The One Ring
the Ring of Power; the ruler of the Rings
Name and Making
The One Ring — “the Ring”, “the Ruling Ring” — is the master-ring forged by Sauron in the fires of Orodruin (c. 1600 of the Second Age) to govern all the other rings — the Seven, the Nine and (in its aim, though never its work) the Three: “one Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them”. Into it Sauron poured a great part of his own being, so that the Ring was in truth the Dark Lord’s power made metal.
The Power and the Doctrine
- The rule of the rings: Made in the fires of Orodruin with Sauron’s own craft (an art he had learned among the Valar before his fall), and with a great part of his power bound into it, the One Ring was the instrument by which Sauron meant to rule all the other rings: through it he could “perceive” the thoughts and deeds of the wearers, bind them to his will, and quell the powers of the Seven and the Nine.
When he first put the Ring on, the Elves at once became aware of his purpose — the theft of his secret was revealed, and the wars for the Rings began.
- The corruption: The One Ring’s nature is to bind its bearer to itself: it magnifies the holder’s desire for dominion and in the end consumes them, so that the user becomes the used. This is the story’s central parable of power — “” — and the seed of all the Ring’s dark history in the later ages.
The History
- The war of the Elves and the answering of the West: made known, the One brought Sauron’s war upon Eregion; the Last Alliance overthrew him, and Isildur cut the Ring from his hand — and would not destroy it. The Ring was carried north, and lost in the Anduin at Isildur’s death, the gateway to the Third Age’s long history.
Significance
The One Ring is the mythology’s central “temptation-object” — the ultimate subcreation turned to idol, whose doctrine (the user becomes the used) is the moral core of the later book; it is at the same time the closure of the Rings’ making and the seed of the age’s end.