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I have seen that before, but my question is, can you be absolutely certain that the many doesn't mean the 19 that the elves made?
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Yes. There can be no doubt about it. Both the passage that
Earendilyon quoted and that which I quoted distinguish the lesser rings, which Gandalf describes as trifles for Elves but dangerous to mortals, from the twenty Rings of Power, ie the Three, the Seven, the Nine plus the One Ring, which he describes as perilous. It is clear from this that the Elf-smiths of Eregion created rings other than the Rings of Power. And the word "many" combined with the reference to them being "essays in ring craft" strongly suggests to me that there were quite a number of these lesser rings.