Tolkien's *other magic rings

we know about the great rings of power the nine the seven the three and the one ring but in tolkien's world there were lots of other magic rings what were they what powers did they have and how did they impact on the story hi everyone this is robert welcome to in deep geek this video is sponsored by skillshare the premiere online learning community stick around to the end and i have a special offer for you one of the most important plot points in the opening couple of chapters of the lord of the rings is that although gandalf knew that bilbo had got himself a magic ring and was concerned about it he didn't know which ring it was and what the implications of that might be being gandalf he seemed to have a feeling about the importance of this ring and his suspicions grew over time but it was only after it took such an effort of will for bilbo to finally part with it and some very unbilbo-like changes of character that he began to actively wonder about it and investigate it in earnest he didn't immediately think that bilbo had somehow stumbled upon the one ring he cautioned frodo that it may have powers other than just invisibility and told him never to put it on gandalf then set his mind to doing some investigating into the matter along with aragorn he spent years hunting down gollum and doing his own research among the books of minas tirith he popped back to the shire every now and then but remained vague about his suspicions saying things like magic rings are well magical and they are rare and curious but he goes on later to tell frodo a bit more about magical rings in middle earth in a reggion long ago many elven rings were made magic rings as you call them and they were of course of various kinds some more potent and some less the lesser rings were only essays in the craft before it was full grown and to the elven smiths they were butt trifles yet still to my mind dangerous for mortals gandalf obviously initially thought that bilbo's ring was probably one of those lesser rings and that's probably fair enough during the hobbit we only ever hear about its power to turn bilbo invisible and what were the chances of the one ring being picked up randomly by a hobbit it was only over time that gandalf grew to thinking that it might be something more we know about the one ring of course but what were those other rings some dangerous and powerful well they were forged in a region between about twelve hundred and fifteen hundred of the third age when sauron disguised as anata the lord of gifts taught calibrimbor the elf the skills of ring making the culmination of this were of course the great rings but sauron didn't start off with them he slowly carefully over centuries showed calebrimbor how to make lesser rings imbuing them with power they were each plain and unadorned like the one ring itself this was in stark contrast to the greater rings the nine the seven and the three each of which were set with precious gems which of course explains why gandalf could have assumed to start with that bilbo's ring the one ring was just one of these lesser rings gandalf had never seen the one ring it had disappeared from middle earth history before he was sent there but all the greater rings he had seen thus far including his own ring narya looked like great rings they were beautiful with precious gems this one didn't it was plain and boring like a lesser ring of power it also explains how sauron when trying to barter with the dwarves of erebor for information about the one ring could attempt to pass it off as a little ring the least of rings it didn't look anything special it looked like a lesser ring okay so the lesser rings had power they could do things like make you invisible and each ring seemed to have different powers and they were simple plain rings not gordy or set with precious gems they were prototypes early efforts nothing special to the magical elves it's worth noting here though that these so-called lesser rings are still to mortals dangerous and powerful this tells us a lot about the lesser rings but probably even more about quite how powerful the greater rings are gandalf as well as elrond and galadriel spends all of the lord of the rings wearing a greater ring and yet we tend not to ascribe much of an effect to it gandalf may have appeared like an old man but he wielded fearsome magic so the lesser rings were still powerful as in all good fantasy universes in middle earth power does not come from nowhere there is always a cost associated with power and it seems that the power of magic rings in middle earth at least as taught by anata sauron comes from the person who forges that ring we're told that sauron poured his cruelty his malice and his will to dominate all life into the one ring he poured his life essence into it to the extent that when it was cut from him he lost his physical form it seems that magic rings need something of the person who forged them to give them power presumably this is also the case with the lesser rings although these were in gandalf's words essays in the craft just trying things out so they aren't the case to the same extent clebrimbor if it were he who created them poured something of his own soul or essence into them and calebrimbor was an immortal and powerful elf grandson of feyenoor who made the silmarils and a legendary figure even for the likes of elrond and galadriel if he poured even a bit of his life energy into those lesser rings they would be powerful indeed which matches up with how gandalf describes them lesser rings but dangerous for mortals they each seemed to have different powers some just had one power