In the books and movies of The Lord of the Rings, it’s mainly about one thing: the Rings. Clearly, it’s already in the title. But which Rings are particularly powerful, and how do they compare against the One Ring of Sauron?
How was the ranking created? When it comes to the Rings of Middle-earth, there is really not much discussion. The total of 20 Rings of Power clearly differ from one another and can be divided into four categories.
A fifth is only briefly mentioned here: there are a number of weak magical Rings that, in comparison to the others, play no significant role.
Thus, the following list counts all the Rings of Power forged by the Elves and Sauron. They all share the fact that they were created from very resilient material and can only be destroyed by extreme heat in the fires of Mount Doom. Some weaker Rings can also be destroyed by the breath of a dragon.
Another difference is that all Rings, except for the One Ring, contain stones – just a detail on the side. The Rings in positions 4 and 3 differ only slightly in their actual power; here, it also matters who received them and how the respective people dealt with them. Accurate information is also scarce here, unlike the Rings in positions 2 and 1.
Place 4: The Nine Rings of Men
After Sauron brought the Rings of Power under his control, he began to distribute them to the peoples of Middle-earth – with the exception of the Elves, who already possessed three very powerful examples.
Sauron’s plan was to bring the other peoples under his control by influencing the Rings and thus their bearers. He gave a total of nine to men, more specifically to the kings of the southern and eastern lands. Sauron knew that men craved power and were weak in their greed.
Among those kings was the later Witch-king of Angmar. Although the Rings granted men long life and they could see things hidden from mortals, because of their weakness they eventually succumbed to Sauron’s power towards the end of the Second Age. The nine kings with their Rings became the Nazgûl, the Black Riders.
