Rings of Power & Osanwe-Kenta

[Lalwendë]

I have recently had the pleasure of reading the Osanwe-Kenta and it has had my head spinning with ideas, the first of which I shall attempt to start a discussion on here, as it might be of interest to all. While I appreciate that not everyone will have had the benefit of reading this piece by Tolkien, I think it will still be a topic others can join in on. For purposes of clarity, the thread already open discussing the work is here

There is also a current discussion on the Three Rings here

In a nutshell, the Osanwe-Kenta concerns the issue of thought transference, which is a skill not only Elves posses, but also Valar and Maiar, and there is a possibility it is latent within other species/races. But I still recommend that you look at the existing review thread at least! It is very complex, but once you read the actual essay (available by mail order) your head will be full of new thoughts.

One of my first thoughts was how this relates to the Rings of Power. We know about the powers of the One Ring and how the Ringbearer can be ‘seen’ when wearing it, and it is this thought which sparked me off on this line of thought.

In the Osanwe-Kenta it says of Morgoth:

For he would come by stealth to a mind open and unwary, hoping to learn some part of its thought before it closed, and still more to implant in it his own thought, to deceive it and win it to his friendship.

This is a useful thought to bear in mind, as I think that Sauron himself, by way of the Rings of Power, hoped to enter the minds of others, in particular the Elves.

his desire was to set a bond upon the Elves and to bring them under his vigilance

Those who were aware of having this power could in effect ‘close’ their minds to outside influences, and indeed, this happened to Morgoth himself, as he could not perceive truth from lies. So Sauron, by cunning, may have hoped to create these Rings of Power in an attempt to ‘see’ into the minds of others.

He failed seemingly to entirely reach into the minds of Dwarves:

The Dwarves indeed proved tough and hard to tame; they ill endure the domination of others, and the thoughts of their hearts are hard to fathom, nor can they be turned to shadows.

This is interesting, as the creation of Dwarves took a different path to the creation of other races, so they may have possessed different abilities.

But he was entirely successful in reaching into the hearts and minds of men, as it says in The Sil of the enslavement of the Nazgul:

They could walk, if they would, unseen by all eyes in this world beneath the sun, and they could see things in worlds invisible to mortal men; but too often they beheld only the phantoms and delusions of Sauron. And one by one, sooner or later, according to their native strength and to the good or evil of their wills in the beginning, they fell under the thraldom of the ring that they bore and under the domination of the One, which was Sauron's. And they became for ever invisible save to him that wore the Ruling Ring, and they entered into the realm of shadows.

I was thinking why Sauron would even want to see into the hearts and minds of men in this way, as due to their mortality, this would be a power limited in itself. Unless his aim was purely to create a group of wraiths to do his bidding. Perhaps this is why he so desired to see into the hearts and minds of immortal Elves; he would have an everlasting link into their thoughts.

Sauron did not make the three Elven rings of power, but once they were created, he went on to create the Ruling Ring, which appears to have had some way of affecting the Three, even though it could not control them in the same way it could control the other rings.

they were given into the hands of the Wise, who concealed them and never again used them openly while Sauron kept the Ruling Ring. Therefore the Three remained unsullied, for they were forged by Celebrimbor alone, and the hand of Sauron had never touched them; yet they also were subject to the One.

What is interesting in the above passage is how it specifically mentions that the Three had to be concealed. Was there some faint or tenuous connection between the One and the Three which may have enabled thought transference between Sauron and those who bore these rings? I cannot be certain, but is it the case that they were not used until the Ruling Ring was known to be lost? That they in themselves in some way possessed qualities which may have enhanced those discussed in Osanwe-Kenta is a possibility raised in the following sentence which says that no ‘open’ word was ‘spoken’:

Of the Three Rings that the Elves had preserved unsullied no open word was ever spoken among the Wise,

I feel sure, now I have read Osanwe-Kenta, that there is a definite link between what it discusses and the Rings of Power. It seems to me to explain the powers contained within those rings, in particular, the powers within the Ruling Ring. In the passage below we see how the One Ring must be made powerful (in effect, how it must contain so much of Sauron’s strength that to destroy it is also to destroy Sauron), and also a purpose for his making it. In doing this, he hoped to be able to not only see into the thoughts of others, but also to control those thoughts, and to perceive truth from lies.

And much of the strength and will of Sauron passed into that One Ring; for the power of the Elven-rings was very great, and that which should govern them must be a thing of surpassing potency; and Sauron forged it in the Mountain of Fire in the Land of Shadow. And while he wore the One Ring he could perceive all the things that were done by means of the lesser rings, and he could see and govern the very thoughts of those that wore them.

That he was unable to control the thoughts of the Elves is due to their own innate abilities, and they ‘saw’ what he was attempting to do. While Men were not aware of what he would do, maybe because their power of thought was latent?

I wonder if anyone else agrees with what I've postulated here? What impressions did others who have read the Osanwe-Kenta get about the Rings of Power? And what do those who have not read it think of my idea?