The Ring
What follows is a look at the One Ring’s essence, its core nature. There is much that can be written about Sauron’s Precious, and in later posts there will be a good deal more commentary. These thoughts serve as an introduction to those who have not read The Lord of the Rings nor seen the movies. Moreover, as there is plenty to say regarding the Ring, this lays the foundational thoughts on the Ring’s ultimate purpose. It is by no means a complete consideration of either the Ring or Sauron.
A ring. Circular. Considered tying two people together in matrimony. Then there is also the famous circle of life. In The Lord of the Rings, the most powerful Ring does not join two people in anything like matrimony, nor does it evoke the circle of life. It is akin to an iron collar; the type slaves were forced to wear.
Within the novel, the One Ring is Sauron’s equal, and one of the two most powerful entities, Sauron and his Precious are twins. As Tolkien explained:
Sauron had been obliged to let a great part of his own inherent power (a frequent and very significant motive in myth and fairy-story) pass into the One Ring. While he wore it, his power on earth was actually enhanced. But even if he did not wear it, that power existed and was in ‘rapport’ with himself: he was not ‘diminished’ (Letters, 267).
I will start with an overview of some responses to the question, “what does the Ring stand for” that I am skeptical of. (Indeed, I held to the power corrupts response for decades before reconsidering.) Thereby throwing a clearer light on my favored response to that question.
Some hold that the Ring is a metaphor for addiction. I’ve doubts. To be fair, it might be. And I would be more willing to believe had Agatha Christie written the story or spoke with Tolkien regarding the Ring. She knew far more about medicine than did Tolkien. At any rate, none of the scholars I read gave examples of the myths that so deeply inform Tolkien’s mythos relying on or employing addiction. Apparently, addiction was not a part of the canon of the literature that informed The Lord of the Rings’ substratum. This is significant because scholars make a point of noting similarities between JRRT’s masterpiece and the older works upon which he drew.
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Others believe that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts completely. No doubt. Vis-à-vis the Ring, this falls short. Sméagol is not completely corrupt. For instance, of Sméagol and Bilbo’s riddle game, and its effect on Sméagol, Gandalf opines:
There was a little corner of his mind that was still his own, and light came through it, as through a chink in the dark: light out of the past. It was actually pleasant, I think, to hear a kindly voice again, bringing up memories of wind, and trees, and sun on the grass, and such forgotten things (LOTR, chapter 2).
Nor can the Ring be taken as a symbol of the cross. Clearly, the Ring is evil. There used to be a teaching among some Christian traditions that turned the cross into a compassionate entity. For example, there is a hymn (first a poem) called The Dream of the Rood. The Cross is given a voice — first person. It is compassionate. That doesn’t help. The Ring is anything save merciful or compassionate. It is unadulterated evil.
Put simply, I believe the Ring is Sauron’s twin. A literary trope known as the alter ego. Sauron and the Ring are symbiotic. If not of one mind, surely of one purpose. If not of one heart, then of one soul. Where heart is one’s emotional center and one’s soul is their compass. When it comes to life’s purpose, hearts can be rotten. A person’s heart is the seat of their emotional life. Sauron is connected to two emotions, hate and fear. Souls can be purely intellectual, detached from all things save Self. It is capable of becoming the penultimate ivory tower. So closed off to everything around it save its self-defined purpose, its raison d’être that it is unaware and uninvolved with anything else. Consider:The only direction the mega egotist’s soul is capable of pointing is to itself. That is the Ring’s state. Always aiming to return to its twin. To the Dark Lord. That result, no doubt, in an operative paradigm, if not enhancing the Ring’s power, focusses it.
End Note:
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition. Ed. Carpenter, Humphrey with assistance of Tolkien, Christopher. HaperCollins, NY. 2023.
Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary Edition (2004) Great Britain. HarperCollinsPublishers. p. 55.
State University of New York, OER services.(n.d.) Accessed 19 May 2005 (https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-britlit1/chapter/dream-of-the-rood-background/#:~:text=The%20Dream%20of%20the%20Rood,works%20of%20Old%20English%20literature).
