"A mortal, Frodo, who keeps one of the Great Rings, does not die, but he
does not grow or obtain more life, he merely continues, until at last every
minute is a weariness. And if he often uses the Ring to make himself
invisible, he fades: he becomes in the end invisible permanently, and walks in
the twilight under the eye of the dark power that rules the Rings. Yes, sooner
or later - later, if he is strong or well-meaning to begin with, but neither
strength nor good purpose will last - sooner or later the dark power will
devour him." (Gandalf)
"A Ring of
Power looks after itself, Frodo.
It may slip off treacherously, but its keeper never abandons it.
At most he plays with the idea of handing it on to someone else’s care - and
that only at an early stage, when it first begins to grip. But as far as I
know Bilbo alone in history has ever gone beyond playing, and really done it.
He needed all my help, too. And even so he would never have just forsaken it,
or cast it aside. It was not Gollum, Frodo, but the Ring itself that decided
things. The Ring left him." (Gandalf)
"There was
more than one power at work, Frodo. The Ring was trying to get back to its
master. It had slipped from Isildur’s hand and betrayed him; then when a
chance came it caught poor Déagol, and he was murdered; and after that
Gollum, and it had devoured him. It could make no further use of him: he was
too small and mean; and as long as it stayed with him he would never leave his
deep pool again. So now, when its master was awake once more and sending out
his dark thought from Mirkwood, it abandoned Gollum. Only to be picked up by
the most unlikely person imaginable: Bilbo from the Shire!
" (Gandalf)
"Yes, alas! through him the Enemy has learned that the One has been found
again. He knows where Isildur fell. He knows where Gollum found his ring. He
knows that it is a Great Ring, for it gave long life. He knows that it is not
one of the Three, for they have never been lost, and they endure no evil. He
knows that it is not one of the Seven, or the Nine, for they are accounted
for. He knows that it is the One." (Gandalf)
"Your small fire, of course, would not melt even ordinary gold. This Ring
has already passed through it unscathed, and even unheated. But there is no
smith’s forge in this Shire that could change it at all. Not even the anvils
and furnaces of the Dwarves could do that. It has been said that dragon-fire
could melt and consume the Rings of Power, but there is not now any dragon
left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough; nor was there ever any
dragon, not even Ancalagon the Black, who could have harmed the One Ring, the
Ruling Ring, for that was made by Sauron himself. There is only one way: to
find the Cracks of Doom in the depths of Orodruin, the Fire-mountain, and cast
the Ring in there, if you really wish to destroy it, to put it beyond the
grasp of the Enemy for ever." (Gandalf)
"Concerning this thing, my lords, you now all know enough for the
understanding of our plight, and of Sauron’s. If he regains it, your valour
is vain, and his victory will be swift and complete: so complete that none can
foresee the end of it while this world lasts. If it is destroyed, then he will
fall; and his fall will be so low that none can foresee his arising ever
again. For he will lose the best part of the strength that was native to him
in his beginning, and all that was made or begun with that power will crumble,
and he will be maimed for ever, becoming a mere spirit of malice that gnaws
itself in the shadows, but cannot again grow or take shape. And so a great
evil of this world will be removed." (Gandalf)
"We cannot use the Ruling Ring. That we now know too well. It belongs to
Sauron and was made by him alone, and is altogether evil. Its strength,
Boromir, is too great for anyone to wield at will, save only those who have
already a great power of their own. But for them it holds an even deadlier
peril. The very desire of it corrupts the heart. Consider Saruman. If any of
the Wise should with this Ring overthrow the Lord of Mordor, using his own
arts, he would then set himself on Sauron’s throne, and yet another Dark
Lord would appear. And that is another reason why the Ring should be
destroyed: as long as it is in the world it will be a danger even to the Wise.
For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so. I fear to take
the Ring to hide it. I will not take the Ring to wield it." (Elrond)
"He would have stretched out his hand to this thing, and taking it he
would have fallen. He would have kept it for his own, and when he returned you
would not have known your son." (Gandalf)
"You are strong and can still in some matters govern yourself, Denethor;
yet if you had received this thing, it would have overthrown you. Were it
buried beneath the roots of Mindolluin, still it would burn your mind away..."
(Gandalf)
Sauron
was the creator of The One Ring. In the beginning (1500 II), Celebrimbor
and the other great Elven-Smiths forged Rings of Power to create and to breed
peace, to beautify Middle-Earth. Nine were given to mortal men, seven to
the dwarf lords, three for the tall elf kings. But secretly the Dark Lord
forged The One Ring, mixing with the gold his malice and his will to dominate
all life. With it, the world is his, and he cannot be overcome. But
there was a last alliance of elves and men who resisted him to the end, led by
the great names of Gil-Galad the Elven King, Isildur and Anarion, and King
Elendil of Gondor.
In the throes of the battle with Sauron and his Orcs, on the slopes of Mount
Doom, Isildur slipped in and cut
the Ring from Sauron's hand. He was defeated, but because the Ring was not
destroyed near at hand in the fires where it was made, neither was the Dark Lord. His life-force became a spirit
without physical shape, waiting and worming the world until he could grow again.
Millennia drifted by, and the Ring vanished out of knowledge as it passed from
Isildur to Deagol to Gollum to Bilbo, and finally to Frodo.
Of all the lethal "characters" in the entire story of the Lord of the
Rings, The One Ring is the deadliest. It is impeccably quiet and mortally
beautiful. Undimmable, undamageable, and indestructible, it has stood the test of time
as the lasting tribute to its Maker - evil. It gives to its bearer the
power to become invisible to the visible world, yet ironically the wearer then
becomes nakedly visible to the Lidless Eye of Sauron, ever searching for the One
Ring. Because of its potency, none dare take it wishing to use it for
good, for fear of being themselves swayed and thus enslaved to its dark power.
There was therefore none that could wield it: the One Ring answered to Sauron alone.
Were a powerful being, such as Elrond, Gandalf or Galadriel, to take the Ring
and claim it for their own, Sauron would vanish and yet another Dark Lord would
appear. The cyclical evil of the Ring's destructive allure was frightening
to no end.
However, Sauron's insatiable appetite for power blinded him to the fact that some do not
lust for power. It was this loophole that became his incredible undoing.
He never fathomed that anyone would conceive of or want to possibly hurt or
destroy the Ring. Gandalf, in the Council of Elrond, said that "the
only measure that [Sauron] knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges
all hearts. Into
his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the
Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this, we shall put him out of
reckoning."
And
it happened just as Gandalf said it would. The Fellowship of the Ring was
formed, the journey was undertaken, and Frodo and Sam infiltrated Mordor.
Sauron did not notice the two quiet, heroic
shadows who slipped in and made their way to Mount Doom. Since no
other fire in the entire world was hot enough, Mount Doom was the only place the
Ring could be destroyed - in the fiery chasms from whence it came.
