With the Oscar hype reaching new levels as of late, its’ easy to forget about this week’s Hall of Fire, but the topic for this weekend is a good one: the Nature of the Ring of Power. The One Ring which Frodo brings from the Shire to Mordor, that thousands of men and elves have died for ever since Sauron forged it in secret.
Despite the well documented forging of the One Ring in the Silmarillion, it’s appearance in The Hobbit and it’s pivotal role in the Lord of the Rings, the nature of the One Ring itself has often been a mystery. Though it is said that a lot of Sauron’s power went into it as it was forged, it is often described more as having a life of its own rather than being an inanimate object, with it ‘betraying’ many of its owners throughout the years. Peter Jackson deliberately portrayed the ring like this in the Fellowship of the Ring, even giving it a voice of its own.
And also the powers that the One Ring grants seem to vary from one owner to another. The ring also seems to have the ability to corrupt even the strongest of wills with delussions of grandure, from Galadriel to Gandalf. Only Boromir is foolish enough to not respect the ring’s potency to corrupt and pollute. And even then, was he so ignorant in not fearing a simple ring? Perhaps Boromir was amazed at the amount of respect being afforded to ‘such a small thing’.
Does the One Ring reflect an intricate flaw in the moral fibre of human beings? Does it reflect all the bad things about our character..greedy, hate and desire? You can discuss all of this and more as we discuss this great topic this weekend!
Upcoming Discussions
Mar 30 & 31: FotR and the Oscars
Apr 06 & 07: TTT – The Riders of Rohan
Apr 13 & 14: LotR, Stereotypes & Racial Class
Apr 20 & 21: The Two Towers – The Motion Picture
Apr 20 & 21: Literary Merits of LotR
Place:
#thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to theonering.net’s chat room Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire .
Saturday Chat: 5:30 pm ET (17:30) [also 11:30 pm (23:30) CET and 7:30 am Sunday (07:30) AET]
Sunday Chat: 7:00 pm (19:00) CET [also 1:00 pm (13:00) ET and 4:00 am (04:00) Monday morning AET]
ET = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast
CET = Central European Time, Central Europe
Questions? Topics? Send ‘em here.
