Ring or rhyme, chicken or egg

Phillip Menzies

Moderator
Staff member
I have always wondered as a reader of LOTR from a logical point of view which was created first, the ring or the verse inscribed on the ring. "It is only two lines of a verse long known in Elven-lore" says Gandalf. So the ring has an inscription on it (put there as a part of the forging process) of the well know verse but surely the rhyme could not have been known before the ring came into existence because the wise only knew of the One when Sauron first put it on, so I can clearly not pick the answer in front of me.
Last session you mentioned a tantalising tit-bit about Celebrimbor hearing Sauron chant this while forging the ring? (at Mt Doom?) I could have heard wrong. Can you please tell us this story in more detail and more importantly, the source.
 
I'm pretty sure it's at the Council of Elrond where they give a recap of the Ring's history, including how Sauron first placed it on his finger and announced "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 Black Speech (sorry, no time to look up right now - plus I'm concerned it might put a curse on my hard drive). Anyway, when Sauron said this, according to Elrond or Gandalf or whoever's narrating the story, "Celembrimbor, maker of the Three, was aware of him (Sauron), and knew that he'd been betrayed" (I'm paraphrasing here). So that's where the Celebrimbor story comes from.

Presumably, the complete verse came into existence only after Sauron forged the Ring and made this pronouncement. An interesting point, though, is to ask whether the rest was composed by Sauron himself, or by the Elves. Gandalf says it is "Well known in Elven Lore," but doesn't specify where the rest of the poem originates.

The poem is descriptive, but it certainly doesn't laud Sauron - if anything, it's ominous. And anyway, what need does he have for such a poem anyway?

The Elves, on the other hand, might very well have use for it as a teaching aid (like a mnemonic), or as a reminder of a non-immediate but still lurking danger.
 
If it comes to what Tolkien first thought of, it is clearly the ring. The whole story about the inscription and enslaving comes later as far as I remember from the book The Return of the Shadow.
 
Back
Top