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“Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone” as the poem goes. Most of the attention in the literature and the show has gone to the Elven rings and the One Ring, but given that the show is called Rings of Power viewers can expect to see a few more in season two. Until then, here are some fun facts about the Seven Rings of the Dwarf-lords.
1 Made By Annatar
Sauron appeared to the Elves in the guise of a servant of the Valar called Annatar, part of his long-term plan to trick them into helping him make the rings. It wasn’t exactly a lie, because Sauron was of the Maiar, but as he did with Galadriel in the show, he only revealed half of the story.
Annatar appeared in Eregion at a time when Sauron was thought to be either dead or missing, and other Maiar were already abroad in Middle-earth so his story wasn’t unusual. The Five Wizards had already arrived in Middle-earth by this time in some form and the Queen of Doriath, one of the most prestigious of the Elven kingdoms of the First and Second Age, was also a Maia.
2 Given By Celembribor
Sauron might have made them, but he had help. Celembribor was the greatest Elven smith of his time and never trusted Annatar, but he was ordered by the High King to help him and he did so. It was partly because of these doubts that he made the Three in secret, but that’s a detail from the lore that’s been turned around in the series.
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The seven rings weren’t just made by him, in cooperation with Annatar and the Elven smiths, but they were personally delivered by Celembribor who had a close relationship with the Dwarves. Book readers might feel that the characters of Celembribor and Elrond should switch places in the show because the latter was such an admirer of Dwarven craft and culture.
3 There Are Seven Dwarf Tribes
Sauron didn’t give the rings to seven randomly chosen lords, leaders, or kings of the Dwarves. There are seven distinct groups of Dwarves, and some are more powerful and popular than others. The ones everyone has heard of are the Longbeards, also known as Durin’s folk because the famous Dwarves from Tolkien’s tales are often members of this family.
Thorin Oakenshield and Gimli are two examples, and one of the last known locations of the ring given to Durin’s Folk was on the hand of Thorin’s father, Thrain II. The other six rings were given to the leaders of the other Dwarven clans, and these were the Firebeards, Broadbeams, Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks, and Stonefoots. In Tolkien’s lore, Sauron was able to recover three of these, one being the ring of Thorin’s father.
4 The Dwarves Could Resist Some Of The Rings Effects…
The Dwarves were made by the Maia Aule, separate from the Elves and the races of Men, which is why they didn’t have the same effects on the Dwarves as on other races. This was a miscalculation on Sauron’s part, and it must have disappointed him when he put on the One Ring and found that he couldn’t bend the will of the Dwarves.
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Not only could Sauron not use the power of the One Ring on the dwarves, but it didn’t turn them into slaves or ringwraiths, either. It’s true that all of the rings seemed beneficial at first, turning against their owners later on, and the same turned out to be true about the Seven Rings of the Dwarf-lords.
5 …But Not All Of Them
The Seven Rings did have powers, however, just different ones, and they were more of a slow burn that was just as dangerous as turning into a wraith. The power of the rings is what helped the Dwarven lords amass an incredible amount of wealth. These were famous in their own right and were known in legends as the Seven Hoards of the Dwarf-kings.
Where there’s a hoard, however, there’s going to be a dragon. Not only did the wealth of the Dwarf-lords attract the malicious beasts, but also affected their judgment when it came to the welfare of their people. The threat of poverty, not the welfare of his people, is what drove King Thror to seek out the Mines of Moria again.
6 The Search For The One Ring
Like most of the other rings, the most notable being the One Ring to Rule Them All, some of the Dwarf rings were unaccounted for and Sauron wasn’t the only one looking. When Gandalf first came to know about Bilbo’s ring, he thought it was one of the lost rings of the Dwarf-lords, or any number of other, lesser magic rings, which is why he was content to let Bilbo keep it at first.
Bilbo found the Ring in the Lonely Mountain, and even though by then it was common knowledge that old Thror had ventured back into Moria, he was presumed dead. When Gandalf found him years later, alive in the dungeons of Sauron but senseless, he was able to confirm that the ring Bilbo had was not one of the Dwarf rings but possibly the One Ring of Sauron.
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