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tolkiens legendarium - In the inscription of the One Ring, what or who does "them all" refer to?


Recall that Sauron has inscribed the One Ring with the following words.



One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them



In this inscription, what or who does the “them all” refer to? Does it refer to the other rings of power? The lords that bear the other rings of power? Or all the masses of elves, dwarves and humans? Or is it left deliberately vague who or what the ring is to rule?


See also an earlier question Is the ring poem slightly inaccurate? Who wrote it?




Answer



This is made clear in the essay Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, published in The Silmarillion:



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.



The choice of phrase can hardly be accidental here: it's explicit that the purpose of the One Ring was to rule the other Rings, and not to rule their bearers.



Note from the accepted answer to the question you link (which is IMO correct) that the "one Ring to rule them all..." part (i.e the Ring inscription itself) was composed first, with the other lines added by person or persons unknown at a later date. At the time the other Rings were made, there was actually no distinction between the Seven and the Nine, with only the Three being in any way different.


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