The Ring
 

There's something bothering me. How does the ring work? If Sauron put his essence into the ring, wouldn’t it just make him less powerful and more vulnerable? Unless it worked like a magnifying glass and amplified his powers....

So confusing [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Wow!! I'm surprised no one answered to this post.. [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] I was kind of wonder that myself, unless it was another thread and it got closed, but if someone could answer..I would appreciate it as well [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Sauron in the time of the LOTR 1-3 was a spirit, so he was just an eye. He mingled his own blood, so to speak, with the ring, so yes it did make him vulnreble, but he still retained his power, the ring is like a vessel that if was returned to him, he would be able to return to physical form.

Um...I'm not sure Tolkien, or anyone else for that matter, delved into the physics of WHY things like magic worked. Originally, all the power of arts ("magic" as some call it) was good, yet Melkor turned his aside to dark purposes. Sauron learned under him, and though Melkor was banished from Middle-Earth, Sauron retained a good deal of his own magic. Why it worked in the ring...? I don't know! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Some thoughts on 'will', which might help make things clear as mud:

These days we seem to have a pretty weak concept of what the will is. Your will is what you use to stop yourself from eating an extra piece of chocolate cake, that kinda thing.

For Tolkien, the will is almost a physical entity. For example, Frodo struggles against this outside will (ultimately Sauron, though perhaps via ring and wraiths) telling him to put the ring on.

Gandalf tells Frodo that Sauron "let a great part of his own former power pass into it", and I imagine this would be largely related to his will, and his power to bring others under his will.

Gah, Fool of a hobbit! Here is a discussion for newbies and I went talkin' against my elders in the other discussions... [img]smilies/redface.gif[/img]
About magic and all that stuff, however, I remembered Galadriel said to Sam Gamgee "For this is what your folk would call magic, I believe; though I do not understand clearly what they mean; and they seem to use the same word of the deceits of the Enemy." Some how, I don't feel that she means magic as much as the ability to manipulate things in a particular fashion unknown to common men or hobbits. So if Elven swords glow in the presence of orcs, and Glorfindel can REVEAL himself as a mighty elf-lord, does that mean that Elves are magical?
So Sauron, probably exercised much more control (psychic/spiritual/psychological) control over his brood of evil orcs, trolls and humans if he obtained the One ring, right? That is, those servants would breed more and become stronger and stuff...

Well, the Ring could not be a vessel to transform Sauron into more corporeal form, except in the movies. In the book, he had physical form the whole time, considerably more. I believe the ring was one of those harder to explain things. Technically you can just resort back to the inscription, "One Ring to Rule Them All." Like the Witch-King prophecy, this inscription gives Sauron potential power over Middle-Earth. Having the ring strengthens his power to influence everything else.