The Semi-Sentient Ring: What vs When

[Anton J]

To assess how sentient the Ring is, would it make sense not just to focus on what kind of emotions/actions the Ring induces, but also on when it does so? With the evidence we have so far it seems that Ring-induced emotions are not very complex (desire to hide it, leave it be, keep it for oneself). Where the complexity comes in is once the bearer starts rationalizing these impulses. The simplicity of the desires suggests that, by extension, the Ring is also sentient in a rather simple way.

However, when we focus on the moments when these emotions are induced, you might be tempted to think that the Ring is more perceptive. Given the often “sudden” onset, the Ring seems to have a very keen sense for the critical moment to exert its influence, which suggests a clear understanding of its surroundings. Yet, I think that here we also shouldn’t over-estimate the Ring’s sentience. Arguably, we've seen only three basic cases:

1. Situations where the Ring could be lost to someone (e.g., Sméagol and Déagol, Frodo with Gandalf at the fire, Frodo after handing the Ring to Tom Bombadil, Frodo at the Council)
2. Situations where the Ring can pervert the bearer and push them to commit evil acts (e.g., Frodo’s urge to leave his friends in the Barrow-downs, Frodo’s desire to strike the “little wrinkled creature” Bilbo)
3. Situations where the Ring can leave/betray its bearer (e.g., Isildur in the River Anduin, Gollum in the caves under the Misty Mountains)

A couple of further comments prompted by this classification:

• The low number of cases also suggests a kind of “semi-sentience”, as the Ring would only need to be attuned to very specific mental cues of people in its surroundings. Therefore, during the Council of Elrond, it doesn’t respond to the presence of various powerful individuals, but only when Frodo perceives he might be asked to hand the Ring over.
• In cases (1) and (2) the Ring acts as a kind of parasite on someone’s perceptions and thoughts, strengthening and twisting them. The Ring appears more autonomous in case (3), which is underlined by Gandalf's ascribing agency to the Ring at those moments. However, why the Ring decided to act at those specific moments remains difficult to explain, I find. The text already prompts us to think that Bilbo finding the Ring is no coincidence; might it be that even the Ring's desire to leave Gollum also isn't?
• There is no need to make the Ring more complex by adding an extra case for situations when the Ring wants to reveal itself (e.g., Frodo showing the Ring to Tom, various encounters of Frodo with the Ringwraiths, Frodo in the Prancing Pony), because the text suggests that Frodo’s actions there are not Ring-induced but rather based on some external command.

 

[Flammifer]

Good post Anton,

I would add a couple of thoughts:

1. Besides looking at when the Ring seems to act, it would also be useful to look at when it seems not to. Why does it not seem to act on Weathertop? If sentient, one might think that its primary instruction of 'bring them! find them! rule them! bind them!' might apply, but it does not seem to. Nor does it react at all (somewhat contradictory to these commands) when Frodo sees Galadriel's ring. There are plenty of other places, where we might expect a sentient Ring to react, but it does not.

2. For a really thorough analysis, we should really examine a bunch of incidents where the Ring does seem to react, plus those where it might be expected to but does not, and compare them against several hypotheses:

a) The Ring is not sentient - all semblances of volition occur in the mind of the bearer, not that of the Ring.

b) The Ring has very limited awareness - perhaps it is able to sense danger, and initiate a suggestion such as 'put me on and escape'. (Why not do that then in the Chamber of Mazarbul?)

c) The Ring has a compulsion to try to return to Sauron, and enough awareness to exert influence to hide when in the presence of possible non-Sauron wielders powerful enough to wield it in opposition to Sauron, reveal in the presence of Sauron's agents, and escape from useless or dangerous bearers.

d) The Ring has considerable awareness. Enough to know what is going on around it and try to influence its bearer to take actions to further the Ring's own objectives (whatever those may be).

3. Awareness is not the same as power or influence. The Ring can have influence over its bearers without awareness. It is pretty clear that one power the Ring has is to create very strong possessiveness for itself in the minds of its bearers. This is a power that does not require sentience.

There are certainly more possible hypotheses about the level of the Ring's awareness.

 

[Anton J]

Thanks, Flammifer, that’s definitely a very worthwhile project for us to pursue.

I think for now the simplest hypothesis about the Ring’s sentience would be that:

• the Ring is aware only of Ring-related thoughts (about using/losing it) of individuals nearby; and
• the Ring acts only by manipulating/strengthening/twisting these thoughts.

