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Shhh! It's a Secret Ring! - Page 4

© Michael Martinez

The end result was that the Rings of Power were originally a secret project. Most Elves didn't know anything about them. Sauron's early overtures must have seemed rather vague, playing on doubts and concerns of a very general nature. It would not be until he could have a long heart-to-heart talk with Celebrimbor about the Elves' future, that Sauron would be able to spring the Big Plan on the Elven lord. And it's not like Celebrimbor should have been stupid. In fact, he was probably one of the most intelligent Elves of the early Second Age. His keen knowledge and insight, coupled with his brilliance, would have made him a crucial target for Sauron's deception. And that deception seems to have required centuries to work. Sauron must have very patiently taught the Gwaith-i-Mirdain many secrets about the making of things before he won their full trust. Tolkien offers us only a glimpse of the kind of artifacts the Elves were capable of making: the boats of Lorien, the ropes and cloaks of the Silvan Elves, Galadriel's basin. These were most likely humble, everyday enchantments, things of little interest to the master smiths. The Palantiri, created in Valinor, might have been the sort of artifacts the Gwaith-i-Mirdain would have pursued. Or perhaps they endeavored to recreate the Silmarils, even though the Light of the Two Trees was preserved only in the light of the Sun, Moon, and the Star of Earendil. Elrond's explanation of the motives of the Ring-makers implies they were very noble in their goals: "those who made [the rings] did not desire strength or domination or hoarded wealth, but understanding, making, and healing, to preserve all things unstained." We understand the desire "to preserve all things unstained". The Elves wanted to create a little bit of Valinor in Middle-earth by holding back the effects of Time. But "understanding, making, and healing" seem a bit out of place. What needed to be understood, what needed healing, that all the natural talents of the Elves weren't sufficient to understand or heal? Tolkien implies in one essay that it was Middle-earth itself which required healing. It was tainted, stained by Melkor, and damaged by the War of Wrath. Perhaps the Gwaith-i-Mirdain hoped to devise something which would cleanse the Melkor-element from Middle-earth. How tragically ironic it was that they relied upon that very element to create the Rings. There is another story concerning Galadriel and Celebrimbor. This is the tale of the Elessar, the green stone which Galadriel gave to Aragorn on behalf of Arwen. The story is, of course, unfinished, and Tolkien changed his mind about many details. Ultimately, Celebrimbor was to become a smith of Gondolin (but the story was composed before Celebrimbor was incorporated into the family of Feanor) and made two Elessars. One was borne into the West by Earendil and the second one replaced the first and came to Aragorn.

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