Lord of the Rings | Symbolism of the Ring of Power

Also notice how the level of control is increased with the multiplicity of the rings. The Nine he has complete domination over. The Seven he has corrupted to make their owners greedy and selfish, but the Three he cannot see unless he comes into the fullness of his power. Also interesting how three heroes, Gandalf, Aragorn and Frodo, aĺl have a descent into death/trampling down, sequence. One more point worth talking about is how every time evil is fought head-on, in ages past, the victory is laced with sorrow and evil is not fully beaten. Tolkien had a very clever take on how evil can be defeated.

I made a small mistake in the video, saying 4 rings for the dwarves for some reason. Sorry about that. Give me your opinions on the interpretation, I know people can be LOTR experts, which I am not, so I am curious to know.

"Many of us are already ring wraiths." That hits hard.

I teach The Lord of the Rings and found this video among the most insightful work on Tolkien I've encountered. Thank you! I will share it with my students.

I always saw the ring as an allegory for sin and giving in to being your own god. You desire it as it will give your power (invisibility) but by giving into the ring you allow the devil (sauron) complete control over you or to see and destroy you. You believe in the falsehood that the ring will bring you life/power but it really brings death and destroys you as evident by how it transforms gollum into a wretched creature.

I am a wearer of many rings, the ring of alcohol, of cigarettes, of Youtube. I'm a wraith. Thank you for this interpretation, it may be of some use to me in my struggles.

Good idea for you to not bind yourself to patreon, it makes you stronger but you also become dependent on it :D

"it is possible that many of us have already become ringwraiths." i love how this interpretation puts the symbolism intertwined in the LOTR in modern context. i think advancing technology, especially artificial intelligence is, looking at the current developments that are coming at us faster and faster every time, something to definitely have an eye on or two.

“Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, Ash nazg thrakutulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.” by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

also.. the interplay of fate and free will in Lotr. Frodo’s fate to carry the burden but also his responsibility to take that moral choice. all characters are pushed to make difficult moral decisions, but in the end there is the ‘eucatastrophe’ (the Providence ensuring the good’s defeat over evil) no individual character, but the culmination of all small steps lead to victory and in the end saved by grace.

One aspect of the Ring of Power I find interesting is how it symbolizes one of the most perplexing characteristics of power over others - once you have it, it is almost impossible to voluntarily give up. In the LOTR trilogy, the only character we see truly able to resist the grasp of power after having tasted it is Samwise Gamgee. Every other character fails to voluntarily relinquish the Ring of Power without some degree of struggle.

regards from egypt, i follow you since kek episode on jordan peterson channel. keep it up

I find it interesting how the One Ring 'completes' the other levels - making 4 of the three elven rings, for example. The three elven rings are the ring of Water, Fire and Air (Nenya, Narya and Vilya), the One Ring would complete this series and be the ring of Earth, earth being a symbol for material wealth, but also for fertile ground (or the opposite). Celebrimbor thought Sauron to be a 'giver of gifts' when he crafted the rings, calling him 'Annatar'. He had mistaken or overseen the negative aspects technology, wealth, earth brings with it (a common theme for all Noldor) and was eventually killed by Sauron, 'giver of gifts', because he wouldn't yield the rings back to him. It's also interesting how the destruction of the One Ring could be seen as the completion of the world, as the Silmarils (symbols of holy power, something like that) were already in their right place (in the Sky with Eärendil, in the Sea due to Maglor and a 'fiery pit' with Maedhros - note here the similarities between the Silmarils and the 3 Rings), yet the earth element was missing and still about in the world in the form of the One Ring, made by Sauron. From a Jungian perspecitve, where one sees 3 of something, one should look for a 4th (which is oftentimes repressed, or seen as evil). 3 Silmarils on Morgoth's crown, making him the 4th - 3 silmarils and Sauron's ring, sauron being archetypically the same as Morgoth, the 4th element earth as an evil which needs to be incorporated and not seperate or above from the rest. I tried to figure this out for a while now and you helped me along the way, I hope this rambling made sense, thanks! Topic suggestion: The Fall of the Noldor, Nargothrond, Doriath and Gondolin and their relation to the biblical fall is a goldmine

Loved it. If you want to stick with Tolkien, I'd recommend the Ainulindale, or The Music of the Ainur. It's from the Silmarillion. It's Tolkien's Creation myth, and is absolutely beautiful. Thank you for what you're doing, I'm hooked. This one spoke to me especially as I come from a communication background that presents a historical worldview that focuses on an idea of technological determinism (Marshall McLuhan type stuff). What you've identified is profound. We are all ringwraiths. More unsettling than us turning into androids. Thank you again! Your presentation of Orthodox iconography has set a fire beneath the development of my faith, I felt I was in a rut, or at least that I had plateaued. The rigidness of protestant systematic theology has been gnawing at me for some time. You're beautiful.

I am not one to be joyful when I see a new video of a creator that I appreciate, I am a bit too stoic and negative for that, and yet I was joyful when I saw that you released a new video on LotR, which as someone raised atheist, was one of my first deep approach on mythology and symbolism. Do keep up the good work, your words do not die as soon as they have been heard.

Excellent stuff, and particularly the Ringwraith punchline, which ties in with your thoughts on zombies. If you want suggestions for subjects in the LotR, how about: symbolism of the feminine (Galadriel, Eowyn, Arwen, Rosie Cotton, the usually-overlooked Ioreth, and Shelob); symbolism of the tower (LotR has lots of them); thoughts on Minas Tirith as Byzantium; an Orthodox Christian take on an explicitly Catholic work. Is that enough for starters? :-)

Tom Bombadil would be cool to talk about since he is not influenced by the ring. Also I wish to hear ur interpretation of the Green Knight which Tolkien said was one of the most difficult characters to interpret. Great video as always!!

As much as I’m not a fan of Harry Potter, I think that the notion of the horcrux is a really incredible way of understanding technology. The more Voldemort put his soul into different horcruxes, the more fragmented he became, until he ultimately lacked a proper body altogether and took on a weak, vampiric body. After his horcruxes were destroyed, he lacked embodiment and was easily overcome. Technology is a horcrux- the more of ourselves that we invest in it and depend upon it, the more fragile we become. How many people would survive if the grid were to collapse? Almost none- the grid is their horcrux, and when it is destroyed, so is the embodiment of their souls.

You make an interesting point about we humans binding, Sauron-like, our power to our technology. 'The Distributist' made a related point recently when he compared the power of emerging technology (especially AI) to the 'Eldritch Abominations' of HP Lovecraft.

The work by this guy continues to fascinate and amaze me.