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.

Comments

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

star wars - Why is Luke's cybernetic hand superior to the one Anakin receives?

In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke receives a very realistic looking hand that can even feel pain. Compare this to the hand Anakin has at the end of "The Clone Wars" which is obviously robotic, and does not even have a covering that resembles skin. Technology advancing in the 20+ year period between amputations does not make sense. Its doubtful that prosthetic technology not be able to produce a hand of Lukes quality in a time when cloning technology was available. Luke's hand is provided to him by the Rebellion, which had limited financial and medical resources. Compare this to Anakin, who as a Jedi in the time of the Old Republic, had access to limitless medical resources. The Jedi probably could have arranged for a biological hand to be cloned for him, but that might raise ethical concerns. It seems Anakin should have received a hand as advanced as Luke's

Blog

Search This Blog