Great Ring of Power

A name for the powerful Master-ring devised by Sauron to give him control over those who bore the lesser Rings of Power. More usually called the One Ring, or simply the Ring, the Dark Lord created it as a repository for much of his immense power, to be used to extend his rule across Middle-earth.

The Rings of Power

The First Age ended with the defeat of Sauron's master Morgoth, but Sauron evaded the forces of the Valar and went into hiding for a period of centuries. After perhaps a thousand years of the Second Age had passed, he established himself in Mordor. The western world was now largely under the control of the Elves, ruled by their High King Gil-galad from Lindon, and Sauron began to devise a plan to bring these Elves, and all the other peoples of Middle-earth, under his dominion.

Taking on the guise of the wise teacher Annatar, Sauron set out to teach the Elves the making of the Rings of Power. In Lindon he was rebuffed, but in the young kingdom of Eregion, he was accepted by Celebrimbor the grandson of Fëanor, who was eager for the lore that Annatar could provide. Thus under Sauron's guidance many Rings of Power were created, Rings that he secretly intended to use to dominate the minds of their bearers.

After a century in Eregion, Sauron returned to Mordor in about the year II 1600, and in the Chambers of Fire within Mount Doom he created the Great Ring of Power. Unknown to the Dark Lord, however, the Elves had continued their work in his absence, and had created Three Rings that surpassed all their previous efforts, and were untouched by Sauron's influence. Thus, when Sauron donned his new Ring to exert his will, the Elves became aware of his plans, and evaded the power he had sought to wield over them.

Seeing decades of planning wasted, and his secret intentions revealed, Sauron abandoned his plans to control the Elves through subtle means, and instead went to open war against them. Eregion was captured and destroyed, and the Dark Lord recovered all the Rings of Power other than the Three, which the Elves had concealed from him. He came close to overrunning all of Middle-earth, but a force from Númenor sailed to the aid of the Elves, and with their help Sauron was driven back into Mordor.

Sauron nursed a hatred of the Númenóreans that spanned the rest of the Second Age. At last he was able to corrupt their King and bring about the Downfall of Númenor, but its survivors settled in Middle-earth and made war on Sauron in turn. In the War of the Last Alliance that brought the Second Age to its end, Sauron was defeated and the Great Ring of Power was taken from his hand by Isildur son of Elendil. The Elves counselled him to destroy the Ring immediately, but Isildur refused and took it for himself.

The Great Ring Lost and Found

The Dark Lord's Ring was soon lost. Carrying it toward the royal city of Annúminas in the North, Isildur was ambushed by a force of Orcs and, as he attempted to escape across Anduin, the Ring slipped from his finger and sank into the depths of the Great River. There it remained for more than two thousand years, until it was recovered by a creature of Hobbit-kind named Sméagol. Twisted by the Ring's dark power, this Sméagol carried it into the darkness beneath the Misty Mountains.

Centuries later, this unfortunate creature, now known as Gollum, lost the Ring in turn, and it was recovered by a traveller wandering in the caverns beneath Goblin-town. This traveller was the Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, and though the true nature of the Ring he had found was not immediately apparent, its ability to turn its wearer invisible made it clear that it was indeed a Magic Ring.

Ultimately the Hobbit's Ring was identified as the lost Great Ring of Power, and thus the Wise gained an advantage in the approaching War of the Ring at the end of the Third Age. The potency of the Ring was such, however, that the greatest among Elves and Wizards dared not take it themselves, fearing the corruption that Sauron's power would exert. The Hobbits, however, seemed able to resist this corrupting power somewhat, and so one of them, Bilbo's heir Frodo, agreed to set out on the Quest of Mount Doom. The purpose of the quest was to reach Mount Doom in the heart of Mordor, where the Ring had been forged, and there destroy it as Isildur had failed to do long beforehand. Thus the great reserve of power that Sauron had placed within the Ring would be destroyed, and Sauron himself defeated.

This was a desperate plan, but not a hopeless one. It was beyond the Dark Lord's imagination that his enemies, having acquired his Great Ring, would not attempt to use it against him. Sauron laid his strategies accordingly, making open war across Middle-earth in hope of revealing and recovering his Ring, while the Ring-bearer made his way secretly into the Chambers of Fire. Even so, the quest of destroy the Ring almost failed as even the Hobbit Frodo Baggins fell under the Ring's influence at the end, but by the intervention of Gollum at the last moment, the Ring went into the Fire.

The fires at the heart of Mount Doom consumed the otherwise unbreakable Ring, and its destruction caused Sauron's power to be utterly diminished. With the loss of the Great Ring, the Three Rings of the Elves also lost their power. Their Keepers chose to depart from Middle-earth, and so the time of the Elves came to an end and the Dominion of Men began with the dawn of the Fourth Age.