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For Cisco, we should make it clear that The Lord of the Rings (hereafter LotR) is only a small part of the literature that now exists regarding the world created by J. R. R. Tolkein. Not only do you have the Silmarillion which can be read, but also his son has published a huge number of books exploring the various unpublished works of Professor Tolkein, as well as the history of the writing of the epic, including an overly exhaustive exploration of the story development through review of the various drafts. As a result, don’t be surprised by the wealth of information presented that doesn’t appear to be found in the pages of LotR itself.
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All the rings were made by the elves. The three elven rings were never touched by him. The basic story is outlined in the chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring entitled “The Council of Elrond”, and is supplemented by the material in Appendix B, “The Tale of Years”. A much more full accounting is found in The Silmarillion, “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age.”
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The elven rings were “hidden” when Sauron put on the One Ring. It is not explicitly stated in LotR that the rings were taken off, though the implication based on other statements about the power of whoever wields the One Ring would certainly seem to make this necessary. The Silmarillion does state that the wearers of the elven rings, perceiving the intent of Sauron, took off their rings. Three of these, the last made, and the greatest, were saved. These were Narya, Nenya and Vilya, the Three. The remaining rings were collected by Sauron (the implication here is that, when Sauron brought war to Eregion to obtain the rings, he managed to capture 16 of the rings made, but couldn’t get ahold of the last three).
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The One Ring was forged with the intent of dominating the wearers of the various Rings of Power (specifically, from the magical spell poem the Three, the Seven and the Nine). Presumably this was something Sauron was capable of doing because he knew the design features of the various rings, having been involved in teaching the ring forgers their skill (never forget that Sauron is Maia, a demi-god, much more powerful and knowledgable than the elves).
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Sauron gave the Seven to the dwarves, but as is stated in both LotR and The Silmarillion, dwarves cannot be easily mastered. But they did end up with an “over-mastering greed of gold”, which of course caused enough strife that perhaps Sauron couldn’t be too upset with the result. Still, as we know from LotR, Sauron did attempt to re-collect the various dwarven rings, which is why Thrain ended up in the dungeons of Dol Guldur, in the hands of the Necromancer (Sauron in disguise).
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The Nine, of course, were parcelled out to men, who became “kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old.” Yet, though they obtained long life and power, they were trapped in an unendurable, unending life. “And one by one, sooner or later, according to their native strength and to the good or evil of their wills in the beginning, they fell under the thraldom fo the ring that they bore and under the domination of the One, which was Sauron’s.” (Silmarillion).
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As has already been stated, the One Ring, needing much power to work, was invested with a great part of Sauron’s native power. The implication is that he would not be able to re-forge the Ring; indeed, without the Ring, his powers were only a shadow of his former ability, and without the Ring he was unable to assume a fair shape, as had been his power in the past.
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Gandalf clearly used the powers of Narya. But it is not correct to suggest that Gandalf’s power came from the ring, because Gandalf is, after all, a Maia himself, as was Saruman and the other istari. “Olorin I was in my youth in the West that is forgotten,” (The Two Towers, “The Window on the West”) Gandalf tells Faramir. Indeed, Saruman proves quite powerful himself, and he wields no Ring of Power. Rather, say that Gandalf was able to focus his power through Nenya, allowing him control over aspects of fire. Presumably, Gandalf had more ability to use Nenya than any elf would have, which is undoubtedly why Cirdan surrendered the ring to Gandalf.
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The unmaking of the One Ring spelled the end of the power of the Three. As Elrond says in “The Council of Elrond”, “But maybe when the One has gone, the Three will fail, and many fair things will fade and be forgotten. That is my belief.” And so also Galadriel in “The Mirror of Galadriel”, “For if you fail, then we are laid bare to the Enemy. But if you succeed, then our power is diminished, and Lothlorien will fade, and the tides of Time will sweep it away. We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic folk of dell and cave, slowly to forget and be forgotten.” Thus, the wise understood that the Three could not survive the unmaking of the One, that they were encompassed within its spell. And, thus, for the elves, the end of the One spells the end of the attempt to remake Middle Earth into a lesser echo of Valinor.
DSYoungESQ, I hate to quibble with your masterly summary, but being the kind of guy I am, I will anyway!
Actually Sauron lost his ability to take fair form after his body perished in the wreck of Numenor. He returned to Middle-Earth at that time, and wielded the ring.
QtM
Ok, I have 2 more dumb questions that I somehow forgot the answers to along the way.
Who reforged the sword that was broken? (I think it was Elrond but I want to be sure.)
and
Where did Pippin get his sword? (Merry got his from Tom Bombadil, right? Or was it the other way around?)
I’m not even two days out of reading the LOTR and I already need to read it again…that’ll teach me to read such a great book on the edge of sleep.
Bombadil gave Mery and Pippin their swords (daggers) after rescuing them from the Barrow Downs – the blades were taken from one of the barrows.
Re: Narsil, reforged as Anduril:
So it was reforged by elves, presumably under the direction of Elrond and Gandalf.
May you re-read LotR for the rest of your happy life!
Quoth Gaspode:
That, at least, was not attributable to anything as puny and insignificant as a ring of power. If you read the Ainulindalë and the Valaquenta at the beginning of the Silmarillion, you’ll see that the Secret Flame is much more significant. It’s what separates what is from what is not, and is a direct manifestation of the power of God. Note that one of Gandalf’s names is Olorin? That name shows up in the Silmarillion, too, where we learn that he’s a Maia, which means that he’s about two steps below God, and took part in the Creation of the World. To be fair, the Balrog is (or rather was) also in this same category.
