J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories are filled with mystical forces. But the rules of how magic operates in Middle-earth were always left a little vague. Tolkien often employed soft magic, a system that leaves the mysticism vague (if awe-inspiring), on purpose. His tales contained few descriptions of constraints or mechanisms, compared to the Mistborn saga by Brandon Sanderson or even parts of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, both of which use hard magic. The magic in these stories clearly adhere to a system with detailed explanations and specific limitations.
In The Lord of the Rings, readers learn that the One Ring will enhance the power of the wearer and corrupt them. But what exact powers it might enhance seems to depend on the wearer. We get no concrete explanations as to how the ring might transform Sauron or some specific way in which he’d use it. Nor do we fully understand the 19 other rings that the elf-smith Celebrimbor creates for elves, men, and hobbits. There are merely hints that some of the rings carry varying degrees of corrupting power.
And yet, given that the Prime Video series is literally titled The Rings of Power, it stands to reason that at some point the show might attempt to define in greater detail what these rings actually do. After a season of build-up, Celebrimbor has finally forged several rings. By Season 2, Episode 5, both the elves and the dwarves have begun to wear their mystical jewelry with intriguing consequences.
Throughout Season 2, the elves and dwarves repeatedly reference how the rings might solve certain problems, but the explanations for how those rings actually operate remains frustratingly hazy. Do different rings do different things? How much influence does Sauron have over each wearer?
Sauron, disguised as Annatar, has already begun his quest to create nine more rings for men, some of the most corruptible of creatures in Middle-earth. As we watch more and more characters donning these rings on the show, we can’t help but wonder what, exactly, these powerful talismans do. Here is what we know about the power of the various rings from Tolkien’s books as well as his appendices and letters—and how the book lore lines up with the events of The Rings of Power.
Does Sauron control the rings?
As a brief refresher for those who have not read TheLord of the Rings books or watched Peter Jackson’s film adaptations recently, there are, in total, 20 rings. Here’s the nifty little rhyme from the books that can help you remember the various rings:
Three Rings for the Elven-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.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie
Celebrimbor forged all these rings with the help of someone he believes to be named Annatar but is, in fact, Sauron. As we see on The Rings of Power, Sauron disguises himself as a god-like creature sent to help Celebrimbor achieve his dream of becoming the greatest smith in the history of Middle-earth. On the show, Galad
riel knows that Sauron is likely manipulating Celebrimbor but has been delayed in her quest to reach Celebrimbor and inform him of Sauron’s trickery.
Celebrimbor made the elf rings at the end of Season 1 of The Rings of Power. Ever since, Elrond and Galadriel have been debating whether Sauron have some sort of influence over the three rings gifted to the elves and currently worn by Galadriel, Gil-galad, and Círdan.
According to the books, the Three Rings are technically “unsullied.” As we saw on the show, Sauron was not able to recite his evil incantation over them while they were being created, so he doesn’t have direct control over their elven wearers.
Whether the rings are completely good in the show is less clear: In Season 2, Episode 4, Galadriel, Elrond, and their company encounter a group of orcs. Galadriel hands her ring off to Elrond while she confronts the orcs and buys the rest of her party time to escape. The fact that Galadriel is able to hand the ring over at all indicates that it doesn’t have the kind of maleficent hold on her that the One Ring has over someone like Gollum or even Frodo when they refuse to let others hold the trinket. Still, when an elf praises Galadriel’s willingness to sacrifice herself for others, Elrond bitterly replies that Galadriel is risking her safety not for her fellow elves but to protect the ring. It’s an ominous line.
And yet we also know that Elrond will eventually come to wear a ring himself by the time of the Lord of the Rings so presumably he overcomes his hesitations in the thousands of years between the events of The Rings of Power and The Fellowship of the Ring.
The elven rings also seem to become a greater danger to the wearers once Sauron creates the One Ring that holds sway over all the other rings. (Hence the famous line, “One ring to rule them all.”) Gandalf tells Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring of Sauron and the three elven rings:
He only needs the One; for he made that Ring himself, it is his, and he let a great part of his own former power pass into it, so that he could rule all the others. If he recovers it, then he will command them all again, wherever they be, even the Three, and all that has been wrought with them will be laid bare, and he will be stronger than ever.
So had Sauron acquired the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings, he would have yielded power over their wearers, Galadriel, Elrond, and Gandalf. (More on how Gandalf acquires a ring later.)
And, as we saw when the dwarf rings were created, Sauron is able to actively participate in the forging of those rings (and, later, the rings of men). Thus he has direct influence over both the dwarves and men who wear those rings.
What are the powers of the rings in general?
