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Shhh! It's a Secret Ring! - Page 15

© Michael Martinez

Hence, when Mordor's first assault had been defeated, and Aragorn and Gandalf met with Eomer and the lords of Gondor and Rohan, they were able to speak freely about the One Ring. Gandalf even seems to have confided to Theoden a little something about the Ringbearer's quest when he took the aged king aside and spoke to him. It was enough to mention the One Ring. The lords knew what Gandalf was speaking of. They understood that a great and powerful talisman was being risked. They understood, essentially, that the entire war was really being fought over the Ring. One could say that generations of nobles must have passed on the barest knowledge of the Rings of Power in an almost religious devotion. When all other lore of ancient days was lost or forgotten amid unreadable scrolls, men remembered to tell their sons that, at one time, there was a Dark Lord who had a very terrible Ring. And that Ring was unlike all other magical things in Middle-earth. The knowledge persisted where it was needed most, so that when the time came, it served to strengthen the resolve of the men who had to stand up to the Dark Lord and laugh in his face, while a couple of Hobbits scampered up the side of Orodruin. No one really needed to understand the history of the Rings to remember that they existed. People were aware of them in a vague, general way. But the long years and the devastations wreaked upon Men, Elves, and Dwarves had served to make secret again the ancient shame of the Eldar.

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