseen world; they’d have been wraiths no less than the Nazgul, and ultimately impotent. For short periods, though, mortals could use it to become invisible or to influence the wills of others; it also enabled mortals to see the realm of the Unseen. That is something else which is a glitch, not a feature; Sauron obviously did not need any such artificial aid, and I doubt Gandalf or Saruman did either. (Well, Saruman may have once Gandalf kicked him out of the Order.) ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/35 "2008-12-19T18:27:03Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > [FAQ of the rings](http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/ringfaq.htm) delineates ring powers. Thanks, but I’m still a little confused. A lot of those things seem like you wouldn’t want them! I don’t want to be decieved and abandoned. I guess it’s the controlling and influencing people in general that is the key, although I’m not sure how that works. Also controlling the other ring-wearers, although the nine seemed to fail at every task to which they were assigned. ETA: missed Skald’s post ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/36 "2008-12-19T18:32:53Z")
Maybe a more specific question. Gandalf says he wouldn’t want the rign because he’d be tempted to use it for good, but that the power would overwhelm him. What would he have used the ring for and how would it have helped. Just rallying people to him, or is there something more? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/37 "2008-12-19T18:33:43Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > Thanks, but I’m still a little confused. A lot of those things seem like you wouldn’t want them! I don’t want to be decieved and abandoned. I guess it’s the controlling and influencing people in general that is the key, although I’m not sure how that works. Also controlling the other ring-wearers, although the nine seemed to fail at every task to which they were assigned. See my comments upthread about “glitches” versus “features.” As for the Nazgul, they were generally successful. It’s just that we only see them when they had the misfortune to be going against the best Middle-Earth had to offer. If it had been anybody short of Boromir rather than Aragorn on Weathertop, the hobbits would have been toast. If it had been Aragorn rather than Glorfindel at the river, Frodo would have been toast. If it had been Arwen rather than Eowyn in the Pelennor fields, the elf-maiden would have been toast, and Aragorn would have had to marry someone who was, well, interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/38 "2008-12-19T18:42:52Z")
How come it didn’t affect Tom Bombadil? And none of that “because he was the Witch King of Angmar” crap. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/39 "2008-12-19T18:44:29Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > How come it didn’t affect Tom Bombadil? And none of that “because he was the Witch King of Angmar” crap. Tom was a joker in the deck that was Middle Earth. Even JRRT didn’t know where he came from or what he was doing in the story. (I exaggerate a little, but only a little). ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921/40 "2008-12-19T18:52:36Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > How come it didn’t affect Tom Bombadil? And none of that “because he was the Witch King of Angmar” crap. This is only speculation, of course, becaue we don’t know exactly what Bombadil was. But it’s clear that he wasn’t a Child of Iluvatur, so the most likely explanations are that he was some sort of Ainu (the face of angelic spirits of which Gandalf, Sauron, and the Valar were all members) or a nature spirit of a variety unclassified by the Perfesser. In either case he’d have been naturally part of the Unseen world, not the material world to which Men, Elves, Hobbits, & Dwarves are native, and thus he did not trip the “turn wearer invisible” function/glitch as Bilbo, Isildur, Gollum, & Frodo did. As support I add the fact that he could see Frodo while Frodo was invisible – i.e. partly in the other realm – just as the Nazgul could, and just as Frodo could see the Nazgul’s otherwise-invisble forms. As for why he didn’t get corrupted, I’m not convinced that he was as immune to it as some of the Elves seemed to think. It seems more likely that the Ring had difficulty getting its talons into him because he didn’t want much of what it used as blandishments. Consider Samwise & Faramir, both of whom were also resistant to the ring. Neither of them especially wanted power over others. It’d be like me offering my lesbian cousin a ring that gave her the power to seduce any man she desired but would in time turn her into a nymphomaniac. She’d be entirely uninterested, because she likes girls. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-questions-about-the-one-ring-of-sauron-get-your-answers-here/477921.md?page=3)