For sure. Maybe I’m robbing the mystique by wanting to understand the rules. Part of me thinks that they’re just fun to speculate on. Also I think that if you identify them they kind of have this weird way of tying in to the themes of the story. like Tolkien seems to have a lot to say about human ambition and greed, the rings seem to have powers concerning ambition and greed of mortals.
He also hits nature vs industry themes pretty hard constantly throughout, and a lot on hubris. Denethor believed that he was too cunning to be affected by the palantir, and Sauron’s downfall ultimately was his belief that no one could resist the power of the one ring, so it never occurred to him that they would attempt to destroy it instead of use it against him. He could have just had some guards posted up at Mount Doom lol. Also just all of Saruman.
I’d say most of the magic in Tolkien’s works is pretty hand-wavy and vibe-based, rather than explicit. I really enjoy the mystique it creates.
For sure. Maybe I’m robbing the mystique by wanting to understand the rules. Part of me thinks that they’re just fun to speculate on. Also I think that if you identify them they kind of have this weird way of tying in to the themes of the story. like Tolkien seems to have a lot to say about human ambition and greed, the rings seem to have powers concerning ambition and greed of mortals.
He also hits nature vs industry themes pretty hard constantly throughout, and a lot on hubris. Denethor believed that he was too cunning to be affected by the palantir, and Sauron’s downfall ultimately was his belief that no one could resist the power of the one ring, so it never occurred to him that they would attempt to destroy it instead of use it against him. He could have just had some guards posted up at Mount Doom lol. Also just all of Saruman.
Right? All this stuff has thematic implications.