Backing up your argument, though, it’s mentioned in The Hobbit that he had made an especial study of fire and lights (in the cavern of the Great Goblin), and there’s indications in LotR that he’s the only entity in the world who has a special mastery of fire: When he lights the fire on Caradhas, he remarks that he has written for any to read that “Gandalf was here”, not just that “a wizard was here”.
Oh, and Cisco? Frodo and Sam also got barrow-blades, but Frodo’s was broken by the Nazgul at the fords. He didn’t get Sting until he met Bilbo at Rivendell. Sam’s barrow-sword was on Frodo when he got captured in Cirith Ungol, and was one of the tokens brought by the Mouth of Sauron.
Rather impressive display of Middle-Earth knowledge Chronos. I’m afraid it just leaves me with more questions though.
Ok, so what was the Balrog doing in Moria in the first place? Why did it attack the fellowship?(I don’t think it was on the side of Sauron or the Orcs, was it?). I remember Tolkien himself saying that a Balrog was completely silent, does this mean they don’t talk either? Surely such a powerful creature doesn’t just waste it’s nigh-eternal life hiding in caves and pouncing on unsuspecting travellers for no apparent reason, does it? And lastly, should I just go ahead and read the Silmarallion? I’ve had an old hardback copy sitting on my bookshelf for years untold but I never could make any sense out of it in the past (not that I tried overly hard…). Would it make alot more sense now that I’ve read the “'Rings”? Ok, sorry to ramble, it’s late. Thanks for all the input.
Cisco, the Balrog was still hiding. He was still pretty shook up over the break of Thangorodrim, and the memory of the Wrath of The Host of The West kept his sorry butt deep down under the mountains. He didn’t even come up to bother the dwarves of Moria, until they delved too deep, and came too close to him.
Remember, the Balrogs all served Morgoth, not Sauron, and didn’t automatically have to transfer their allegience to Sauron when ol’ Morgy got shut behind the Wall of Night. Besides, Sauron was another Maiar, just like them.
I’m sure the Balrog could talk, too. They did speak, in Tolkien’s earliest writings about the fall of Gondolin, as presented in HOMES. I guess he just didn’t have much to say.
I’d say you’d better read The Silmarillion. Then things will make more sense, and your life will be more complete. Then you can also read Unfinished Tales, and follow it up with the entire 12 volume History Of Middle Earth Series. I envy you!
QtM
It’s been a few years since I read the book, but didn’t he survive the actual fall and assocaited combat and was killed later while pursuing and fighting the Balrog after its flame had been extinguished?
The balrog’s fire was extinguished when they both landed in the icy lake at the bottom of the chasm. The battle resumed, with the balrog trying to strangle Gandalf. They climbed the endless stair (which was destroyed in the process), and came out on top of Mt. Caradhras, where the Balrog once again burst into flames. But Gandalf cast him down, killing him, and then died himself. His spirit returned to the undying lands, and he was given a new body, Gandalf the White, and returned by methods unknown to the peak of Mt. Caradhras, where Gwaihir, the Lord of Eagles found him. Gwaihir had been sent to look for him by Galadriel, who, having dwelt herself in the blessed realm in the days of her youth, suspected it would take more than a Balrog to take Gandalf out of the picture for good.
Gandalf implied the whole battle was a lot more involved than that, but didn’t wish to speak of the horror. He merely told enough to satisfy Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas.
Gosh, I did all that from memory. But I’m not a fan, you understand. I’m a student of Tolkien’s writings. A student! Got it?
I don’t know about that. Without the ring he wouldn’t have had the Ringwraiths, and they were (iirc) a major part of the campaign against Gondor.
Not saying you’re wrong, but that seems to be an arguable point. IIRC, in nearly every task they set out to do, they failed. I think the only thing they ever really accomplished was scaring the bejesus out of people.
Where did all the dragons go? Gandalf makes a mention (to Frodo, I think, after he throws the ring in the fire) that dragon-fire was the only other way to destroy it, yet the dragons seemed to be conspicuously absent… Was Smaug the last dragon?
I think he said not even the fire of the most powerful dragon could destroy it. But I too was dissapointed by the lack of wurms.
According to the Tolkien Bestiary, regarding the plight of dragons following the fall of Smaug the Golden…
I should mention that Dragons were supposedly more powerful than even Balrogs, even though Balrogs were Maiar and the Dragons were simply creations of Morgoth.
I just checked - you’re right:
And I was just about to feed it to my pet salamander [sub](it’s the closest thing to a dragon I could find)[/sub]:(. Guess I have to go to Mordor then…
That’s right, Cisco. One of the Elven Rings of Power, or one of the Nine or Seven could have been destroyed by dragon fire, but by the Third Age there were no dragons left in whom the old flame was hot enough. But the One could not have been destroyed even by the greatest old dragons, Ancalagon or Glaurung. That’s what Gandalf said, anyway.
Gandalf said it, I believe it, that settles it.
QtM
A fundamentalist Iluvatarian Universalist
Tolkien Bestiary? 12 volume HOMES series? Why was I not informed of these earlier? Man, I’m already reading 3 books at once and now I find I need to go get more!
A true Tolkien fiend must read HOMES! Then you can meet; Trotter, the hobbit ranger; Bingo, Bilbo’s son and heir; and read about the land of Ond! You’ll also be able to read a chapter that JRRT cut out of The Return of the King at the very last minute.
Several books in the HOMES series (I forget which ones) have Tolkien’s earliest LOTR manuscript exerpts. It truly changed a lot as he was writing it.
If you’re not all that interested in the events of The Silmarillion, just select the volumes of HOMES which deal with the War of the Ring. Otherwise, read them all, and learn about Finarphir, the Gnomes, and listen to conversations with the young Earendil.