Who Knew About Frodo’s Ring?

[Alcuin]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

I doubt Gandalf told anyone before he was absolutely sure. It became obvious that finding out the exact provinance of Bilbo's Ring was difficult enough as it took Gandalf about a lifetime. Clearly even the Wise knew little of the Rings of Power apart from their own.

I’ve continued to think about this, and about what Gandalf told Frodo in “Shadow of the Past�, the conversation Sam overheard through the window.

“In Eregion long ago many Elven-rings were made, magic rings as you call them, and they were, of course, of various kinds: some more potent and some less. The lesser rings were only essays in the craft before it was full-grown, and to the Elven-smiths they were but trifles – yet still to my mind dangerous for mortals.�

So Bilbo has a magic ring that makes him invisible. Hmm. Well, the Noldor of Hollin made “many Elven-rings … of various kinds: some more potent and some less.� I suppose that must include rings that could make the wearer invisible. No doubt they were never in general circulation, and after 4600 years had become even scarcer; but Elven-rings probably had a lasting quality. It would seem from Gandalf’s remarks that maybe Bilbo’s was not the first Elven-ring he had encountered among mortals, at least not the only one he’d heard of.

Bilbo tells the Dwarves about his ring, and he tells Gandalf, though at first he tells neither of them the truth about how he got it. Gandalf “at last got the truth out of him,� and “saw at once that he had been trying to put his claim to the ring beyond doubt. Much like Gollum with his ‘birthday present’.� We don’t know how long that took, but it probably happened on the way Lake-town back to Bag End. After that, Gandalf accompanied Bilbo right to his front door!

“[Bilbo and Gandalf] crossed the bridge and passed the mill by the river and came right back to Bilbo’s own door.�

There is no mention of whether Gandalf stayed to enjoy the festivities as Bilbo interrupted the estate auction underway by Messrs. Grubb, Grubb, and Burrowes.

In “Who Knew about Bilbo’s Ring?�, I asked, “How did Gandalf know it was a Great Ring … from the first? He doesn’t say.� Well I was wrong: he does say:

“Clearly the ring had an unwholesome power that set to work on its keeper at once. ... [T]he years passed..., and they seemed not to touch him. He showed no signs of age. ... [T]hat night when he left this house[, h]e said and did things then that filled me with a fear that no words of Saruman could allay. I knew at last that something dark and deadly was at work. And I have spent most of the years since then in finding out the truth of it.�

Does it make sense that Gandalf assumed Bilbo’s ring was one of the many lesser Elven-rings, and that he was convinced that it was a Great Ring by Bilbo’s uncharacteristic lying about how he found it and his interactions with Gollum (which make much more sense that Gollum’s gift of a “present�), his failure to age, and his unwonted hostile reaction toward Gandalf following the Long-Awaited Party.

After all, assuming that Bilbo possessed – and was nearly possessed by – Sauron’s long-lost Ruling Ring does seem quite the conceit, even for a wizard. That should be obvious, I guess: Maybe I’ve become inured to some of the wonder of the story.