The Rings of Power
the Three, the Seven and the Nine — and the One
Definition
The Rings of Power — in the legend of the Second Age, the Great Rings: the three Elven-rings, the seven rings of the Dwarves, the nine rings of Men — and, above all, the One Ring — forged about the year 1500–1600 of the Second Age. Their making is told in Of the Rings of Power (Part V of the published Silmarillion): taught secretly by Sauron (in fair guise among the smiths of Eregion), the Elven-smiths of Celebrimbor learned ring-craft; and Sauron, in Mordor, forged the One Ring in the fires of Orodruin to govern them all — “one Ring to rule them all” (the verse of the later fame).
The Three, Seven and Nine
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The Three Elven-rings (Narya, Nenya, Vilya): made by Celebrimbor alone, never touched by Sauron, “unsullied”, for healing and preserving — given to Galadriel, Gil-galad (and Círdan/Gandalf) in trust.
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The Seven of the Dwarves: given by Sauron to the Dwarf-lords (the rings that increased their hoards but kindled their greed and, at last, the dragons’ fires).
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The Nine of Men: given to kings of Men, who became wraiths — the Nazgûl, Sauron’s most terrible servants.
The Dominion
The unity of the scheme: “the One Ring was made to rule them all and to bind them to its maker’s will”. When Sauron put on the One, the Elves perceived him and hid the Three; and the great war came: Eregion was destroyed (Celebrimbor slain), and the Powers of the West (with Númenor at first) maneuvered, until the great conflict of the end of the age took shape.
The Last Alliance and the End
At the end of the Second Age,
the Last Alliance of Elves and Men overthrew Sauron; the One Ring was taken from his hand by Isildur (cut from it at Orodruin), and — though the Elves and Elendil urged its destruction — Isildur kept it, the shadow of the Ring’s later history opens the Third Age.
Significance
The Rings are the bridge between the mythology of the First Age (the Silmarils, the light) and the story of the Third (in which the Ring is the central object); their doctrine — the seduction of craft, the dominion of the user by the used — is Tolkien’s great parable of power made concrete in metal and light.