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tolkiens legendarium - Why weren't more Rings of Power forged?


Why is it that more rings of this nature/power could not be made again? Are there no elven smith's left with the capability? How were the rings of power "enchanted" with their magical properties to begin with if Sauron did not directly forge them?


You would think that more would be made to aid in the battles against Sauron and his armies if someone had the capabilities to do so.



Answer



I can think of a few reasons.





  • Lack of knowledge. The elves of Eregion were the ones who crafted the rings of power. Celebrimbor alone crafted the 3 elven rings. Celebrimbor is dead, and Eregion was wiped out by Sauron. I'm sure Sauron made sure that there wasn't even a leaflet of notes on how to craft rings of power, and I'm sure a lot of knowledge was lost in death.




  • Fear of the past. You see what happened the last time they crafted rings? Didn't go so well.




  • Lack of skill. Elves created other rings of power alone for practice...they were just less potent which implies they didn't have the skill to create rings of power that Sauron was able to make(the elven rings are the exception, Celebrimbor is pretty good at stuff). All the rings of power that were relevant in second and third age were crafted with the help of Sauron...again, outside of the elven rings, crafted by Celebrimbor, who is dead.




  • Fear of the future. Who would they give the rings of power to? They were leaving ME anyways, so they weren't going to fight against Sauron. Would they give them to men? Diving into some risky business by giving men power. It's not just the fact that rings of power corrupt men, power in general corrupts men(not all men of course). Having power leads to the desire for more power. Big reason why hobbits were particularly resistant against the ring...they didn't care for the power it held.





And the reason I didn't note that the one ring would probably be able to control any rings of power created with the techniques of Sauron is because I feel like we're under the assumption that we're talking about the Third Age/War of the Ring. If it's the second age than I would say none of those points would apply because it would be psychotic to craft more rings when Sauron has the one.


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