Three Rings for the Elven Kings

  Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
  Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
  Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
  One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
  In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
  One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
  One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
  In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

Commentary

This week, I’ll be running a series of poems by fantasy authors

This is undoubtedly the most famous piece of Tolkien’s verse, known (or at least familiar) to many who have never read the books, and memorized by practically everyone who has. If I had to describe the poem in one word, it would be ‘compelling’ - the perfectly measured syllables, the ominous, brooding atmosphere, the sonorous, chantlike effect, almost lure the reader into ascribing an intrinsic power to the words themselves.

The quote below illustrates the point beautifully

  " Ash nazg durbatulúk, ash nazg gimbatul,
  ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul."

The change in the wizard’s voice was astounding. Suddenly it became menacing, powerful, harsh as stone. A shadow seemed to pass over the high sun, and the porch for a moment grew dark. All trembled, and the Elves stopped their ears. “Never before has any voice dared to utter the words of that tongue in Imladris, Gandalf the Grey,” said Elrond, as the shadow passed and the company breathed once more. “And let us hope that none will ever speak it here again,” answered Gandalf.

- JRRT

Notes

Like much of the poetry in the Lord of the Rings, ‘Three Rings…’ refers not to the book itself, but to the deeper body of history and mythology underlying it. It outlines the creation of the Rings of Power, in whose history tLotR is but the final chapter, and more about which can be found in the Silmarillion.

For a picture of the One Ring, and the inscribed couplet, see

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond/rings/images/ring_image.jpg

For a nice page on the Rings of Power, see

http://www.daimi.au.dk/~bouvin/tolkien/ringsofpower.html

The following is an excerpt from a Tolkien Linguistics site:

Our sole example of pure Black Speech, then, is the inscription on the Ring: Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them.” (LotR1/II ch. 2) Nazg is “ring”, also seen in Nazgûl “Ring-wraith(s)”. Ash is the number “one”, agh is the conjuction “and”, disturbingly similar to Scandinavian og, och. Burzum is “darkness”, evidently incorporating the same element búrz, burz- “dark” as in Lugbúrz “Tower-dark”, the Black Speech name that Sindarin Barad-dûr translates. Hence, the -um of burzum must be an abstract suffix like the “-ness” of the corresponding English word “darkness”. Burzum has a suffix ishi “in”. In the transcription it is separated from burzum by a hyphen, but there is nothing corresponding in the Tengwar inscription on the Ring, so this may be considered either a postposition or a locative ending. (It is remarkably similar to Quenya -ssë and may support the theory advanced by Robert Foster in his Complete Guide to Middle-earth, that the Black Speech was to some extent based on Quenya and a perversion of it. The element burz- “dark” is also vaguely similar to the Elvish stem for “black”, MOR.) Though burzum-ishi is translated “in the darkness”, there does not seem to be anything corresponding to the article “the”, unless it is somehow incorporated in ishi. But the evidence is that the Black Speech does not mark the distinction between definite and indefinite nouns; see below.

– http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/orkish.htm

For more on Tolkien, see the previous poems in the archive at

And finally, a very tangential aside - if, like me, you enjoy Tolkien for the sheer poetry of his language, you might enjoy Patricia McKillip too. Her plots lack gripping power, IMO, but her language is truly beautiful.

— Martin

The Wondering Minstrels, poem #257 · 9 November 1999

Poem selected by Martin DeMello

Fair use

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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.

Martin DeMello · 22 November 1999

[broken link] http://zaphod.uchicago.edu/~wald/lit/ring.txt

No comment!

Wenche Garnvik · 13 March 2003

One poem to rule them all!!

Wenche Garnvik · 13 March 2003

One poem to rule them all!

Delanie Wallace · 23 June 2003

I think it is a great poem but how do you say the rest of the poem in elven?~Derek

Alexandre Brooks · 20 January 2004

I would like to know if this poem stands alone or if there is a part before and/or after it in tolkien’s books, for i can’t find it any more in any book :/

Alex

PS:please mail answer !!!

Foersterling Martin (EXTERN AUEL) · 2 December 2004

Bah, sorry for the format fauxpas above. Here the text in a legible form:

I reckon you won’t believe me when I say that the German translation beats the English original, hm? ;) At least in the most important lines 6 and 7, in my humble opinion. Where the original sounds a tad awkward due to the unnatural grammar (“and in the darkness bind them” would be “and to bind them in the darkness”), the translation flows like natural speech, which should be the aim of poetry: to sound poetic while not sounding unnatural (unless you want to utilize that for some effect). Alas, the translation does not convey the ambiguity of “lie” in “where the shadows lie” and changed the rhyme. Another point where the translation beats the original is in the first line: Tolkien chose “under the sky” merely for rhyming reasons, while in German, the elven kings are “high in the light”, which refers to their enlightenment due to them living in the glorious light and splendour of the gods.

Here it is, for reference.

Drei Ringe den Elbenkönigen hoch im Licht,
Sieben den Zwergenherrschern in ihren Hallen aus Stein, Den Sterblichen, ewig dem Tode verfallen, neun, Einer dem Dunklen Herrn auf dunklem Thron Im Lande Mordor, wo die Schatten drohn.
Ein Ring, sie zu knechten, sie alle zu finden, Ins Dunkel zu treiben und ewig zu binden
Im Lande Mordor, wo die Schatten drohn.

Martin.

Foersterling Martin (EXTERN AUEL) · 2 December 2004

Here it is, for reference.

Martin.

Raitt Jeb B CONT (NALC SSG) · 3 January 2005

This just sprang to my mind on reading the Poem on the Ring:

One Ring for the Hobbit to carry abroad,
One Ring to burden his journey afield,
One Ring to tempt his heart so broad,
One whose temptation well nigh made him yield. Praise to the little being with the great heart! Praise to the Fellowship aiding his path!
Praise to the courage and magic and art
That freed Middle-Earth from the Dark Lord’s wrath.

~Jeb Raitt, 4Jan05

Julie Reilly · 9 July 2005

it is a great peom, and it isn’t in elvish.