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| “ | One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them. One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. | „ |
| ~ The One Ring's inscription. |
The One Ring is a powerful, cursed ring, and the central focus of the novel The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. It is fought over by the forces of Sauron and the forces of good in order to determine the very fate of Middle-earth and is considered a part of Sauron himself, as well as the Dark Lord's most magnificient creation.
Description[]
The One Ring corrupts any who get in contact with it and has shown the ability to turn its host invisible while also attracting the evil presence of Sauron, who it instinctively tries to return to regardless of its current host: the being most corrupted by the One Ring in all of Middle-earth is the tragic Gollum, who would also play a part in its destruction on Mount Doom.
History[]
Background[]
Sauron crafted One Ring around the year SA 1600, within Sammath Naur upon Mount Doom in a bid to accomplish his goal of bringing the peoples of Middle-earth under his dominion. For that, it would require an extraordinary amount of power hence his decision to concentrate within the Ring a great part of his own fëa (soul). As a result, hisnfate is bound to his said ultimate weapon; if it were damaged or destroyed, so too would be Sauron's strength and power.
As soon as One Ring was completed, Sauron attempted to force Elven wielders of the other Rings of Power into his servitude. The attempt failed because they were alarmed by their Rings' connection to One Ring when the Dark Lord wore his so, Sauron rallied his army to seize Elves' Rings by force, commencing the War of the Elves and Sauron in SA 1693. The war initially went very well for Sauron, as he able to capture Eregion in short order and took back the Nine Rings that were kept there, and also Celebrimbor, the maker of the Elven Rings of Power. His attempt to learn the whereabouts of the Three Rings through Celebrimbor failed because the smith was rather perished instead of giving what the Dark Lord wanted. Most of western Middle-earth fell under his rule afterwards, driving the Ñoldor under Gil-galad to the Grey Havens and besieging Imladris. But reinforcements sent by Tar-Minastir of Númenor and Gil-galad in SA 1700 proved too much for Sauron's armies, forcing Sauron to return to Mordor to regroup.
Upon Sauron's self-proclaimed title as Overlord of Middle-earth and King of Men despite such loss, Ar-Pharazôn, the last and most powerful of the Kings of Númenor, arrived at Umbar at the head of an even more gigantic army to defeat him. Due to the sheer size and might of Ar-Pharazôn's forces, Sauron pretends to surrender in a bid to safely approach the people of Númenor, taken back to Númenor as a prisoner. The plan worked, as he proceeded to meticulously win the King's trust to the point of becoming his trusty counsellor and exploited the Númenóreans' fear of death as a way to turn them against the Valar, and toward worship of Melkor. His success was further attributed to the Elves not revealed to the Númenóreans the existence of the Rings of Power and Ar-Pharazôn was unaware of the One Ring's existence and capabilities as the result.
Thanks to One Ring, Sauron managed to cheat death when Eru Ilúvatar smite the Númenóreans for breaking the Ban of the Valar, though he could no longer assume fair form ever since. It mattered little for Sauron as with most of Númenóreans being out of picture, he could commence the war against the Last Alliance of Elves and Men between SA 3429 and 3441. However, at the end of the Siege of Barad-dûr, Isildur cut the ring off Sauron's hand and seized it for himself after defeating its owner rather than destroying it. One Ring would later left Isildur to perish at hands of Orcs during an ambush by slipping from his finger and revealing him to the attackers in TA 2, a turn of events that earned One Ring the moniker of Isildur's Bane in Gondor's lore.
For almost two and a half millennia, One Ring remained hidden in the riverbed where Isildur perished until it revealed itself to a Stoor named Déagol while fishing in TA 2463. Both he and friend and cousin Sméagol were corruptible enough to fell under its evil, though the latter had it worse; Sméagol, displaying signs of mutation into a creature named Gollum, killed Déagol to claim One Ring and moved to caves underneath Misty Mountains after being casted out by his people. There, his transformation completed in the next decades.
The Hobbit[]
The Ring abandoned Gollum to Bilbo Baggins who found it in the former's lair beneath Misty Mountains, One Ring was discovered by Bilbo Baggins. At the time, Bilbo and Gollum engage in a riddle game to determine the former's fate; if he lost, Gollum could eat him, and if he won, Gollum would have to show him an exit from the caves. Gollum aimed to eat Bilbo regardless despite losing but, he couldn't because Bilbo already hqrnessed One Ring's power of invisibility to escape. To add insilt to injury, Gollum discovered that Bilbo had it all along from his last question ("What have I got in my pocket?"). Upon reaching the exit, Bilbo once considered to put Gollum out of his misery but unable to bring himself to do it due to his wretched condition.
The Lord of the Rings[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The very inscription in the One Ring was written in the Elvish dialect, which Gandalf was able to read.