The Lord of the Rings is now an audiobook! To listen on Storytel: story.tel/baris-ozcan-LOTR (collaboration)
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The Lord of the Rings is one of the most read works of all time.
According to some, it is the most beautiful story ever told.
And at the center of this story is a ring. So what is this ring?
Why is it so important?
If I wanted to explain the ring to someone who had never read this novel or watched the movies, where would I begin?
Oh yes!
From the cover of the book, of course.
as a finesse of the Turkish language, the very first word in the translation of the book is Ring-s!
So we're talking about not one, but multiple rings then.
Yes, we do.
When we open the cover of the book, first of all, we encounter the mathematics of rings.
Or rather, a poem about rings...
Actually poetry and mathematics are not that far from each other, but anyway.
These sentences are so important that they are written even before the novel begins; before The sections such as the publisher's note, introduction and the preface.
In fact, in the original English edition we start the story with this poem and ring mathematics even before the table of contents
In the first half of these two intertwined poems, we are given some numbers.
Three rings for elves, seven for dwarves, nine for men, and one for the dark lord:
3 + 7 + 9 + 1 = 20 rings are being mentioned.
In the second half of the poem, the last ring is distinguished from the others and it is said that it is the one ring that will rule them all.
1 ring against 19 rings.
Some nice math about a geometric shape like a ring.
So who is the master?
This is described in the second part of the poem.
The Dark Lord sitting on his dark throne.
Lord Sauron.
That one Ring was forged by the Dark Lord Sauron in the Second Age to establish dominion over the free peoples of Middle-earth.
Sauron intended it to be the most powerful of all the Rings, to rule and control those who wore the others.
Since the other Rings were powerful in their own right, Sauron had to invest much of his own power in that One to achieve his goal.
Creating such a ring both strengthened and weakened Sauron at the same time.
We can explain this like this.
With that one Ring he was able to control the power of all the other Rings, and thus after its creation he had become significantly more powerful than before; but by binding his power to the Ring, Sauron also became dependent on it.
This place is very important.
In fact, it is so important that Tolkien, the author of the work, says that The Lord of the Rings is a study on "the placement of power in external objects."
So how does he do this review?
By interacting the ring with different characters.
There are 982 different characters in these books.
Men, elves, hobbits, dwarves, orcs…
Not just Bilbo or Frodo; from the modest gardener Sam to the powerful ruler Galadriel; from the proud warrior Boromir to the poor Ring-addicted creature Gollum. Many different characters interact with that One Ring.
with power!
Yes, this extremely simple geometric shape tests our attitude towards power.
I felt this in my bones during my recent total solar eclipse experience.
The Moon, which is exactly 400 times smaller than the Sun, passed directly in front of it, 400 times away from it.
It turned day into night.
A dark shape stood in front of the light for a while and revealed the shape of a complete ring.
That's why scientists call this natural phenomenon the "ring effect".
We now know exactly when such natural events will occur.
we can control our own behavior Accordingly,.
But it wasn't like this in the past.
The Chinese who saw this event thousands of years ago thought that a dragon had swallowed the Sun.
So don't be surprised by the dragons in this book.
The Incas, who saw the same incident in South America, thought that the Sun they worshiped was angry and fled to underground shelters.
So don't be surprised by the angry dwarves in this book.
If you look hard enough, you can see its power and influence everywhere.
So the thing that we call a ring, gives such power to the person who carries it.
This geometric shape symbolizes the conflict between that power and the moral behavior of the person who holds it.