The Rings of Power by Acacia Prechtel

The Rings of Power

By: Acacia Prechtel

“To bear a ring of power is to be alone,” Galadriel tells Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring. The elves originally created the Rings of Power to make “Western-Middle Earth as beautiful as Valinor,” says Tolkien in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien Sauron told the elves that with the rings they could show men and dwarves their vision. And so, the rings were made. “Three Rings for the Elvin-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.”- The Fellowship of the Ring. The rings were supposed to be tools to improve the races. Instead, Sauron forces the elves and dwarves to hide the rings and corrupts the men.

The elves and Sauron conspired to make the rings. Sauron made himself one ring. In numerology, the number “one” stands for God, the leader. Sauron wanted to make himself the ultimate ruler of Middle Earth. There is only one ring because there can only be one ruler. The Ring was made for one ruler. If the Ring is given to someone else, it moves the wearer closer to its master. This ring is the god of rings.

The elves made three rings for themselves. The number “three” could symbolize for the Holy Trinity, a complete cycle, the circle of life, basically all things holy and wise. The elves helped make the rings because they thought that with the rings they would unite all of Middle Earth. Elves are considered a wise race. They lived long and had been around long enough to understand mistakes of men. The men come to them for both council or battle. An elf that has a ring is considered to be incorruptible because the rings have so much power. However, they are not immune to being spied on or controlled by Sauron. The rings were hidden, even from Sauron’s senses. Wisdom and holiness was hidden from the leader.

The dwarves were given seven rings to help govern their people. Seven symbolizes all earthly things, and physical things, including down to earth reasoning. Obviously, dwarves deal with earthly things and they live in the earth. Riches mean more to them than power. They are not incredibly wise, but they are hard workers and not very corruptible by nature. Still, their rings were also hidden from Sauron. The hid their rings, concrete reasoning and earthly ideals.

Men were given nine rings of power. Nine represents humans and humanity, which comes with all their follies. Humans, by nature, are very corruptible. They are easily swayed by the promise of power, wealth, and long life. Their rings were not hidden, their follies not concealed. Sauron played upon their greed, their desires. He made them into servants for himself, giving them everlasting life, but taking away their souls.

The Rings of Power were made in the hopes of uniting Middle Earth. Their purpose was to give their wearers the power to rule their people. Sauron made it so that their purpose was to unite Middle Earth, but to unite it under his rule. The elves and dwarves saw this and hid Sauron’s link to them. This symbolized wisdom and common sense being hidden from Sauron. The only thing left to him was the men with their greed. His power, his army is based on these corrupted men, making his power corrupted. Sauron does not have the influence of the elves’ wisdom or the dwarves’ common sense.