What are the powers of the One Ring?

Dioltach · Dec 23, 2014

Kaodi said:
Sauron is not really a higher order being than Gandalf and Saruman. I was reading somewhere the other day that the Istari were actually diminished by taking on their mortal forms as their true power would have made elves and men fearful of them as well. Sauron was undoubtedly more powerful as his height than they were at their height, but that is not an order level difference.

Off the top of my head, I recall that Sauron took on a large chunk of Melkor/Morgoth's power, which put him on a different level from the Istari and other Maiar.

Also, wasn't Galadriel born in Valinor, before the creation of the Silmarils? From what I understand, she was pretty much the wisest and (with possible exception of Sauron) most powerful being in Middle Earth.

(And so much for Tolkien being a mysogynist: apart from Galadriel, the next most important female character defies society's rules, rides to war in disguise and then faces off against the most powerful of the Nazgul. I think Tolkien portrayed female characters not as inferior, but in a way he thought was realistic for a semi-medieval society.)

Morrus · Dec 24, 2014

Umbran said:
However, Sauron himself was not personally involved in their crafting, as he was involved with the Seven and the Nine. So, Sauron could not directly influence the powers of the Three. He can't even find the Three, normally.

Rune said:
No. Sauron wants the one ring back so he can rule the elven rings (which he does not possess) and to reclaim the power that he poured into the making of the one ring.

So we have two opposing opinions here which directly address my question but give different answers. Which of you is correct?

Olgar Shiverstone · Dec 24, 2014

Morrus said:
So we have two opposing opinions here which directly address my question but give different answers. Which of you is correct?

Umbran's interpretation is in line with my reading.

Ryujin · Dec 24, 2014

Morrus said:
We know that Bilbo and Frodo used it to turn invisible, thats it use can be sensed by Sauron and his minions, and that it corrupts its owner. But clearly the ring is far more powerful than that - Gandalf says he would start to use it with the best intentions, implying that it can do something other than turn him invisible. Boromir knew it could be used in some way in the war effort.

Is that explained anywhere in any of the ancillary writings? What can the ring do?

The ring is literally a part of Sauron, as he poured his power into it when it was created. That's where the corrupting influence comes from and why the ring strives to find its way back to him. Any power that it manifests is the power of Sauron himself.

Morrus · Dec 24, 2014

Ryujin said:
The ring is literally a part of Sauron, as he poured his power into it when it was created. That's where the corrupting influence comes from and why the ring strives to find its way back to him. Any power that it manifests is the power of Sauron himself.

Yes, I understand where the power comes from. My question is what the power does.

Ryujin · Dec 24, 2014

Morrus said:
Yes, I understand where the power comes from. My question is what the power does.

Presumably anything that the millennia old creator, who was perhaps the most powerful arcanist of his time (as per The Silmarillion; after the First Age) was capable of himself. He was the servant of the equivalent of a god, who was sort of that universe's equivalent of Vulcan. The only limitation would be the wearer. As Sauron was one of the Maiar (servants of the gods and, perhaps, lesser gods in and of themselves) and since Gandalf is also a Maiar in human form, Gandalf would likely just have ended up being another Sauron if he'd taken up the ring.

Rune · Dec 24, 2014

Morrus said:
So we have two opposing opinions here which directly address my question but give different answers. Which of you is correct?

One ring to rule them ALL, one ring to FIND them.

Umbran's statements are true of Sauron WITHOUT the one ring, but that ring has a purpose, and that purpose is made quite explicit.

Morrus · Dec 24, 2014

Ryujin said:
As Sauron was one of the Maiar (servants of the gods and, perhaps, lesser gods in and of themselves) and since Gandalf is also a Maiar in human form, Gandalf would likely just have ended up being another Sauron if he'd taken up the ring.

Yeah, I've heard that. I knew that already. My question was that that is all very... vague. What does the ring actually do?

Morrus · Dec 24, 2014

Rune said:
One ring to rule them ALL, one ring to FIND them.

Umbran's statements are true of Sauron WITHOUT the one ring, but that ring has a purpose, and that purpose is made quite explicit.

That it allows Sauron to find Elrond, Galadriel, and Gandalf?

Are they hard to find? I know Galadriel and Elrond's addresses. That whole trilogy can't all be just because Sauron couldn't find Gandalf, surely? Ironic, if so, since he was accompanying the one ring that could find him.

Zander · Dec 24, 2014

Dioltach said:
(And so much for Tolkien being a mysogynist: apart from Galadriel, the next most important female character defies society's rules, rides to war in disguise and then faces off against the most powerful of the Nazgul. I think Tolkien portrayed female characters not as inferior, but in a way he thought was realistic for a semi-medieval society.)

Apologies for the digression away from the topic of the powers of the one ring, but there's no reason to believe that Tolkien was making a feminist statement when he had Eowyn (and Merry) defeat the Witch-king of Angmar. The Eowyn + Merry vs Nazgul fight tells us nothing about Tolkien's attitudes to women.

Tolkien was a philologist who loved word-play and his Middle Earth stories are full of plays on words. The defeat of the Witch-king was an in-story play on the word "man" and its various meanings. It was prophecised that the Witch-king would not be defeated by "man". The Witch-king took that to mean mankind. But the prophesy actually meant "man" in the narrowest sense, that is, a human male. That is why Merry as a non-human male and Eowyn as a human female were able to defeat him.

Nothing to do with politics. Everything to do with philology.

What are the powers of the One Ring?

Dioltach

Legend

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Olgar Shiverstone

Legend

Ryujin

Legend

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Ryujin

Legend

Rune

Once A Fool

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Zander

Explorer

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