The Rings of Power | What are they for? - Lore Video

Three, Seven, and Nine. Why were the Rings of Power made? What do they do? And how many are there? Today we'll explore some of the most important artefacts in all of Middle-earth.

Much love and many thanks to the artists who make the wonderful art. No Tolkien art is created by myself, and all credit goes to the individual artists. If an artist is not credited, it is because I cannot find the source of their image, but if any of your artwork is featured during this video, please drop a message or a comment and I can link your page in the description of my videos!

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Art credits in order of appearance:

Much love and many thanks to the music makers!

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"Dungeons and Dragons" - Royalty Free Music For Commercial Use - Epic/Celtic Fantasy Royalty Free Music - Alexander Nakarada

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Much love, stay groovy, and navaer mellyn nin!

[tolkienuntangled]

A lot of you guys have been asking, why do the other rings lose their power after the One Ring is destroyed? The One Ring was forged last, and so it might seem that when it's destroyed, the other rings would finally be free. But this is not the case. In the Silmarillion Tolkien writes that if the One Ring were destroyed, "the powers of the Three must then fail and all things maintained by them must fade." However, it's not really the destruction of the Ring that causes this, it's the destruction of Sauron. 

The key to understanding this is to understand Sauron's gift to Celebrimbor. He gave the elves of Eregion the gift of 'Ring-lore', and Ring-lore is a part of Sauron's craft. It comes from him. Just as some First Age Elven craftsmen invested their swords with a part of their own cold hatred for orcs, and that's why they glow blue when orcs are near; all Rings of Power are invested with Sauron's Ring-lore. They are powered by the Dark Lord. Even the Three that were forged by Celebrimbor alone. They were still forged using Sauron's lore. And so when the One is destroyed, and Sauron's power fades from Middle-earth, the power of the Rings fades too. Because, ultimately, all rings had their source in Sauron.

[Vasharan]

Sauron could have just saved himself a lot of trouble if he'd designed the One Ring with 2-Factor Authentication.
And instead of fiery letters proclaiming its dark nature, they light up with the letters:
'To activate this product, please send a self-addressed envelope and return postage as well as the end-user's name, age, race, and any special delivery instructions to::
D. Lord
1000 Nazgûl Way
Mordor, IN"
Also, make the ring out of tungsten instead of gold (3x higher melting point than lava), and pretend to be defeated if the heroes cast it into a volcano, only to fish it out after they've left.

[A.Tag]

Nobody can see Nenya, making it Nenya business.

[adamjones]

One of my favorite subtle moments in the movies was in Return of the King, right before Aragorn charged at the orc army at the Black Gate. Gandalf subtly lifts is hand as Aragorn looks back at him and you get the most minor glimpse of Narya. This is right after the mouth of Sauron had told them that they had captured and killed Frodo and given them the mithril shirt.

I have always interpreted this as Gandalf revealing the ring to Aragorn as a way to say "He doesn't have the ring yet, if he did I would know". A last glimmer of hope for them as they all charged in "For Frodo".

I could be wrong, that was just always my interpretation.

[gk]

It amazes me how detailed a world was created by JRR Tolkien. So much thought, effort. Not a single thing is without reason or meaning in this world. What a spectacular work of imagination and art. What devotion it must have taken to write this world into existence. Keep in mind, when he would have painstakingly written them, there would have been no guarantee that the books would be successful or even remembered. I have no words to accurately express my respect, wonder and gratitude.

[molekyuttv]

I love the line

"Although time may be slowed, it cannot be stopped. Things must be preserved and protected, but in the end, they must also pass on"

[RGUGNL]

Gandalf having the ring Narya kind of makes a lot of sense. He's always nudging things behinds the scenes to move in a certain direction. He's always the catalyst for change and resistance where others just sit on their hands.

[Navesblue]

Gandalf being one of the secret ring bearers the whole damn time is one of the greatest literary plot twists I've ever heard.

[duathhadron]

I believe Tolkien also mentioned that Narya was one of the reasons Gandalf’s fireworks were so amazing. I know that’s not much, but it’s another little quirk that I love about the 3

[drodameron]

In a way, Celebrimbor's 3 rings helped the undo the mistake he made in trusting Sauron, as they each played a crucial role in Frodo's quest. Pretty cool.

[k.katona]

I liked how you didn't immediately went to explaining how Sauron disguised himself as Annatar, not even because of spoiler or anything (I think most Tolkien fans already know that) but because from the elves perspective he really was just a helpful dude with some good ideas. idk I like this kind of pov storytelling

[tomasmedina]

I always loved how the one ring was effectively useless for most of middle earth and downright harmful to the beings who could use it (excluding Sauron). It shows how pointless greed is. It's really good irony that nobody seems to bring up.

[sebastiancawsey]

With the knowledge that Gandalf bears Narya, when he states in Return of the King "Hope is kindled." It gives so much more emphasis, depth and wonder.
Really enjoyed learning more about Middle-Earth lore.

[shlazzargh]

I think a key to understanding any of the rings of power (especially the One), is to look at where that power came from. For the One, the books are pretty explicit in telling that Sauron poured much of his spirit (malice, desire to rule, etc) into it and thus, it became an extension of Sauron and something that could amplify those traits when he was wearing it. Similarly, he put a touch of himself into all of the other rings as well. So did Celebrimbor in forging the 3. Even though he forged that apart from Sauron, he used Sauron's skills and teaching and, thus, some of Sauron's will to dominate became bound into them too (in those cases, the will to overcome time, sickness and despair).
I think that you can actually see some of Sauron's influence in the 3 elven rings in the behavior of Galadriel, Elrond and even Gandalf. All three struggled with the idea of just getting things done by dominating those around them. Once the One was undone, so was most of Sauron's spirit/essence and the ability of any of the rings to extend the wearer's will.

[thomassparks]

“If the ruffians had not cut down the Party Tree there would have been no place for Sam’s Malorn.” Such an incredible encapsulation of Tolkien’s primary theme! Brings me to tears. Thank you so much for your insights into these stories that matter so much to so many. You are a gift to any Tolkien fan!

[Reddotzebra]

One to preserve, one to protect, and one to enkindle.

[lopirobinson]

It’s so sad, Lothlorien fading and Arwen dying there. Almost brings a tear to my eyes thinking of how ghostly the realm must’ve seemed once abandoned. Arwen alone there passing on.

[scarredman]

When I was young I read the Hobbitt and absolutely fell in love with it. I read the all the LothR books after and I thought that was the end of it. But years later I researched Tolkien and realized, after learning, that that is just on the ending of the Third Age. I was blown away with all the details. Tolkien had even written other non-Middle Earth books.

[davidm]

Man, what a masterpiece. Feels like all things always happen for a reason in Tolkien's world.

[jtfike]

I’m six episodes in on the series about these rings and never learned as much as the opening 30 seconds of this video