The Power of the One Ring

[Angelclaud]

Hiya all ! I am new to Tolkien and also to this Forum. Nice to meet you all.
Anywya, I've been thinking about the power of the One Ring. What power does the One Ring really possess? The only power of the One Ring that I know so far is that it can prolong the life of a person. Although it had been said that the One Ring can control or ruled over the other races, however, it seemed that the ring can only be used by Sauron. So why is everybody attracted to the ring? Why does everyone want to possess it? Is it simply because of the temptation of the ring?

[Laurelyn]

Welcome to the Moot! Elen sila lumenn omentielvo, mellon!
You say you're new to Tolkien as well- how much have you read? I'll be careful to not leave any spoilers for anything that I've read and you haven't. Well, anyways, welcome to the world of Arda!! Good luck on your journey. :)

The Ring holds the power to rule over the other rings of power, and the other races. However, when Sauron forged the Ring, he put so much of himself into the Ring, so much of his soul, that it is bound to him and answers only to him. The Ring has a will of its own, which could really be almost thought of as the will of Sauron, in a way.

The way I see it, the Ring answers only to the force that is in it, which is Sauron, Sauron's malice and hate, and power. And Sauron did indeed have a good deal of power. It prolongs life, yes, but I think that that is only for the purpose of keeping its current Ringbearer until it is ready to move on. In Gollum's case, he had become so ensnared and corrupted by the Ring, that I'm guessing he would have lived until the destruction of the Ring, or until he gets on someone's nerves for the last time and they draw their sword . . . But we'll never know, that's just my theory.

As for why everyone was drawn to the Ring, I think all that power did indeed tempt them, whether they knew it or not. Also, the will of the Ring, or whatever, could probably make them want the Ring, because if they have the Ring and they attempt to rule with it, and they're not Sauron, it would probably help the Ring get back to Sauron, because then he would know where it was, and it would also put Middle-earth in a better place for him to conquer, because the Ring would have corrupted you, and made a mess of your attempts to rule, and so Middle-earth wouls also be a mess, and then Sauron would have an easier time taking it over.

[KGamgee]

Nice description Laurelyn.
I totally agree
Welcome to the board Angelclaud!
~KGamgee~

[aldesign]

ditto k.gamgee

[Arathorn]

Wilkommen Sie Angelclaud,

Listen to Laurelyn. She's smart.

[Earenya]

Welcome, Angelclaud.
Beautiful & well written description, Laurelyn.

[Earniel]

Besides that it can make you invisible for every one except Sauron, the Nine and Tom Bombadil. Which is, you will find, a drawback, well for the first two, Tom is OK.

[Nameless]

I add my welcome Angelclaud.

Hey Laurelyn, great explanation!

[Darius O'Herran]

Welcome Angelclaud, I am Darius, also new to this forum. I'm not new to Tolkien however. I welcome you to this wonderful board, I've learned that these people are all extremely nice, and very helpfull most of the time.

The Ring has a few other things to mention. Along with invisibility, it can apparently make you able to understand atleast orc, if not some other languages, because that is done through the ring. Also, I don't remember where (cause I'm a stupid person) but it says the ring gives power according to its wielder. Thus if someone weak is using the Ring, it will be weak, but if someone like Galadriel or Gandalf were to wield it, it would be powerful indeed, almost as powerful as Sauron using it. Anyway, the powers are never really explored in full, because the only person to truly use it for more than simple invisibility was Sauron, and we don't get to talk to him. Make up some powers that may have come with the ring and assign them yourself. I find that to be my favorite part of Tolkien.

[Wayfarer]

It gives power according to stature.

Thus, if you've trained to dominate the wills of others, through whatever means, it would enhance that ability.
Galadriel held back time and 'decay' and put up a barrier of sorts, it would likely increase that power in her (most likely over much more than lorien)
gandalf enflamed the hearts of others... the one ring would let hiom do so to a much greater degree.
Sam was a gardener... notice the ring tempts him with visions of making all that is despoiled in mordor new.

Basically, whatever you're good at, the ring makes you do better. It makes you even more you , and it gives this new, stronger, you whatever you seek and desire. And then it corrupts you until you are no longer you.

That was odd. ]: )

[Angelclaud]

Thank you for the warm welcome everybody. As a new reader of Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings can be quite overwhelming. There are so many details, histories, etc to pay attention to.

Oh and by the way, English is not my first language. So if I have some grammar mistakes or the way I organized the sentences is sort of weird, please forgive me.

[Wayfarer]

I can count on one hand the number of people here who use intelligent, correct english.

