Quote:
Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc
And concerning the fact that no one noticed the Three on their bearers' fingers, I would say it could have been given by many factors. The first thing is something like "I am not seen when I don't want to", really some sort of, how a stupid simple mortal would say, magic. Second thing is that definitely Elrond or Galadriel had lots of other jewelry, so, you wouldn't think about the ring on Elrond's hand deeper than you do about the circlet on his head. If you look at Galadriel's hand, you don't care much of her wedding ring, or this is at least what it seems to you. Maybe if you thought about it deeply, you'd realise that in fact her wedding ring is on the other hand, but here we are back at the problem that you won't probably even think about it. You can look at something and not realise what you are looking at, that's nothing unusual. The more if it is "magic". And in the best case, when a Ringwraith would have met Galadriel at the borders of Lórien, he would have felt terrible power, but I believe it would still need a lot of thinking from him to 100% say that it is stemming from the ring on her hand, even if he anticipated that.
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Hmm, I am not sure I buy this part, although I agree with the first part of the post. Galadriel asks Sam if he has seen anything of the Ring and Sam replies that he hasn't, and was in fact wondering what she and Frodo were talking about. And there does not seem to be any mention of people noticing the Ring of Fire on the hand of Gandalf, despite encounters over countless years with all manner of beings (Men, Elves, and even the wizard Saruman, who apparently only gradually came to realize that Gandalf was in possession of the Ring of Fire). Why, for example, would somebody like Saruman, who was sensitive to the use of "magic", or at least the powers associated with a ring like that held by Gandalf, not see it immediately??
All of these imply to me that it was possible to keep the Three Rings invisible or at least unnoticed. Of course, their role is different than the role of the One Ring, which is a ring that literally broadcasts power (thus the ability of the Nazgul and even Gollum to sense it), so this perhaps explains in part how it was possible to keep them hidden.