Quick Links
During the Second Age of Middle Earth, Sauron and the Elven smiths in Eregion, whom he had deceived into helping him, crafted 19 rings of power. In The Lord of the Rings, these rings went to three different races in Middle Earth.
Although Sauron tricked the Elves into crafting these rings, he used his own power to corrupt the rings. This would allow him to eventually link all of them to the power of the One Ring that he would forge himself in the fires of Mount Doom. This would be the One Ring to rule and control all other lesser rings of power.
Lord Of The Rings: 9 Dwarves Only Book Readers Know
These dwarves famous from the Lord of the Rings books never made it to the big screen despite their interesting roles.
When he created the lesser rings of power, Sauron originally intended to gift them to others, which is how the rings ended up with the Elves, Dwarves, and men. However, as time went on, Sauron decided he wanted to regain some of these rings of power. He never took back the three Elven rings, as the Elves had carefully hidden them away from him before the events of The Lord of the Rings. He also let the nine men keep their rings as well since they corrupted the men into being very powerful servants of Sauron, otherwise known as the Nazgûl.
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
Instead, Sauron turned his focus to the seven Dwarven rings of power. He wanted to regain these rings for himself. But if Sauron had intended to use these seven rings for himself all along, then why did he originally gift them to the seven Dwarf Lords?
Sauron Originally Planned To Give The Rings Of Power To Elves
As mentioned, the lesser rings of power were always intended to be gifts Sauron gave to races of Middle Earth. When they were first crafted, he actually had no intention of taking back the seven rings from the dwarves. It wasn’t until Sauron’s return that he made the decision to seek out the seven dwarven rings.
Although he always intended to distribute the rings, he actually didn’t plan on giving any rings to the dwarves, or men for that matter. This happened due to Sauron’s circumstances changing.
All 19 Rings Were Intended For Elves
In the beginning, it was his plan to gift all of the lesser rings of power to Elves throughout Middle Earth. His plan was to gift these rings to Elves of particular power and influence. Since the rings are linked to his One Ring, this would give Sauron the power to control the Elven ring bearers, essentially giving him control of all Elves. Had Sauron been able to accomplish this, it would have been a huge step in his plan for complete domination of Middle Earth. But that’s not how things played out.
The rings were created in three distinct sets: three, seven, and nine. All three sets were gifted to the Elves after they helped Sauron forge them in Eregion. Once 19 Elves of power and influence were wearing the rings, Sauron set out to forge the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. Through his corruption of the rings, Sauron was able to link all of them to the One Ring in order to control the Elves. However, if there’s one thing Sauron didn’t account for it’s that Elves are extremely wise and aware of their surroundings.
Sauron’s Plan Didn’t Go As Expected
Once the One Ring was made, all 19 Elven ring bearers could sense what was happening and immediately removed their rings. Of course, this enraged Sauron since his plan was foiled, so he demanded that all 19 rings be returned. While he managed to get 16 of the rings of power back from the Elves, the three most powerful (which were forged by Celebrimbor in secret) remained carefully hidden to where he could never find them. These would be the three rings of power worn by Galadriel, Elrond, and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.
Since Sauron’s plan to control the Elves failed, he moved on to the next best thing: gifting the rings to dwarves and men. He had two of the three sets of rings of power, so he gave one set to each of the two races. Dwarves received seven rings of power, while men received nine.
Sauron Hoped He Could Control The Dwarves
Much like his first plan, when Sauron turned around and gifted rings of power to the dwarves and men, it was so he could control both of these races. This time, his plan was somewhat successful.
With the nine rings of power gifted to men, Sauron was able to completely control and corrupt them to the point that they turned into the Nazgûl, also called Ringwraiths. This is where his second plan was successful. But when it came to the dwarves, things didn’t turn out the way Sauron was hoping, which once again put a dent in his plan to rule Middle Earth.
The Dwarves Weren’t So Easily Controlled
The issue Sauron ran into when he gifted the seven rings to the Dwarf Lords was that the rings couldn’t control the dwarves, much to Sauron’s dismay. The problem here wasn’t with the rings themselves. Had the seven dwarven rings been gifted to men, they would have easily been able to control them just like the nine.
Instead, Sauron ran into a problem he couldn’t fix. It was the way dwarves were built, part of their very core, that prevented them from being controlled by the rings. Dwarves have a natural hardiness and stubbornness to them. That combined with the fact that the rings were gifted to Dwarf Lords who come from strong and powerful lineage allowed them to wear the rings without experiencing any adverse effects from Sauron directly.
The Rings Of Power Affected The Dwarves Differently
That’s not to say that the seven rings of power didn’t have any effect on the dwarves, though. The rings did have their fair share of effects, but ones that weren’t controlled by Sauron.
One of the most notable effects of all the lesser rings of power is that they grant the wearer an unusually long lifespan. Since all 19 rings were made with the intention of Elves being the wearers, they were crafted in a way that took into account the immortality of the Elves. When a mortal wears one of the rings instead, it lengthens his lifespan but doesn’t necessarily make him immortal. This was the case for the dwarves.
When the seven rings were crafted, it was under the intention that they would be able to bring wealth to the wearers. This led to an unfortunate effect on the dwarves, who already were seen as greedy. The rings only intensified their greed, making them want more and more wealth and gems, which led to their downfall. The more wealth the dwarves craved, the further they mined in their mountains.
As for the case of King Durin VI, he dug too deep in Moria and awoke the Balrog, leading to the decimation of the Mines of Moria. Similarly, King Thrór of the Misty Mountains also craved treasure, which brought the dragon Smaug to inhabit Erebor. This led all the dwarves of The Lonely Mountain to be without their homes.
When He Couldn’t Control Them, Sauron Attempted To Retrieve The Rings
Although the rings intensified their greed, Tolkien notes in The Silmarillion that the dwarves could not be turned evil with the rings. When Sauron realized he couldn’t control the dwarves with the rings of power, it thwarted his plans once again.
The dwarves indeed proved tough and hard to tame; they ill endure the domination of others, and the thoughts of their hearts are hard to fathom, nor can they be turned to shadows.
If he was unable to use the seven rings to control and corrupt the dwarves, then he saw no reason to let the dwarves keep them. They would be more useful in Sauron’s possession than if he let the dwarves wear the rings. So Sauron set out to regain as many of the seven rings as he possibly could.
Unfortunately for Sauron, finding the seven rings was more of a challenge than he anticipated. By the time he was able to locate them, four of the seven were unable to be reclaimed. These four were completely destroyed by dragons, which shouldn’t come as a surprise since dragons, much like dwarves, are drawn to treasures of immense power. Sauron was only able to regain three of the rings, which he would later use in The Lord of the Rings to bargain with the dwarves during the War of the Ring.
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is one of the most iconic names in entertainment. The franchise started with novels from J. R. R. Tolkien before being adapted onto the big screen by Peter Jackson in one of the most critically-acclaimed film trilogies of all time. There have also been numerous The Lord of the Rings video games of varying quality.
