The Lesser Rings

[Lalwendë]

I don't think that any lesser rings would have possessed any great power as we know that it wasn't until Sauron in the guise of Annatar came along, that Celebrimbor managed to create the Three rings. And if you consider that the greater Rings all seemed to possess qualities specific to the three main races of Middle-earth, then these lesser/early rings may also have only been designed to work for the Elves who crafted them.

Saruman probably did have one of them at least, he certainly knows enough Ring Lore:

The lore of the Elven-rings, great and small, is his province. He has long studied it, seeking the lost secrets of their making;

But I don't think that the ring he wore himself was one of these 'essays'. He was probably second only to Sauron in Middle-earth for his ability in crafts in the Third Age and I believe more than capable of creating his own ring. It also fits with his deluded determination to go a 'third way'. He was always one step ahead of Gandalf with regard to the rings, even getting to the libraries of Minas Tirith before him. he may even have had ulterior motives in driving Sauron out of Mirkwood - he insists the One Ring is lost but seems to know it is somewhere.

'"White!" he sneered. "It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken."
'"In which case it is no longer white," said I. "And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."

Here I always think of him breaking the Light. But like other passages from Tolkien's work, it can have layers of meaning and Gandalf is likely also referring to Saruman investigating how 'magic' rings work by breaking them. If Saruman broke an Elven ring it could easily be seen as breaking a thing of Light given how many of the great Elven artefacts are linked to the divinity of Light.

Saruman knows that he still needs the One ring though, if he is to achieve his 'third way'. I always wonder if he knows that he could wield it in defiance of Sauron or if he has been deceived by Sauron. Galadriel thinks she could wield it too, and thankfully is self aware enough to reject it, knowing that this would make her own power a terrible thing (and she knows she is already being somewhat defiant by wielding the power she already does possess). I think Saruman by this time has reached the very limit of his own considerable skill, and with this, he would have gone way beyond simply using a cast-off Elven ring.

Where those 'essays' went is interesting. Maybe Sauron also gained some control over them? A ring is a symbol both of eternity and of capture. The Nine very much capture those Men who wear them and while their bodies wither, their spirits endure, held together or trapped within the rings they wear. A little like Sauron with the One. Maybe Gandalf warns against them as he is worried by this prospect? I know I would be. He says "to my mind" which suggests this is his personal worry. I don't think I would be tempted to risk wearing one - the existence of Anglo-Saxon rings of power in the real world such as the Bramham Moor Ring, inscribed with spells, is enough to give me a shiver.