I think this would be more or less consistent with your hypothesis b). It would also provide a very simple explanation of why the Ring doesn’t seem to act on Weathertop: Frodo simply doesn’t think about losing/using the Ring at that time, so it has nothing to latch onto. However, if we would hold that the Ring does play some role (collaborating with the Witch-King’s command) in Frodo feeling compelled to put on the Ring, we would move more toward your hypothesis c).

As I said above, I think the cases where the Ring displays the most autonomy (it abandoning Isildur and Gollum) provide the biggest challenge to the semi-sentient model of the Ring, coming closest to your hypothesis d). But after re-watching Episodes 50/52, I think the situation in the Prancing Pony might also be among these. While the text does suggest someone else nearby is compelling Frodo to put on the Ring (“It seemed to him, somehow, as if the suggestion came to him from outside, from someone or something in the room”, “perhaps it [the Ring] had tried to reveal itself in response to some wish or command that was felt in the room”), it was argued in class that this was unlikely and that the Ring seemed the sole originator of the temptation. However, if so, then the question of ‘Why at that moment?’ becomes relevant again. How did the Ring know this would be such an opportune moment to reveal itself if it has only very limited awareness? It seems hard to maintain both that the Ring is not fully sentient as well as that there was no command from someone/something other than the Ring in the Prancing Pony. One way out of this dilemma could be that the Ring was in fact simply responding to Frodo’s thought of using the Ring, since having to make a speech (sub-consciously) reminded Frodo of when Bilbo used the Ring at his birthday party speech.

 

[Flammifer]

Hi Anton,

The incident in The Prancing Pony illustrates, I think, why it is probably necessary to perform a multi-variant analysis on all or many of the incidents where the Ring might have acted, or (strangely) did not act, to seek determination.

Frodo's thoughts on the incident are: "How it came to be on his finger he could not tell. He could only suppose that he had been handling it in his pocket while he sang, and that somehow it had slipped on when he stuck out his hand with a jerk to save his fall. For a moment he wondered if the Ring itself had not played him a trick; perhaps it had tried to reveal itself in response to some wish or command that was felt in the room. He did not like the look of the men that had gone out"

This passage could be interpreted in multiple ways:

1. The Ring could have no sentience at all. Frodo does not even clearly remember if he had been handling it in his pocket or not while he sang. However, let's suppose he was (due to being nervous at first). So, it accidentally slides on to his finger. He then rationalizes that it was not his fault. Perhaps the Ring 'played a trick'? Perhaps there was a wish or command in the room? (Unlikely, as I doubt the Black Riders would have told the Southerners anything about the Ring). All of this rationalization could be taking place in Frodo's mind with no Ring influence at all. Propelled by shame, embarrassment, and prejudice (which turned out later to be justified) against the men who had gone out. That would fit my previous hypothesis a).

2. Hypothesis b) is only a partial fit. Although at first Frodo did find himself, "fingering the things in his pockets. He felt the Ring on its chain, and quite unaccountably the desire came over him to slip it on and vanish out of the silly situation. It seemed to him, somehow, as if the suggestion came to him from outside, from someone or something in the room. He resisted the temptation firmly, and clasped the Ring in his hand, as if to keep a hold on it and prevent it from escaping or doing any mischief." That could be the Ring sensing Frodo's feeling of danger or embarrassment, and urging 'put me on and escape'. However, by the time Frodo actually does find the Ring on his finger, he is enjoying himself, and hypothesis b) should no longer apply.

3. Hypothesis c) would fit, if the Ring could sense that the Southerners were agents of Sauron, and more likely to be useful in getting the Ring back to Sauron than revealing its presence to Aragorn would be dangerous to that quest (assuming it could sense Aragorn as a potential Ring-wielding rival to Sauron). However, the Southerners if agents of anyone other than Saruman, might be very temporary agents of the Black Riders, rather than of Sauron, and hard to see why the Ring would recognize them or take orders or suggestions from them. I think hypothesis c) is a weak hypothesis in this passage.

4. Hypothesis d) will, of course fit almost any incident in which the Ring might be acting, and is best questioned by looking at incidents where we might expect the Ring to act but it does not. However, it would take a particularly acute Ring to be able to deduce that causing the incident in the Pony would be useful in furthering most conceivable Ring objectives. If it was acute enough to recognize the power of Aragorn, it perhaps should have been clever enough to think that revelation might well be counter-productive.

One can read the Prancing Pony incident in ways that support all 4 of my hypotheses. (Though I think hypothesis a) is the best fit, with hypothesis b) being second best). This is probably true of most Ring incidents. So, I think that trying to read individual incidents and fit hypotheses to each is not likely to be very revealing. Some matrix of all the incidents, scored against all the hypotheses, is likely to be more productive.