Posted: September 16, 1999 at 12:22:53: by Michael Martinez
: I only disagree with your point at the very end. I don't think
: the Elven Rings hed back change in Gondor. Slowness of change
: was present in ME long before the rings of power came to be. I
: always say the slowness of change as just the "way things are"
: in the ages during the ascendancy of the Quendi. In a sense the
: Earth reflected the Elves, or vice-a-versa. I don't perceive much slowness of change prior to the Second Age. Perhaps you can be more specific. : However, change does com emore quickly during the ascendancy of
: Man. I don't think this has to do with the destruction of the
: One Ring and the loss of power of the Three. Rather, I think it
: represents the underlying sea-change occurring now than Man is
: fully in charge. As Tolkien said in a note in one of his
: letters, the passing of ages occured more quickly during the
: time of man. Thus even though years had passed since the
: beginning of the Fourth Age, today we'd be in the 7th or 8th
: age. Small nit: he said end of the 6th Age or beginning of the 7th. Or something like that. :) Gondor, however, is still "Elvish" in some respects at the end of the Third Age. The devotion to preservation and so forth is a theme Tolkien focused on. That doesn't show the Elven Rings were at work as far away as Gondor, but conceptually the Noldor were trying to preserve at least a huge chunk of Middle-earth, not just Eregion, or so I gather from Tolkien's comments. Dispersing the Rings throughout Middle-earth the way Sauron did could have the dual consequence of lessening the overall effectivess of the Rings and of expanding their regions of influence. The Nazgul appear to have held on to their Rings until late in the Third Age, when Gandalf discovered that Sauron was recovering them all. Hence, from 2002 to about the 28th or 29th centuries, there would have been up to 9 Rings on the border of Gondor.
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