others more than one some were weaker others stronger all were dangerous so what happened to them well once the elves realized what saron was up to forging the one ring to enslave the possessors of the other rings of power they seem to have tried to hide or destroy the other rings the three obviously ended up safe and out of sauron's reach we're told that they tried to destroy others but calebrimbor seemed a bit unwilling in this regard given how much time and energy and himself he had poured into their creation so when sauron invaded oregon we're told that he seized many rings of power the seven and the nine he obviously gave to the dwarves and men but the clear implication is that he took even more lesser rings indeed in the unfinished tales we're told that he took among other things the lesser works of the murdain so some of the lesser rings were probably spirited out of oregon before saron invaded but many were captured by him and presumably taken back to mordor after that the trail goes a bit cold but we can draw some inferences from what gandalf says if he thought bilbo's ring was probably a lesser ring then they clearly didn't all disappear back in the second age perhaps some were with the elves in other parts of middle-earth and perhaps some re-emerged from mordor after sauron's fall we may not know where all of them are but gandalf clearly thinks that it's much more likely for bilbo to have picked up one of the minor rings than the one ring itself some lesser rings do appear in the various semi-canon sources we have for example in the lord of the rings online world we hear of natural this was in the possession of narmaleth an elf smith from elegion but spoiler alert in case you ever want to play lord of the rings online it slowly corrupted her into becoming a marthial champion of angmar in other words under the power of the witch king of angmar the chief of the nazca this is as i said only semi-canon but it does open up an intriguing and persuasive possibility because although we're only told of sauron teaching kalibrinbour about ring magic surely it makes sense that the witch king might know a thing or two about it too he wears a ring of power is absolutely loyal to sauron is a powerful magic user specializing in magic involving wraiths and the undead and clearly spent much of the third age ruthlessly pushing sauron's agenda it would be quite surprising if he didn't know quite a lot about the magic of the lesser rings and there are a few hints that perhaps he may have used ring magic himself he sent barrow whites to infest the barrow downs in ages past we meet one when frodo and company get lost there the barowhites are wraiths the same word tolkien uses for the nazgul the ring wraiths and seems similarly spectral shadowy figures intriguingly they're infamous for the fact that they wore gold rings it's mentioned not just in the lord of the rings but also in bombadil goes boating a fun little poem tolkien wrote about tom bombadil's journey up the withy window even more intriguingly when in the presence of the barrow white frodo feels a huge urge to put on the one ring an urge that seems very very similar to what he experiences when the nazgulani there seems to be a connection here all the hints are that the barrow whites wore magic rings lesser rings either salvaged from a region or created afresh by the witch king tolkie never states this explicitly but the hints are there and the hints are there that someone else used their magical abilities to create a ring of power it's one of the most overlooked details in tolkien's masterpiece but sarah mann seems to have made himself a ring of power off-screen as it were when gandalf goes to meet sarah mann he notices in passing that he wore a ring on his finger the clear implication of this obviously is that this is a new thing sarah man didn't usually wear a ring and now he was wearing a ring so where has it come from well sarah mann boasts a little later that he is sarah mann the wise sarah man ring maker again this wasn't one of sarah mann's previous titles so presumably it's something new he made a ring and now he's wearing a ring i think it's pretty fair to say that it will have been a magical ring and it's not really a surprise we know that sarah mann spent years centuries even studying sauron and his works he was the undisputed expert in the white council on ringlore and he slowly grew to envy sauron and it would appear try to copy him even down to creating an urukhai army and making a ring of power he didn't know yet all the secrets of making a great ring on his own that knowledge was locked in mordor but this seems to be his own lesser ring his essay in the craft the first step along the way and like all of the lesser rings it will have been dangerous but i told you i'd say a bit more about skillshare who sponsored this video skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people you can explore new skills deepen existing passions and get lost in creativity i'd recommend science fiction and fantasy creating unique and powerful worlds a course of videos unpicking what makes science fiction and fantasy stories believable and internally coherent i found it really useful in helping frame the fantasy worlds i 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Channel: In Deep Geek

Views: 124,783

Rating: 4.941112 out of 5

Keywords: in deep geek, deep geek, lord of the rings, the lord of the rings, lotr, middle earth, tolkien, magic rings, lesser rings, how many magic rings, rings of power lotr, rings of power

Id: thy3p0y-Sn0

Length: 12min 48sec (768 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 27 2021