[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

I do not entirely agree with Inziladun on the power issue. Sure, usurping power for yourself through various means is a bad thing in M-E, but we see these limits crossed many times, especially by proud and gifted people, which the Ring-makers certainly were. Even without the corruption by Sauron, such Rings could have been made.

My point was that such efforts to attain 'unnatural' power don't seem to end well for the aspirants. At any rate, that might make an idea for another thread...

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

In any case, I don't see why the lesser rings would only be made to preserve like the Elven ones; after all, the Three were made for special purpose, but these were not, they were experiments - so the Elves could make them do all sorts of things, where they were just testing what they can do. That could, in fact, have produced even more interesting results than the "true" Rings, because the Elves did not make them with specific purpose - or with necessary the same results they expected. (As in: "I want to make a Ring which will allow me speak with animals, but I have never done that before - lo, I just managed to create a ring that will transform me into a bear!" This might be a bit exaggerated example, but I hope you got the point...)

Healing and preservation seem to be the overriding concern of the Elves. I think, too, that the powers of any ring were limited by the abilities of the maker. The Elves were specially gifted as healers; not as shape-shifters or whatnot.

Originally Posted by radagastly

I'm not so sure I agree (or necessarily disagree) with you on this. I guess it assumes that the lesser rings pre-date Sauron's influence, that he co-opted a line of research that already existed, rather than introducing the idea of including "magic" in the production of jewelry that would otherwise be "just pretty" (but not useful). I suppose your idea would be consistent with the 'arts and crafts' idea of Middle Earth mentioned in another thread (I forget which one, sorry), that the elves would take something that was already useful and make it look pretty, rather than starting with a pretty thing and then finding a use for it. Form following function. I think it's possible that Sauron introduced the idea of "magic" into the elves jewelry-smithing partly (at least) to see which of the elven jewelers had the skills to make the "Great Rings" to which Sauron aspired. I guess I think even the lesser rings were subject to the influence of the One.

In Letters (which I don't have with me at the moment), Tolkien states that the Three, though not made by Sauron personally, were still in the end products of his instruction. That is the only reason they were under the One. Therefore, logically any items produced without Sauron's input should have been exempt from its influence.

Originally Posted by mark12_30

I have always wondered why "The Voice Of Sauron" was so steenkin' old, without being one of the Nine, and how he wasn't faded, but he wasn't dead either, and how or why that happened. Lesser ring maybe...?

Well, we're told the Mouth was a "Black Númenórean", but that doesn't mean he had to be extremely old, or one of the Ar-Pharazôn originals. I always perceived that as merely a description of his heritage, just as as people like Aragorn and Denethor are said to be of the race of Númenor.