The White Council

Re: The Three.... again

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: : : : : : : : : The knowledge and lore did not still exist. The secrets of making the Three died with Celebrimbor.

: : : No, no you silly demi-not-quite-almost-god! : : : The knowledge still exists, in potentia. If anyone knew how to make rings, the ability for them to be made is still there : : : So therefore the rings shouldn't fade. Nothing intrinsically "magical" about the rings have dissappeared, so why on earth (middle-earth) should they fade? : : : Certainly, no elf, nor any other smith has the knowledge, but the potentia is still there....

: : : Gandalf

: : I can think of nothing better to be the (demi?) god of than wine and revelry. :)

: : However, in response to your argument, ME is replete with examples of singular achievements that cannot be repeated. Start with the Two Trees, then the Silmarils, the Palantiri (possibly) and the Rings. Arda was irreversibly marred following the ruin of the Lamps. The list goes on and on.

: The Three were created using the same craft(magic)that was used to create the other rings and master ring. The craft, Sauron's craft, linked all the rings. Destruction of Sauron destroyed his craft and everything created by his craft. The Dark Tower fell and the Three lost their power.

Tolkien himself covered this topic, and the above conclusion is essentially correct. Even though Sauron never touched the three, it was his knowledge that was used to create them, and they were thus linked to the One Ring. How this linkage was achieved Tolkien doesn't say, but the fact is that it existed, and the lesser rings lost their power when the One was destroyed. The rings didn't fade away. After the war they were worn openly - though devoid of power. Whether or not the the power of the three rings faded away slowly or just switched off is a matter of debate. Some have argued that Lorien was still around years later, so the magic must have lingered on for some time. Perhaps. But the book is silent on the topic. Lorien was still around because it was a physical place. Galadriel's ring held time at bay within her realm. There is nothing to say that Lorien couldn't exist for a while without the ring. It would merely have lost the power to stop time, and thus like the rest of the world it could eventually die out of its own accord, rather than be artificially perpetuated - a sort of "paradise lost".