BlueSky Is Much Better than Twitter: Ring Lore Edition

I think many more people should come over to BlueSky. I, at least, am having much more fun…

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‪Charlie Jane Anders: My latest newsletter <https://buttondown.com/charliejane/archive/why-are-toxic-superfans-such-a-nightmare-for/> is about the toxic so-called “superfans” who torment Hollywood. Why are they such a problem? Because they have the power to hurt movies and TV shows, but they have zero power to make anything successful. <https://bsky.app/profile/charliejane.bsky.social/post/3l5wsbwqdzd2s>

Brad DeLong: My take on toxic superfans is this:

There is absolutely no reason to believe that the Red Book of Westmarch is at all accurate about the Second Age.

Written in Rivendell under the thumb of Elrond, in the Shire where history scrolls were simply not available, and then edited in Gondor under the watchful eyes of the royal court, it is extremely unlikely that anything even slightly critical of the queen’s father (Elrond) and grandmother (Galadriel) would have ever made it into the book.

Thus The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is likely to have at least as accurate a take on what actually went down in the Second Age of Middle Earth as do the toxic superfans who take The Red Book of Westmarch to be inerrant gospel.

‪Charlie Jane Anders: I love this take so much! Also I’ve been very grateful to mostly escape the haters when it comes to Rings of Power. I’ve been enjoying it just as a fun fantasy show, on its own merits.

‪Annalee Newitz‬: Honestly tired of elf-funded disinformation being reported as news.

‪Tom Doyle‬: The layers of BS had gotten so thick that Gandalf had to play research librarian and find the original documents to figure out for certain which ring was Frodo’s.

Brad DeLong: You win! I mean, wearing one of the nine has pretty clear… effects on your physical and metaphysical form; the three are accounted for; of the seven… how certain is Gandalf that Sauron has three and that four were consumed by dragons?… pretty certain. And there were only twenty Great Rings to start with:

‘How long have you known all this?’ asked Frodo again.

‘Known?’ said Gandalf. ‘I have known much that only the Wise know, Frodo. But if you mean “known about this ring”, well, I still do not know, one might say. There is a last test to make. But I no longer doubt my guess.

‘When did I first begin to guess?’ he mused, searching back in memory. ‘Let me see—it was in the year that the White Council drove the Dark Power from Mirkwood, just before the Battle of Five Armies, that Bilbo found his ring. A shadow fell on my heart then, though I did not know yet what I feared.

I wondered often how Gollum came by a Great Ring, as plainly it was—that at least was clear from the first. Then I heard Bilbo’s strange story of how he had “won” it, and I could not believe it. When I at last got the truth out of him, I saw at once that he had been trying to put his claim to the ring beyond doubt. Much like Gollum with his “birthday-present”. The lies were too much alike for my comfort.

Clearly the ring had an unwholesome power that set to work on its keeper at once. That was the first real warning I had that all was not well. I told Bilbo often that such rings were better left unused; but he resented it, and soon got angry. There was little else that I could do. I could not take it from him without doing greater harm; and I had no right to do so anyway. I could only watch and wait.

I might perhaps have consulted Saruman the White, but something always held me back.’

‘Who is he?’ asked Frodo. ‘I have never heard of him before.’

‘Maybe not,’ answered Gandalf. ‘Hobbits are, or were, no concern of his. Yet he is great among the Wise. He is the chief of my order and the head of the Council. His knowledge is deep, but his pride has grown with it, and he takes ill any meddling. The lore of the Elven-rings, great and small, is his province. He has long studied it, seeking the lost secrets of their making; but when the Rings were debated in the Council, all that he would reveal to us of his ring-lore told against my fears. So my doubt slept—but uneasily. Still I watched and I waited. ‘And all seemed well with Bilbo. And the years passed. Yes, they passed, and they seemed not to touch him. He showed no signs of age…

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Tom Doyle: Yeah, is the implication that Celebrimbor or Sauron might’ve dashed out a few other Great Rings in the chaos that were unaccounted for in the ring poem and Gandalf’s math? The TV series shows the appropriate chaos and destruction of records. And Occam’s razor is a few thousand years in the future.

Brad DeLong: But it is very clear in the Lore—at least the official RBoW Lore—that there were only 20 great rings. There were other rings of lesser power. Instead of Círdan’s ring Narya—the Ring of Flame—you might have the ring Úvanima Ursu—the Ring of Uncomfortable Warmth. Or instead of Galadriel’s ring Nenya—the Ring of Water—you might have Linya Nimpa—The Ring of Slight Dampness.

‪Tom Doyle‬: Ha, I agree—doesn’t seem to be an easy way to retcon Gandalf’s delay in coming to the most likely conclusion. Unless this is part of how the One Ring protected itself—deflecting minds from seeing it for what it is when it didn’t want to be seen. Then Gandalf’s perception becomes extraordinary…

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