why did the dark lord make the one ring?

[rutslegolas]

i want to ask why did sauron make the one ring?
why did he put some of his power in the ring?
if anyone knows please reply.

[Hot, crispy nice hobbit]

Guess jewels are fancy stuff to put your power in, huh? Better buy insurances against burglary and volcano fire though.

Originally, rings of power were made by Elves to preserve their power. Sauron guided them in the making of those 'magic rings', and so learnt of ways to bind their power into his own rings. Sauron also made rings for the Dwarves and Men, to bring them under his power too. He kept a residental part of his power in the Ring so as to make the binding more potent. Note: "One Ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."

The power of the Ring extends Sauron's might to such that he bring all other races under his fold without making war. Of course, this never came to be, since the Dwarves could not be enslaved with jewellery (you need chains and cat-o-nine-tails), and the Elves never used their rings openly. Also, everyone hated him for cheating them and struck first before he could gain complete control. But if Sauron were to have the Ring again after his long holiday in Dol Guldur, he could probably achieve what he could not have done one age ago.

[The Perky Ent]

Plus, why not? (in his case) I mean, it seemed like the perfect opportunity! Make a ring, control other rings, rule Middle Earth! From his point, it's the perfect plan!

[ArathorofBarahir]

Yes from Sauron's point creating the One Ring to rule all of the Rings is a good idea, but I guess even he couldn't see the Ring causing his downfall or that anyone would want to destroy it.

[Thorongil]

He probably didn't consider the possibility of it being destroyed. To destroy it it had to be taken from his finger, and he probably thought he would be all powerful with it, but, as we all know, he was wrong.

[Hot, crispy nice hobbit]

Actually, Sauron could have crushed them all even without the ring. Gandalf said this:

"Hardly has our strength sufficed to beat off the first great assult. The next will be greater. This war then is without final hope, as Denethor peceived. Victory cannot be achieved by arms, whether you sit here to endure siege after siege, or march out to be overwhelmed beyond the River. You have only a choice of evils; and prudence would counsel you to strengthen such strong places as you have, and there await the onset; for so shall the time before your end be made a little longer.

Let's face it. Near the End of the Third Age, all the forces of Good are so rusty that you can practically crumple them with a poke of the finger. If not for Gandalf, I hardly think that Sauron can be defeated, with or without his ring.

[bilbo_baggins]

Is it not also in the books that Sauron did not even remothely have darkest nightmares of someone planning to destroy the Ring? He thought he would have a rival for power pretty soon! Just imagine your own invention turned against you? Maybe he had a safeguard of some sort....

A little off topic, but a hopefully interesting thought!

[bilbo_baggins]

Or maybe he loved a maia/vala and made her a wedding band, only to find her already mated? He then in desperation poured his power into it to create spite and hate in all the world!!!!!!

Not really true, only a humorous thought!

[rutslegolas]

ok but seriously crispy hobbit is right he could have easily defeated everyone without the ring ,so why just waste his power? thats my question.

[luthien-elvenprincess]

Another quote of Gandalf's that reinforces the fact that Sauron did not need to Ring to be victorious:

It is not needed that the Ring be found, for while it abides on earth and is not unmade, still the power that it holds will live, and Sauron will grow and have hope. The might of the Elves and the Elf-friends is less now than of old. Soon he will be too strong for you, even without the Great Ring; for he rules the Nine, and of the Seven he has recovered three. We must strike.

So, Sauron didn't make the ring to gain victory over all...why did he make it?

It was part of his nature to do such things. In the beginning, he was a assistant to Aule, who loved to make things by craft and was a skillful artisan. Later, Sauron (after turning evil) even gave himself names that gave reverence to Aule (such as Aulendil, meaning Lover of Aule).
So, making a ring of power to rule all others was just an act of his very characteristics. Part of his nature involved making things by craft, also part of his nature wanted the rule of all things.
He made the ring simply because he could...and also to aid him in his endeavor of world control.

[Lyta_Underhill]

Perhaps it is a result of his tutelage by Morgoth, since Morgoth poured forth his power into Arda, corrupting it, making it his 'Ring,' but he didn't consider the fact that, once his 'Ring' is made, he too is bound to it forever. Even after Morgoth is defeated and cast into the void, his corruption on Arda remains. So it could be a case of Sauron doing his darndest to control and affect the peoples of Middle Earth, just as Morgoth placed his mark forever on Arda itself. Both extended their power to the point where they could not personally extricate themselves from it. They are bound by their evil nature. Sauron manages to spread his corruption through the artifice of Rings to take advantage of the evil elements within the population, thus sowing another level of discord and ensuring the perpetuation of corruption begun long ago by Morgoth.

