Did the Ring Need a Label?
 

We all know of the inscription on the One Ring, written in Elvish letters, in the Black Speech:

Gandalf tells Frodo that that particular line was part of a verse "long known in Elven-lore".

Now, that verse was written by Elves, presumably in response to their awareness of Sauron's motives behind the fashioning on the Rings of Power. And Gandalf later says during the Council of Elrond that:

So, the wearers of the Three seem to have either physically or psychically "heard" Sauron himself speaking those words, at which time his plot was revealed.

Maybe Sauron was obliged to speak that incantation, for some reason, to "activate" the One. Question is, why was it necessary to make any inscription on it, and those words in particular? Was Sauron afraid he might not be able to recognize it if he took it off before he got into the bathtub? ;)
He seems to have not considered the possibility that he could one day lose the One, and at any rate he should easily have been able to tell by his own connection with it whether he held it or not. What was the purpose of labeling the One like that?

I suppose that the label isn't meant to be a special symbol that marks the Ring itself, but rather a symbol that marks the power the Ring possesses. Sauron has no need to tag the Ring, but he put a significant amount of power in such a small thing. How do you transfer your power to an object? I don't think there's a yes or no answer to this question; however, I highly doubt that Sauron just said, "Let it be done!", and it was done. In my opinion, he didn't just dump all his power at once into it, but rather etched that verse into the Ring's being. Not into the gold itself, but into its essence. And it was so potent that you could see it come through when you brought the Ring closer to fire. Hence, you do not only see some random inscription, but it tells you something about the nature of the Ring in ways other than words. The fire aspect simply reflects its "place of birth", so to speak. The Elven characters denote the contributors of the art that allowed such a Ring to be made. And lastly, the Black Speech - well, this one's pretty obviously pointing to Sauron and the Ring's will and purpose.

This is what my metaphysical side suggests. This is not based on anything other than my own imagination. I enjoy thinking that one's power could be transferred into objects through art when one puts his heart into it, and that's all there is to this explanation.

It's a curious question, though. I recall from UT the story of Aghan the Druedan who made a living statue of himself. That's also art. And he put so much of himself into the magic replica that when its feet were burned in a fire, Aghan's feet were burned too. If this thought merits a tangent, I will create a separate thread for it as to not kick this one out of its orbit.

Words have power in Middle-earth. Gandalf had to say Naur an edraith ammen in order to light the fire at Caradhras - he couldn't just snap his fingers.

I like G55's point about Sauron having to etch the verse into the Ring's being. There are also other instances of using writing/runes for magical purposes. I don't think the doors of Moria would function without the inscription, and I also seem to remember the dwarves put some runes on the troll hoard in the Hobbit. Perhaps they are needed to make an item remember the purpose for which it has been crafted.

Or then Sauron was just showy.

Words have power in Middle-earth.

Notice both the effect of, and the reaction to, Gandalf's uttering the ring-verse (in Black Speech) at the Council. One also gets the impression from the Moria episode that a Word of Command (whatever that is, but certainly a word) is about the most potent thing a Wizard can cast.

The Ring itself was only a container though, a vessel to house a piece of Sauron's essence. The writing was a physical part of the Ring, I think, though it could only be seen under certain conditions.

I don't see the purpose behind the writing, though. That the inscription was a conscious act of Sauron's seems clear.
Again, he would not have considered though the possibility that any hand other than his own would ever touch the Ring, so to whom would the "message" from the Ring be addressed?

I do see a possibility that an incantation was necessary to enable the One to take control of the other Rings of Power, hence Sauron's words when he put it on, as perceived by the wearers of the Three. Why else would he have spoken them?

I think the Doors of Durin's markings were both a nod to their maker, and a sly way to have the password plainly visible. Necessary to open? Hm. I don't know.

As for the runes marking the place of the troll-treasure, I'd always thought them merely a means for recognizing the spot where it was buried, though it does say in TH that "spells" were placed over it.

Maybe it's as simple as that: sheer arrogance, with open disdain for the lesser beings he was going to enslave with his Ring.

Indeed. Gandalf speaking the inscription in the Black Speech is always a striking moment when I read that passage.

