While I know it’s not cannon, the MMORG Lord of the Rings Online has the nine doing lots more than gets shown in the movies.
They are out spreading rumors to stir up hate and discontent between the races, they are training (replaceable) evil lieutenants to lead various formations of orcs and other baddies (to keep the forces of Eriador and Rivendell so busy that they can’t spare any for Gondor), stuff like that.
While the books/movies of the War of the Ring focus on Frodo and company, I assume a lot of other things scripted in Saurons grab for world conquest was going on at the same time.
And yet you, Johnny-Come-Lately, presume to think you know a damned thing about Middle-Earth? Get offa mah lawn! reaches for rock salt
Someone asked if Smaug had a Dwarf Ring in his horde. On the balance of probabilities, no. Thror used to have one, and he gave it to Thrain before he went off to Moria, but Thrain didn’t hand it on to Thorin as he had it in his possession when he got nabbed by “the Necromancer” (Sauron, as was later discovered). So unless Smaug acquired one earlier (doubtful) or there was another lesser-Ringbearer at Erebor when the Dragon torched it (also doubtful), he wouldn’t have had one.
Yes, the Necromancer. I had forgotten him and Thror’s ring. Been too long till I read the Hobbit. I suppose there were other necromancers too, of course. I remember at the time I had found it cool that there was some guy around that even Gandalf was kinda hesitant about facing, and my nine-year-old reaction was “Will they go after him in the next book?” which they did. And I’m sure Sauron would have recruited Smaug eventually anyway.
Let’s be clear on the rings. There were four* varieties:
The lesser rings. Essays in the craft, trifles really. There’s no record of how many were made or what their fate was. Gandalf originally thought Bilbo’s ring was one of these.
The Rings of Power. It seems there were 16 of them. Sauron had hoped to use them to ensnare many powerful elven lords, but they wouldn’t take the bait. So he distributed 7 to the dwarves (and found the dwarves mostly resistant to his domination) and 9 to men. In early drafts of LOTR, many of these were made and distributed, and reduced many an elf to a wraith.
The Elven Rings. Made without Sauron’s aid, but with the knowledge provided by him, they were quite different from the Rings of Power.
The One Ring. Holding much of Sauron’s native strength, it was designed to control the wearers of the other rings, including the Elven rings. It was also a tool for tapping into Morgoth’s might, which was infused into Arda itself.
*) Saruman’s rings. He forged an unknown number of them, which had unknown powers and caused unknown consequences.
I have but one problem with the above synopsis: it seems to imply that Sauron alone made the Nine & the Seven. This is not so; they, like the Three, were crafted in Elven forge(s) by Celebrimbor. The difference is that Sauron was unaware of the forging of the Three; he never touched them, and thus they were not under his direct control unless he had the possession of the One. But clearly their design and “programming” involved things Celebrimbor had learned from Sauron, for he could control them when he had the one in his custody, and they lost all virtue when the One was destroyed.
Gandalf assisted in Thorin’s quest specifically to eliminate Smaug. Check Unfinished Tales.
Apropos of nothing, Mrs. Rhymer & I went to an garage sale last weekend and bought all of HOME, in pretty much unread condition, for $12, as the original purchaser wanted them simply to fill bookcase space and never actually opened any of them.
I gave some answers in the inspirational thread though that Skald linked to.
The Elf Rings were all accounted for of course. Elrond, Galadriel and Gandalf.
The Nine were all in possession of Sauron, I always found it interesting they could not be distributed again.
The seven were either consumed by Dragons. (4 of them I believe) and 3 returned to Sauron by some means. The last was held by Thráin II and taken from him by torture in Dol Guldur.
It was also mentioned that there was lesser rings of power. A tantalizing loose string with no details.
Probably I should have written “does not makes sufficiently clear that the contrary is the case, though Qadgop, being Qadgop, surely knows and was probably distracted by the need to remove a sharpened spoon from the neck of one of his charges.”
There is some belief that Thráin II’s ring was made only by the hand of Celebrimbor and only captured by Sauron when he sacked Eregion.
The Three only escaped as Celebrimbor had sent Nenya to Galadriel in Lórien and Vilya & Narya to Gil-galad.
Narya of course went to Círdan and he gave it to Gandalf when Gandalf arrived.
Vilya was kept by Gil-galad for a while and then he gave it to Elrond probably when he sent Elrond to establish Imladris.
Ate, or torched. “Three {Sauron} has recovered, and the remainder the Dragons have consumed”, and “It has been said that dragon-fire could consume the Rings of Power”. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, of course; it’s barely even fanwankery to speculate that dragon digestion consists of incinerating whatever has been eaten.
Jim, would you happen to know where I might find that reference? Not disputing, but I’ve heard it before and would like to track it down–and now that I have all of HOME as well as Letters and the trilogy (by which I mean Silmarillion, Hobbit, & LoTR, of course), I’d like to read it my ownself.
Didn’t Aragorn wear a ring of power? Was his an elven ring, and if so, who made it?
Don’t beat me up, oh mighty ubergeeks, but I only read the Hobbit twice, LOTR 3 times and never touched the Silmarillion.
Aragorn wore the Ring of Barahir, which was given to the chieftain of the House of Beor in Beleriand by Finrod, the brother of Feanor, in the First Age. It had no power, but symbolized the alliance between the Dunedain and the Elves.
Geeks cannot beat up anyone but uber-geeks and two-legged bunny rabbits, and uber-geeks sometimes lose the fight with the lagomorphs. That is inherent in the definition of “geek.”
Finrod was the nephew of Fëanor, not brother. Finrod was son of Finarfin, who was the half brother of Fëanor.
Yes, yes, I know you can argue that Finarfin was originally called Finrod, in early JRRT writings.
The ring of Barahir was wrought in Valinor, and its twin serpents represented the Badge of the House of Finarfin. It was also known as the Cormalaiqua. From Finrod to Barahir, and thence to Beren. From there it went to Dior, and then to Elwing, and on to Elros Tar-Minyatur, 1st king of Numenor. From there it went to to Vardamir to Tar-Amandil to Tar-Elendil. But King Elendil gave the ring to his eldest daughter Silmariën, who passed down thru the Lords of the Andunië. Hence to Aragorn.
You neglect to mention that, in choosing to marry Arwen rather than Eowyn (which would obviously have been wiser), the son of Arathorn was marrying his first cousin 26 times removed. Damn redneck. No wonder the Reunited Kingdom fell after only another couple hundred years.
And I’m sure Sauron would have recruited Smaug eventually anyway.