I suppose you could also ask why the Elves made the Three Rings, and how Annatar enlisted Celebrimbor in the making the other Rings if he(Celebrimbor) knew their nature. One passage in the Silmarillion hints at the unrest that made the inroad for Sauron with the Elves, so that he could use their talents in order to forge Rings of Power, and another tells of the need of Sauron to invest a great measure of power in his own One Ring:

It was in Eregion that the counsels of Sauron were most gladly received, for in that land the Noldor desired ever to increase the skill and subtlety of their works. Moreover they were not at peace in their hearts, since they had refused to return into the West, and they desired both to stay in Middle-earth, which indeed they loved, and yet to enjoy the bliss of those that had departed.

(i.e. they wanted to have their cake and eat it too...)

Now the Elves made many rings; but secretly Sauron made One Ring to rule all the others, and their power was bound up with it, to be subject wholly to it and to last only so long as it too should last. And much of the strength and will of Sauron passed into that One Ring; for the power of the Elven-rings was very great, and that which should govern them must be a thing of surpassing potency; and Sauron forged in the Mountain of Doom in the Land of Shadow.

This passage, from "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," suggests that the need of Sauron to pour a great deal of power into the One Ring arises from his need to control the lesser rings made by the Elves. The art and power the Elves, and specifically the Noldoran Elves, put into their creation was of such a nature that Sauron required a great measure of countering power to being them under control. The Noldor never did anything halfway!

Cheers!
Lyta

[rutslegolas]

the dark lord did not need the ring to capture the power on middle-earth or the elves

he could have just done it with the strength of his arms so why bother making a ring and puttng his whole power into it????

if the loremasters could have a say here???

[Lyta_Underhill]

he could have just done it with the strength of his arms so why bother making a ring and puttng his whole power into it????

if the loremasters could have a say here???

OK, so I'm not a loremaster, but I did use the search function and find this:
The Ring of Sauron which might shed some light on the question. Also, my own view of Sauron at the end of the First Age is one of a fearful and unconfident being; after all, he was bested by Luthien and Huan, and soundly, too. I can see why he would feel himself to be on shaky ground power-wise, as the Second Age dawned. (Not to mention that the Valar gave him a dressing-down that would only have increased his bitterness and hunger for more power). Sorry I can't add more at the moment...must dash!

Cheers,
Lyta

[rutslegolas]

thanx underhill

but i consider you as a loremaster so do not feel angry.

ya he was shaken and he was defeated but still in the third age he should have know that the elves and men were not as powerful as they were in the the second or the first age .

so he should have know that the ring could be his downfall,
but alas he considered himself too powerful .

thanks guys for your replies.

[Lyta_Underhill]

but i consider you as a loremaster so do not feel angry.

No anger here, rutslegolas! I'm flattered that you consider me so, because I do not consider myself to be so. I have only read the Hobbit, LOTR, Silmarillion, most of UT, a bunch of Tolkien's Letters, some of the Tolkien Reader, a whole lot of Arda-related websites and Quenya/Sindarin sites in my spare time, which hasn't been much lately since my network (ahem! Husband's computer! ahem!) decided it would try out every piece of adware ever invented and teach me how to edit the Windows Registry whether I wanted to learn or not...but... back to the point at hand...

I do not remember the exact year(s) in the Second Age when the Rings of Power were made, but it was well before the Third Age, and Sauron's power was not built up as it had become towards the end of the Second Age. He had to make approaches to the Elves in the Second Age in order to further his schemes for recovering and building up his power and strategies against them. At that point, the Elves left in Middle Earth would have been much stronger than Sauron, newly come from his penal servitude, such as it was, after the overthrow of Morgoth in the War of Wrath. This, I believe to be the atmosphere in which Sauron conceived the scheme of the Rings of Power. He would not have had much left to lose at that point, and much to gain. By the time the One Ring was lost, he had already made much use of it in order to enslave the cultures of Middle Earth, and he had destroyed the Elves of Eregion for their defiance of him in taking off their Three Rings. By the beginning of the Third Age, he had built much upon the foundation of his Rings of Power scheme, and by then, the One Ring was absolutely necessary to him.

Even after its loss, the power of Sauron lingered in his servants, and the orcs and other fell creatures were said to still be drawn toward the One Ring through its lingering connection with Sauron. (This is said to be one reason Isildur was found and slain at the Gladden Fields when he tried to escape with the One Ring. ) Even in its severed state, the One Ring had a powerful connection with Sauron, but this fades as the Ring is lost and legend becomes myth, etc. and Sauron has to resort to other means, all the while bemoaning the loss of his ultimate weapon, which brings up the memories of glorious victories of the Second Age and makes his slow buildup of power in the Third Age pale in his own estimation. Thus, even if he did have sufficient power to best all the armies of Middle Earth by the end of the Third Age, he would risk all of them to regain the One Ring.

I hope that makes sense! I have been limiting myself to this one thread lately...all my other waking moments are taken up with the quest to eradicate adware! bleah!

Cheers!
Lyta

[rutslegolas]

thanks lyta that really answered my question,and indeed you are a loremaster having read all these tolkein related books

but you know we in india dont have much to read only the lotr and hobbit silmarillion is not avaliable here.

i am leaving this forum open if anyone has any more views