Cordelia ,'Lessons'
Frodo: Please, what does it always mean, this... this "Aragorn"? Elrond: That's his name. Aragorn, son of Arathorn. Aragorn: I like "Strider." Elrond: We named the *dog* "Strider".
A discussion of Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King. If you're a pervy hobbit fancier, this is the place for you.
My brother and I had a big discussion about the Elf rings a few weeks ago. We finally went to Encyclopedia of Arda for lots of really good info about Middle Earth. I think they have info about the rings of the Dwarves and Men.
For example "By the end of the Third Age, Sauron had recovered three of the Seven [Dwarf] Rings to himself, and the other four had been consumed by dragons."
ETA: spelling
Heee! Through the lotrquotes LJ community: The Entire Silmarillion... in 1000 words or less.
Ha! That's great. The Quest For The Shiny!
So the Elvish rings were basically protect-y rings, whereas the Dwarvish rings and rings of Men were made specifically as a way to give Sauron a line in to control them?
This is why the Elf rings are more powerful, and have names, and not-coincidentally have not led their owners weeping and screaming to Sauron's doorstep, as the other sets of rings have done.
There's alos the point that Sauron had no part in the forging of the Elven rings, and therefore they were not corrupted, whereas the 9 (for Men) and the 7 (for Dwarves) were. Apparently, the 9 allowed the men to gain power, while the 7 enhanced Dwarven fortunes. The Dwarven rings also increased their greediness and xenophobia, IIRC.
Did Tolkein ever explain, in the books or his letters, why so much power was put into physical objects, rings?
That's straight from the Norse myths he drew from. See: Ring Cycle by Wagner.
Tolkien actually hated comparisons to the Ring of the Niebelung. (Although it is an obvious comparison). In one of Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle-Earth series, Morgoth's Ring, I think there is much discussion about rings and power, although I haven't really gone through the volume myself. (Morgoth's Ring was Arda (the Earth) itself, meaning that Mogoth had his power tied to the physical world).
[Edited to add that one of the themes in Tolkien's work was binding power to physical objects, manifested in the One Ring and why when it was destroyed, Sauron disappeared.]
From Una's link, this cracked me up:
BEREN: Ooo! Pretty elf lady!
THINGOL: You can have her if you ... BRING ME A SHINY!
The accent discussion over in Minearverse reminded me that DH's Q&A w/ Billy Boyd went online today. It's here.
[edited to correct URL]
That link didn't work for me.
That's a link to an ad for me.