LOTR - A Long-Postponed Re-Read

[Belegorn]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

it makes me wonder exactly how powerful the Ring was.

The Ring had the power to corrupt but I think it was meant in the end to work in concert with the other Rings so that Sauron could control the free peoples of Middle Earth. Anything built with the One would always stand until the Ring itself was destroyed. However, with the One he was able to corrupt the king's line in Numenor save the Faithful, but, "Ar-Pharazôn...grew to the mightiest tyrant that had yet been in the world since the reign of Morgoth" [Sil, p. 339]. Not even his most powerful servants could stand against the Numenoreans [Sil, p. 334].