"The Ring is trying to get back to its master!"-J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, (Tr)

American Minute ^ | February 19, 2019 | Bill Federer

[Perseverando]

Time for another great American (and world) history lesson from American Minute.

[Hebrews 11:6]

There is and will be, thankfully, only one King of Kings.

[MuttTheHoople]

Samwise was the true hero of the Lord of the Rings. Only he was immune to the lure of the Ring.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Although Tolkien disliked allegory “in all its manifestations”, there are clearly parallels in history between the ring and the pursuit of power. Gandalf said “The very desire of it corrupts the heart”. “There is only one Lord of the Ring, only one who can bend it to his will. And he does not share power”. The nature of Sauron’s evil was that he was completely consumed with the desire for power, to control others. Other than that, does anyone know what the ring actually did besides turn someone invisible?

[Bommer]

Looks like someone is eating the magic mushrooms, Frodo to Washington.

[wastedyears]

I haven’t read the novels, but in the movie, Sam hesitated to give the ring back.

[Telepathic Intruder]

It was in the book too. A brief moment when Sam wanted to keep the ring.

[bagster]

Other than that, does anyone know what the ring actually did besides turn someone invisible?

In it's forging, Sauron vested a large amount (if not most) of his power in it. It gave it's possessor that power and dominion over the possessors of the other rings of power (men, elves, and dwarves. Dwarves resisted, their love of treasure too strong to overcome). The three rings of the Elves most notably, possessed by Mithrandir (formerly Cirdan), Galadriel, and Elrond.

And this is why Sauron fell when the ring was destroyed.

"...one ring to rule them all and in the darkness bind them."

Sauron served the true master, Morgoth (metaphor for Satan), so Sauron is a metaphor for earthly 'controllers' like Soros and others.

Tolkien was a huge Christian.

[RedMonqey]

"A government powerful to give you everything you desire"
"Is a government powerful enough to take everything you got"

[grey_whiskers]

Thanks for pinging me, @bagster.

At my first coming into the world I had been (implicitly) warned never to trust a Papist, and at my first coming into the English Faculty (explicitly) never to trust a philologist. Tolkien was both."

-- C.S. Lewis in Surprised By Joy

[RedMonqey]

"Samwise was the true hero of the Lord of the Rings. Only he was immune to the lure of the Ring.”

Nope. Hobbits were very resistant to the effects of the Ring but even Bilbo, Frodo and eventually Samwise would have fallen under the evil spell of the Ring. only Tom Bombadil was completely immune to the evil of the Ring. His only fault was he would become bored with it and lose it. Losing it would only insure it would eventually make it back to it's Master.

[bagster]

And yet they were great life-long friends.

Figure that.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Tolkien was a huge Christian.

As you may also know, it was Tolkien whom God used to lead CS Lewis to faith.

[bluejean]

“does anyone know what the ring actually did besides turn someone invisible?”

It also opened the wearer’s eyes to spiritual entities, such as the true form of the Ringwraiths. Frodo could see unseen things, and Sauron could see Frodo, like a spiritual GPS. It was a path to great power, and acted like a drug on whoever had it - Gollum had become a netherworld creature over the years he had looked after it.

I haven’t read the books for several years, but that’s what I remember.

[Gasshog]

The three rings of the Elves apparently had the power to cause Lothlorien and Rivendale to be enveloped in a timeless state immune to decay and mortal corruption so those Elves could dwell in Middle Earth in a glorious state similar to the Undying Lands of the West where the Noldor dwelled with the Valar.

This is why after the destruction of the One most Elves packed it in and left Middle Earth, the power of the Three ebbed with the passing of the One and their sanctuary dwellings became subject to natural forces.

[Rockingham]

Why go the long way around? Madison's Notes and the Federalist Papers directly explain the reasoning of the Framers of the Constitution for the system of separation of powers and checks and balances they established. And there is no chance whatever that Tolkein's Lord of the Rings was intended as an allegory based on the American Constitution.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

The only one who was truly immune to the ring was Tom Bombadil.

Tom did not appear in the movies.

[kalee]

For later

[kearnyirish2]

While it was misrepresented in the movie, Faramir (as a descendant of those men who were akin to Elves, like Aragorn) didn’t waver in seeing the ring as a threat to be destroyed. The movie portrays him as only slightly better than his brother Boromir (and I don’t know why).

[kearnyirish2]

Both Aragorn and Faramir resisted the power of the ring, and it had a significant impact; both could have taken it, but neither did - in fact, they both helped Frodo on his path to destroying it (though the movie twists this in the case of Faramir).