It's true that the writing is a physical aspect of the Ring, but, like in many other instances in the legendarium, the physical is but a reflection of the inner essence. I do not think the writing was there just for decoration (oooh, shiny letters!), so in my eyes it does decode its power and personality. And though its power is, as you say, Sauron's power, the verse does not read "One Lord to rule them all", it reads "One Ring to rule them all". The Ring, while still being part of Sauron, gets a sort of independent status.

In my opinion he didn't just carve letters, but he defined the Ring's essence. And, when I imagine it, I don't see him carving at all - I see him saying, and I see him, for lack of better word, breathing in his power. The writing is a conscious act as much as the transfer of power is, but it's not a message to anybody. It's more of a statement of being.

Agreed. Indeed it sort of has to. If it didn't the sotry as we know it really couldn't come to be. If the ring was not sort of disconnected from Sauron, hiding it would probably be impossible (Sauron can sense when the ring is found generally , but if it didn't have a sort of independent existance, I tend to think Sauron would always be aware of EXACTLY where it was, much as you are aware (more or less) where you own hands are, getting it back would be sort of irrelevant (if the ring was merely a conduit for Saurons powers (allowing the wearer to tap them), as opposed to a vessel (holding those powers perpetually), then those powers would probably return to Sauron when the ring was not being used by anyone (say when it was in the river) or used by someone who really didn't know the extent of it's powers (i.e. pretty much everyone who did use it in the book and 99.9% of the denizens of Middle Earth who theoretically could wear it) and the concept of using it to overthow Sauron sort of a contradiction in terms (if the ring was not a seperate entity, and did not hold the power it did independent of Sauron then trying to use it to destroy him would be like trying to will someone to kill themselves, pretty hard to do.)



I think this is well borne out by the circumstances under which the inscription can be read. To be visible, the ring has to be put in a fire/heat source, then taken out and. On Sauron's own hand, the inscription was presumably always visible, since Saurons hands, if I recall, burned like Melkor's. Once removed however, it was unlikey that anyone would see it since the circumstances for revealing it would be bizarre, as few people in posession of a gold ring are going to toss it in a fire and then pull it out immediately (especially since they wouldn't know the ring cools down so rapidly after being in the fire) by the time they waited the time it would take a normal gold ring to be safe to handle, the inscription would probably be invisible again (It's never said explicity, but since Gandalf has to do the fire trick in the first place, I tend to thing the inscription fades rapidly once the ring is removed from the fire.) How Gandalf knows that will work I do not know (my best guess is that he read an account of the battle by Isildur or someone else that mentioned the inscription and its fading as the ring cooled, and simply worked out what would be needed to reveal it again) Even if someone did try to heat it (say a dwarf who didn't care for the workmanship and wished to smelt the ring for it's gold content) they probably wouldn't know what it said (few men or dwarves probably know Black Speech, at least the High form used by Sauron and his higher ups. Remember the version Orcs use is debased.) would assume it was some sort of Elven charm/curse and think no more of it. )

Yes, that's exactly how he knew. He reports so at The Council.

More particularly, he notes that Saruman has made comments about the Ring being "round and unadorned, but the maker had set signs on it that one might be able to read." He then deduces that, since Saruman's knowledge must have a source, and since Isulder's hand alone ever touched the Ring (other than Sauron) before it was lost, Saruman *must* have read an account by Isuldur. That leads Gandalf to visit the archives in Minas Tirith where he finds a scroll "unread by any eyes other than Saruman's and his since the kings failed" in which Isuldur reports:

It was hot when I first took it, hot as a glede, and my hand was scorched, so that I doubt if ever again I shall be free of the pain of it. The ring misseth, maybe, the heat of Sauron's hand which was black and yet burned like fire - and so Gil-galad was destroyed. Already the ring cooleth and the writing fades. Mayhap the writing would become visible again if the ring were put into a fire, but for my part I will risk no hurt to this thing: of all the works of Sauron the only fair. It is precious to me, though I buy it with great pain.

Of passing side interest, in this account, is that the Elvish king died by being grabbed and burned by the heat of Sauron's hands.

And, of course, there is the (not-too-subtle) key word that keeps cropping up through the history of the Ring, right to the moment of it's destruction ... preciooooouuuusssssssssssss <g>

Does the Ring need a label?
 

