Thread: The One Ring...
View Single Post
Old 12-14-2006, 02:04 PM   #39
Kelly Pedersen
 
Kelly Pedersen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Default Re: The One Ring...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Akahige
The little I know about the Silmarillion is in regard to how the physical world was created, and I presume what you refer to as the 'Morgoth element' is simply the result of his self-centered behavior while participating in the big "song" that created the world.
In a sense, yes. However, in Tolkien's mind, there was some very real there, even if it was intangible. To Tolkien, any act of creation, or changing the nature of something, required the being doing it to put in some of their personal power. If the act you were doing was "good" - that is, unselfish, and in attempt to conform to the desires of the rightful powers of the world, then the energy would be replenished immediately. If, however, your acts were evil, then the power you spent was gone, diminishing you in the process. So Morgoth, in the process of corrupting the Song of The Ainur, and trying to warp the World to his desires, spent a great deal of his personal power. That's way, even though he was, initially, the greatest of the Ainur, he was later able to be defeated by the Valar - his power had been largely spent corrupting the world, and later the various monsters and such in it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Akahige
And that's what I meant by "spiritual" abilities. The magical powers are due to their weilders being, for lack of a better term, semi-astral beings. The Ring would enhance their innate abilities, but the pressure from the 'Morgoth element' would draw them closer to the domineering nature he infected the world with.
Actually, you wouldn't have to be "semi-astral". Aragorn was mentioned, for example, as someone who would have been capable of mastering the One, and doing terrible things with it, and he was quite human, and didn't have much power over the "Unseen", as Tolkein put it. I think that having power over the Unseen world was more a good indication that you had the strength of will to bend the Ring to your will, rather than a prerequisite for doing so.
Also, note that the Ring would enhance any ability the wearer possessed - as I mentioned, it would have enhanced Aragorn's combat ability, and that was pretty clearly non-magical. Likewise, Gandalf mentioned that Smeagol/Gollum's ability to hide and sneak about was enhanced when he got the Ring (in the chapter The Shadow of The Past).
Kelly Pedersen is offline   Reply With Quote