As we have found out the full title of the new Lord of The Rings TV Series – The Rings of Power – we make a small presentation about the ringbearers. The Rings of Power were twenty magical rings forged in the Second Age, intended by Sauron to seduce the rulers of Middle-earth to evil: Three rings for the Elven kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for mortal men doomed to die and One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne. The nineteen lesser Rings were linked somehow to the power of the One, and were dependent on it. Their wearers could be controlled by the wearer of the One, and if the One was destroyed, their own powers would fade with the power of the Rings under the One.
The Forgers Of The Rings
Disguised as the benevolent entity Annatar, Sauron taught the Elf-smiths of Eregion, led by Celebrimbor, how to craft these rings. Nineteen were made: three rings for the Elves, seven rings for the Dwarves, and nine rings for Men. An additional ring, the One Ring, was forged by Sauron himself at Mount Doom.
The Ringbearers
Here is what we know so far about the ringbearers from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings:
One Ring To Rule Them All
“One Ring to rule them all… One Ring to find them… One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”
The first bearer of the ring was Sauron of course, who intended to command the minds of the other ring bearers through their rings of power. While Sauron’s plan didn’t succeed perfectly, the existence of the One Ring on his finger meant that the other rings, with which many kingdoms had been built, could not be used safely. Additionally, intentionally or not, Sauron’s personal power was greatly enhanced so long as he wore the Ring, giving him military might the likes of which he could never have otherwise achieved.
It was Isildur who cut the ring off Sauron’s hand. He had the chance to destroy the One in the very chambers where it was forged, but was corrupted by the ring, and spared it. Later it betrayed him, resulting in his death.
It was found, 2500 years later, by a Hobbit named Déagol. Déagol was then killed by his cousin, Smèagol (later Gollum), who then took the Ring for himself. Smèagol was quickly corrupted, but had a strong physical resistance to the Ring, and “for 500 years the Ring poisoned his mind.”
Bilbo Baggins found Smèagol living under the Misty Mountains. Bilbo got the Ring by chance, and at the end of all his adventures he still had it. Later the One was passed down to Frodo Baggins, who was forced to flee to Rivendell, chased by the Nazgûl.
Samwise Gamgee took the ring from Frodo to protect it, when he tought Frodo died in Cirith Ungol. The ring was given back to Frodo after Sam rescued him. Gollum managed to steal it from Frodo by biting Frodo’s finger off, but in the end he fell into the Crack of Doom with it. He died and the One Ring was finally destroyed.
Three Rings For The Elven Kings
“Three rings for the Elven kings under the sky…”.
The only Ringbearer to be given a Ring of Power and actually manage to hang onto is Galadriel. She bears Nenya, the Ring of Adamant, or Ring of Water. Although all the bearers of the Three Rings take them off at the point Sauron first forges and puts on the One Ring, she obviously started wearing it again at some point, as she is wearing it when she meets Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring, and she uses it to preserve her realm of Lothlórien and essentially stop time there.
Gil-galad is High King of the Elves and of the Elf kingdom of Lindon. In Tolkien’s lore, he was the greatest of the Elven Kings, and he actually appears briefly in the film of The Fellowship of the Ring, in the Prologue. Gil-galad bears Vilya, the Ring of Sapphire, or Ring of Air. Just before the battle where he was killed in action, Gil-galad gave Vilya to Elrond, who continued to carry it until he left Middle Earth after the destruction of the One Ring.
Círdan bore Narya, the Ring of Fire, which he was either given directly by Celebrimbor or by Gil-galad. Círdan the Shipwright appears at the very end of the book of The Lord of the Rings. Another Elf Lord, at the very beginning of the Second Age he founded the Grey Havens, the port from which the Elves’ ships set sail when they leave Middle Earth for ever. Knowing that Gandalf was actually a Maia called Olórin, a divine being sent by the great spiritual Powers the Valar to fight Sauron (who was a Maia gone rogue), Círdan gave Gandalf Narya to help him. We are unlikely to see this in the upcoming series though, as Gandalf isn’t sent to Middle Earth until the Third Age.
Seven For The Dwarf Lords
“Seven For The Dwarf Lords In Their Halls Of stone…”.
King Durin III is the King of Khazad-dûm, a.k.a. Moria. We know that his son, “Prince” Durin IV will appear in the Amazon show, and if Durin IV is still a prince, presumably that means we will see his father Durin III as the reigning King. According to the Dwarves, Durin III was given one of the sixteen Rings of Power by Celebrimbor, which makes sense, as Durin was far closer to Elves, and especially to Celebrimbor and the Gwaith-i-Mírdain, than most Dwarves. It was him who had the doors with the Elvish password made for Moria.
Prince Durin will eventually become King Durin IV, and he will inherit the Ring along with the kingdom. He will pass it on to his heirs, even after they eventually abandon Moria and move to the Lonely Mountain (Erebor), and it will continue to be passed down the family line even after they get chased by the dragon Smaug.
Thorin Oakenshield’s father, Thráin II. Thráin inherited the Ring from his father Thror, but he never passed it on to his son. Thráin was captured, tortured and killed by “the Necromancer”, i.e. Sauron, who was finally able to recover the last of the Seven Rings, leaving only the One missing.
We don’t know much about the other six Dwarf Lords. They were each given a Ring by Sauron, who hoped to corrupt them in the same way the Nine Rings corrupted the Men they were given to. However, Dwarves turned out to be much more difficult to corrupt than Men. They didn’t become wraiths, but they did become especially greedy for gold, and the Seven Dwarf Ringbearers became the founders of seven great hoards of gold and treasure. As we saw in the case of Smaug and the Lonely Mountain, these great treasure hoards attracted dragons, and four of the Seven Rings ended up destroyed or consumed by dragons.
Nine For Mortal Men
“Nine For Mortal Men, Doomed To Die…“.
Sauron gave the other Nine Rings of Power to Men. These Ringbearers were eventually completely corrupted by the Rings and became the Nazgûl, the Ringwraiths, or Black Riders. They became completely enslaved to Sauron and to the One Ring.
The only one of the men who would become Ringwraiths whose name we know, Khamûl was a chieftan from the Eastern lands of Rhûn, an area of Middle Earth Sauron liked to run away to whenever he suffered a defeat. He became second-in-command to the leader of the Nazgûl and he is the first Black Rider who appears in The Lord of the Rings, chasing the hobbits across the Shire to Buckleberry Ferry. We know that three of the Nazgûl were once Númenorean Lords, and that some of the Númenoreans were pretty corrupt already even before Sauron got to them. We know almost nothing about the other five Ringwraiths before they became wraiths, except that they were already powerful men.