3. One Ring to Make a Plot

3. One Ring to Make a Plot

3.1 Interaction and the Ring

The Ring has been widely studied as a corruptive object in itself, linked to the nature of evil in The Lord of the Rings, mostly by Shippey in Author of the Century and by Dickerson in Following Gandalf. From a narrative viewpoint, another interesting question on the One Ring is its power to create alliances and how these linkages influence the plot. According to their personal interest in the Ring, there is a set of four main characters who interact between themselves as a consequence of the presence or possession of the Ring. First of all, we have Sauron, the Ring Maker, the former Lord of the Rings, who is, though no evil by nature (always according to Tolkien), the most likely character to incarnate evil, for he is a disciple of Morgoth, the first Fallen One. His degree of vinculation with the Ring is the maximum, for having it back would mean the continuity of pure evil in Middle-earth, and his ascend to the absolute mastery of the world; Sauron's will, as well as Morgoth's, is to control all that was created, all that was made: people, animals, mountains, flowers, rivers, and so on. The second character in the scale, high to low, is Saruman. A wise spirit, representative of the Valar, sent down to Middle-earth to help and instruct its creatures. His hunger for knowledge knew no limits, and his deep studies on Ring Lore turned him into the best scholar in that matters, and at the same time corrupted his mind with the idea that the wise deserved a place above all the rest of insignificant creatures of Middle-earth, a status reachable by amplifying knowledge with the power of the Ring. He once was the Head of the White Council, but his arrogance and pride wasted his nature and behaviour. Saruman is a fallen one, for he suffers the same transformation as Melkor the Valar:

From splendour he fell to arrogance to contempt for all things save himself, a spirit wasteful and pitiless. Understanding he turned to subtlety in perverting to his own will all that he would use, until he became a liar without shame.

Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 23

As long as the Shadow started growing again, for Sauron had started seeking his Ring again after losing it in battle against the last alliance of Elves and Men, the Wise gathered in the White Council, and Saruman, when appointed the head of it, started learning about the might of the Rings of Power, mostly the One Ring. Such was his interest that he recluded himself in Orthanc to find out whether to fight or serve Sauron, secretly contacting him through the Palantir (seeing stone) Finally both Sauron and Saruman discover how to benefit from each other without betraying their former personal plans (getting the One Ring). Sauron takes advantage on Saruman's knowledge and skills to confront his enemies in case he couldn't count on the One Ring or had to face those who kept it; in fact, he asks the wizard for 'an army worthy of Mordor'. And on the other hand, Saruman is backed up by Sauron's terrifying might. Saruman is sure he could defeat the Dark Lord, and prove a better one for his condition of wise Maia together with the power the Ring could grant him the chance to rule Mankind, the most easily corruptible race of Middle-earth who would worship him as a god on earth. Sauron's will is to become a god, too, but together with the fact that he already is a spirit of power, the incarnation of evil, his difference with Saruman is that he wants rule over EVERYTHING, like Morgoth once falsely claimed, as told in The Silmarillion:

When therefore Earth was yet young and full of flame, Melkor coveted it, and he said to the other Valar: 'This shall be my own kingdom; and I name it unto myself!'

Tolkien, The Silmarillion, 10

Another of the characters who suffers the perverting and in his case corrosive (both mental and phisically) effect of the Ring is of course Gollum/Sméagol. Formerly a hobbit (the proof given for is that he is familiar with riddles), the creature develops a double-personality to protect himself both phisically and morally: Gollum is the fierce creature protecting Sméagol, and Sméagol is the one providing righteousness if necessary (though in his case it is fake submission for he acts like a dog for Frodo on purpose) He is addicted to the Ring as far as it has become a part of him; it makes him suffer, but it liberates him from rules and punishment. So, his purpose on the Ring is not ruling the world, but living anarchically. By now here's no need to deepen into more details, as all the features on his personality are widely commented in part III of this essay. The important thing here is his attitude concerning the Ring: becoming his own Master.

In the case of Gollum, his binomial is originally a counterpart, though sometimes he is near to become his equal. Frodo Baggins is the ring-bearer, the hobbit on his way to the Cracks of Doom to destroy the Ruling Ring. He is aware that the creature Gollum is chasing him to get back the Ring, and also that he is the cause for all the mess (he brought the Ring back) He is warned by Gandalf not to kill him, and later they meet and that's where the interaction begins. Frodo wants to find the way to Mordor, so he asks Gollum for it. In return, the creature will walk untied together with them. So Frodo is making Gollum fulfill two roles: the role of guide and the role of deliverer of fate. But of course the creature has his own plans concerning his master: as long as he remains by Frodo's side, he's sure that his precious is safe, and what is more, that is near, so the only thing he has to do is prepare a plan to get it back with the lesser harm for him.

So at the highest point of the scale of vinculation and lust for the One Ring we would have Sauron, its former Master, for he wants it back or at least its survival. And at the lowest point there would be Frodo, who voluntarily appointed himself as the ring-bearer. These classification is interesting insofar it offers different narrative counterparts to those who had already been found based on direct antagonism. The incarnation of evil needed the incarnation of good as a counterpart, so for Sauron this role had been given to Gandalf. But in fact, following the logics of antagonism together with paying attention to Tolkien himself, the ideal counterpart for Gandalf would be Saruman, as both of them are Istari, one of them twisted and the other still faithful to the Valar. And Sauron's antagonist should be Aragorn, for in fact he is the actual alternative to the rule of Middle-earth: a human king instead of a tyrannous demon, monarchy instead of a dictatorship.