Just be glad the Food and Drug Administration didn't mandate a lengthier warning label:

Common Side Effects of the One Ring include:

feeling thin and stretched;
mood or behavior changes;
agitation, hostility, aggression;
thoughts of suicide, such as hurling oneself from a cliff;
megalomania, feelings of grandeur;
hallucinations, particularly being watched by a Great Eye.

Prolonged effects of using the One Ring include:

schizophrenia, bad grammar, speaking of oneself in the third person;
hair loss, lisping, sun-sensitivity, weight loss, cannibalism;
aversion to po-ta-toes, ropes and cooked meat;
feeling of invisibility and eventual wraithdom.

Noldorin Elves, Dunedain (particularly those with strong Numenorean bloodlines) and members of the Istari should not use the One Ring as the aforementioned effects are heightened in these subjects; Hobbits and retrograde Stoors, although more tolerant of the One Ring, suffers adverse long term damage from prolonged usage.

Consult your local wizard or half-elven loremaster if you believe you have come in contact with the One Ring.

I'm surprised it didn't, since naturally all the lawyers in Middle-earth were in the service of the Dark Tower

I would add that also the written words have power in Middle-earth.

This is, I think, particularly relevant with respect to physical items. Some kind of markings seems to have been a part of many of the more powerful items in Middle-earth (one notable exception being jewels and gems). See for instance both Andúril itself and the sheath Galadriel gives Aragorn for the sword. About Andúril we're told that The runes are there because Aragorn is going to fight Mordor — the runes, mind ... the magical secrets for which Odin hung in the holy ash tree as a sacrifice to himself for nine days and nine nights. :)

This does, of course, not invalidate Galadriel55's excellent points about the symbolic meaning of the fiery letters on the Master Ring: it is just that the symbolism exists at the level of The Lord of the Rings seen as literature, while the letters as a part of the magic of the Master Ring exist at the level of Middle-earth as a real place, within the sub-creation, so to speak.

Think of the Jewish legends of the Golem. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem which provides an excellent summary if you aren′t otherwise very familiar with them. My point is that a Golem, an image of some kind, is brought to life by attaching a piece of paper on which is written one of the names of God to the Golem′s mouth or forehead.

Here the idea is that a name of God is sufficiently powerful in itself that even writing it on a piece of paper is sufficient to animate something that is inanimate.

In a common variant the living Golem has the Hebrew word אמת (’emeθ, ‘truth’) engraved on its forehead and can be returned to non-living form by merely scraping off the letter א leaving the Hebrew word מת (mēθ, ‘dead’) now engraved on its forehead.

In such tales merely the writing of a word creates the magic (although one may well imagine other conjurations that must be performed). In the case of Sauron’s ring it also appears that simply engraving the couplet may not be the whole magic, but that it is part of it. Possibly merely removing the inscription from the Ring would have been sufficient to break its power, but Gandalf does not indicate that he knows any way to accomplish this. Only the fires of Mount Doom are powerful enough to alter the Ring and finally destroy it.

What should have been written on the Ring
 

I Am The Dark Lord's Personal Property

Anyone Returning Me To My Rightful Owner Shall Be Richly Rewarded And Gain His Friendship For Ever.

Anyone Keeping Me From My Rightful Owner Shall Be Borne To The Houses Of Lamentation, Beyond All Darkness, Where His or Her Flesh Shall Be Devoured, And His or Her Shriveled Mind Left Naked To His Lidless Eye.

Choose Very Quickly.

More like: shall be promised a big reward but will be killed anyways.

But, realistically, that would be against the entire purpose of the Ring to tempt people beyond logical conclusions. What should be written is probably "I am your preciouss and I will grant all your desires", that would be more true to its being.

Sauron's big mistake
 

That was Sauron's big mistake. If he'd just used a combination of rewards and threats the ring would have been on his finger in only a short time, as he would see it. :D

In Tolkien it seems there is something of potency or permanency involved in inscribing a spell. Besides the "spells" Thorin & Co laid while carving runes on the stone over the troll-hoard, there are also Durin's "runes of power upon the door;" and Earendil's "shining shield was scored with runes To ward all wounds and harm from him."

And Glorfindel notes evil things written on the hilt of the Morgul blade which might nm ot be visible to all eyes.