Don't worry about it. ]: )

[Menelvagor]

A little late but, Welcome to the Moot, Angelclaud!:)

[Nameless]

Hey Wayfarer: You mean that there is one of us who can count!?? :D :D :D

[Arathorn]

Wayferer,
You must be an X-man/mutant with a hundred or so fingers in one hand.:D

[Renille]

Somehow, Arathorn, I would NOT be surprised.:D Welcome,Angelclaud! Did anyone yet mention that some, when using the ring, desire to do good, but always end up doing evil anyhow because the ring is inherently (sp???) evil? Probably, but if not, I just did.:p

[FrodoFriend]

Welcome, Angelclaud and Darius!! :D

Don't know if anyone's said this yet, but the Ring also enhances the senses and perceptive powers. For example, after he carries the Ring for a while, Frodo can hear and see in the dark much better than before; he also saw Galadriel's Ring, which was invisible to Sam. All in all, a pretty powerful trinket! :)

[Arathorn]

I also forgot to mention that the one ring also degrades one's sense of fashion and hygiene. Look at what it did to poor Smeagol. Bilbo started wearing really dark eyeshadow. Frodo eventually started wearing orcish stuff. Isildur went swimming without changing into trunks; and so did Sam.
The bearers of the 3 elvish rings knew this and refused because they wanted to keep their day jobs on the modeling ramp.

[Nameless]

...yeah and look at Sauron. I bet he was one bad smelling dude!

[Darius O'Herran]

You people are so so strange, but um, yeah, most powerful magic items degrade one's sense of style. At least, that's what I've heard. . . *grin*

[Laurelyn]

Nice description Laurelyn.
To all the folk who said this, thanks very much for the comments. :) It took me a half hour to write all that up, so I'm glad it was worthwhile.
Darius: Welocme to the Moot! You said something about the relevance of the power the Ring has to the power of its wielder. This is quite true. If you recall, Gandalf at one point said, "I would wield it through a desire to do good, but through me, it would wield a power too great to imagine." This might have been in the movie, or the books, I've forgotten, but it captured the meaning very well. If the Ring corrupted Gandalf, he would become probably a Dark Lord as terrible as, if not greater and worse than, Sauron, Because he has so much power, and if the Evil of the Ring got ahold of that, look out Middle-earth, here comes your doom.
I'll talk more later . . . gotta run. ..

[markedel]

The ring also requires training to use properly. To wit Isildur took the ring from Sauron. While he was a strong willed individual he could not use the ring to say scare off the orcs through mind control because he had no practice with its use.

[Arathorn]

Yup. Gandalf would have turned into an evil Mr Rogers.

[MasterMothra]

welcome angelclaud, great description laurelyn.
do not be corrupted by the lies and false propaganda concerning the true intent of the ring. sauron forged it to bring much needed order to the whole of middle earth. the ring was not intended to "rule" the other rings, it was meant to unite all the other rings and ,in a sense, unite all middle earth. and since sauron was a wise being, he volunteered to lead the cause and wear the "binding" ring. it was all just a big misunderstanding, a lack of communication that was not the fault of sauron himself.:D

[Earniel]

errr....right...sure...Those stupid men and elves never knew what was good for them eh? Poor misunderstood Sauron...:)

[Laurelyn]

Sure . . . he's not evil, just misunderstood . . . oh yeah, and he tried to take freedom away from the peoples of Middle-earth. No, I don't go for that. Sauron intended to rule in darkness, and he came darn right close to succeeding. In a way, that's what we could expect of him, the student and follower of Morgoth. All-around evil dude, IMHHO.

[Elf Girl]

Yeah...Sauron intended to rule, all right.


I became Elf Girl 6 days ago, and now I'm an Enting!!

[Laurelyn]

Originally posted by Elf Girl
I became Elf Girl 6 days ago, and now I'm an Enting!!
Congratulations!

[Bacchus]

The Ring facilitated control of other wills. Sauron certainly used it to help him corrupt Ar-Pharazon and send him to his doom in Valinor.

I believe it was Wayfarer who gave examples of Galadriel's and Gandalf's powers and opined that the One Ring would have amplified them. I disagree. The powers cited can be traced to the Rings wielded by those two.

Letter 246 discusses possible Ringwielders and their likely powers. Only Gandalf is given as innately powerful enough to have taken the Ring and challenge Sauron directly. Elrond or Galadriel would have used it to raise armies of slaves to confront Sauron militarily.

On the corrupting influence of the Ring, 246 states that had Gandalf taken the Ring, the end effect would have been even worse than Sauron regaining it. He would have "made good seem evil," in the words of Tolkien.