Tolkien expounded upon the powers of the rings in a letter gathered in a compendium.
The chief power (of all the rings alike) was the prevention or slowing of decay (i.e. “change” viewed as a regrettable thing), the preservation of what is desired or loved, or its semblance—this is more or less an Elvish motive. But also they enhanced the natural powers of a possessor —thus approaching “magic,” a motive easily corruptible into evil, a lust for domination.
The Rings of Power offers us flashes of these powers. Around the time that the elves acquire the rings, their magic in Middle-earth has begun fading; that loss is represented for viewers by a once-golden tree of Lindon that has become barren. When Gil-galad puts on his ring, the dying tree comes back to life. The rings presumably preserve not only the natural world but the elves themselves.
Galadriel also begins having visions while wearing the ring. We know from The Lord of the Rings that some elves like Galadriel and Elrond can see glimpses into the future or what could be the future. Presumably the rings enhance their abilities to peer ahead and predict the fate of Middle-earth.
The rings also had powers that were, apparently, exclusive to Sauron, who went by The Necromancer briefly in The Hobbit. Tolkien writes in the same letter:
And finally they had other powers, more directly derived from Sauron (“the Necromancer”: so he is called as he casts a fleeting shadow and presage on the pages of The Hobbit): such as rendering invisible the material body, and making things of the invisible world visible.
What are the powers of the three elven rings?
Each elven ring is associated with a different element and set with a different stone.
Galadriel’s ring, Nenya, is the water ring and contains a white stone. In The Lord of the Rings, Galadriel uses Nenya to protect her forest home of Lothlórien from invasion. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Galadriel says of Sauron, “He gropes ever to see me and my thought but still the door is closed.” Presumably she uses Nenya to help keep Sauron (who is sort of her ex-boyfriend in The Rings of Power) out of her head.
The old and respected elf Círdan wears Narya, the ring of fire with a ruby stone. Círdan eventually passes it to (spoiler alert for the books) Gandalf, saying, “Take this ring, master, […] for your labours will be heavy; but it will support you in the weariness that you have taken upon yourself. For this is the Ring of Fire, and with it you may rekindle hearts in a world that grows chill.” Narya helps the wearer inspire resistance among his followers and helps its bearer fight back against the weariness of time. Gandalf uses it to help buck up the fellowship ferrying the ring through Middle-earth and, later, the men defending the city of Gondor. Some fans have speculated that Gandalf explicitly deploys Narya to free King Théoden from the influence of his evil servant Gríma Wormtongue in The Lord of the Rings.
Vilya, the ring associated with air, is the most powerful of the elven rings. Tolkien never outlined the specific powers of Vilya, though he implied they had to do with healing and preservation. It is currently being worn by Gil-galad in The Rings of Power but will eventually pass to Elrond. Presumably Elrond uses it to protect Rivendell in the same way Galadriel uses her ring to guard Lothlórien. Some fans believe that Elrond uses the ring to defeat the Nazgul and save Frodo at the river in the book The Fellowship of the Ring. (Elrond’s daughter, Arwen, washes away the Nazgul during that fight in the movie version.)
What’s the deal with the other rings?
Next come the rings for the seven dwarf lords. In The Rings of Power we see King Durin III put on the Ring of Thrór.
Though Sauron directly influenced the forging of the rings for the dwarves, in the books the dwarves are said to have been so stubborn that they resisted his influence. The show diverges from that version of history at least a bit: King Durin III becomes greedier and more obstinate while wearing his ring.
In the books, many dwarf kingdoms met their doom because of the rings. It helped them acquire mass wealth—on The Rings of Power, Durin uses it to locate an untapped area of the mountain from which to mine the precious metal mithril. But the hoards of gold they gathered attracted the attention of the dragons who then attacked the dwarves.
On The Rings of Power, Celebrimbor resists forging rings for men, arguing that they’ll be easily corrupted. We know that Sauron will eventually give rings to nine men who are never named in the lore—but a few of them have likely already popped up on the series. Keep an eye out for characters who may eventually become ringwraiths, or men corrupted and enslaved by the rings’ power. They transform into the ageless, screeching, hooded figures that chase after Frodo and attack the kingdoms of men in The Lord of the Rings.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories are filled with mystical forces. But the rules of how magic operates in Middle-earth were always left a little vague. Tolkien often employed soft magic, a system that leaves the mysticism vague (if awe-inspiring), on purpose. His tales contained few descriptions of constraints or mechanisms, compared to the Mistborn saga by Brandon Sanderson or even parts of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, both of which use hard magic. The magic in these stories clearly adhere to a system with detailed explanations and specific limitations.
