Ring Fingers

Kate Neville

Well-Known Member
Listening to the discussion on how Frodo wears the ring sent me to the internet, where I found this from a jewelry design site:

A ring on the index finger may demonstrate the longing for power, depending on where the wearer placed it. It has associations with Jupiter, which symbolizes leadership, authority, and power.
...Perhaps this is the reason as well for kings and queens wearing their rings on their index fingers, which they extend for visitors to kiss. As a ring on this finger denotes power, it is also where prominent families centuries past display their crests and signets.

There was some stuff about yin/yang right/left symbolism, which I doubt JRRT would have known or cared about, but the idea of putting the ring on the right index finger at Mount Doom really does line up with the idea of taking rulership.
 
Frodo did not put the ring on his index finger at Mt. Doom. The finger that was bitten off, was 'the third finger of his right hand'.

The 'forefinger of his left hand', was the finger on which Frodo puts the ring in the dell under Weathertop. Though, he seems to make no effort to use the ring (and the ring seems to make no effort to use him) to rule or exert power over the Black Riders in that encounter.
 
Mea culpa, Mea culpa.... I had the film image in my head. Though to be fair, the scene at Mt. Doom does not specify which finger; we don't find out until the next chapter. How are we meant to interpret "third finger"? Surely not the middle finger, or why wouldn't he say "middle." The third finger (not thumb) would be the ring finger -- appropriate but also creepy, as many cultures wear their wedding rings on the right hand. And for Gollum, a little harder to bite off than the index finger....
 
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