Who Is Actually Responsible For Forging The Rings of Power?
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With Amazon’s The Rings of Power right around the corner, now is the time to get familiar with some of the characters that you may not know as well. Many of these will have a large part to play in the story set in the Second Age of Middle Earth. So far, we have talked about Galadriel and Elrond, with more to come. But now, we need to talk about Celebrimbor.
Who Is Celebrimbor?
Out of all of Tolkien’s characters, the elf Celebrimbor is probably one of the most important. Yet, Tolkien did not write very much about him like he did some of the other famous and important characters in lore, such as Galadriel or Elrond. But, Celebrimbor is extremely vital to the story of Middle-earth. He is the craftsman that made the rings of power.
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Celebrimbor is a Ñoldorin prince (the Ñoldor being one of the elvish bloodlines). Fëanor was his grandfather and is the famous artisan of the three Silmarils. The Silmaril gems were why the War of the Jewels was fought between Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, and the Elves of Beleriand. It was a dark time, and most of Beleriand was destroyed, except for the area of Lindon, which is where Elrond lived for a time. Celebrimbor fought in many of the battles for the Silmarils, and while many of his kin left Middle-earth, he settled in Eregion, which, in The Lord of the Rings, is known as the area of Hollin near the Dwarven city of Khazad-dûm. He will remain here in this region during the Second Age.
Charles Edwards, who plays Celebrimbor in The Rings of Power said this about his character:
“He’s the Lord of Eregion and being a lord is something akin to royalty…He’s actively trying to turn Eregion into a place of excellence. And he is working with the Dwarves towards that end to try and capitalize on their talents and their creativity.”
While most of us know the rivalry between Elves and Dwarves in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien did explain in his writings that at the time of the Second Age, the two races actually did have good relations.
“In our story, Celebrimbor encourages and assists Elrond to visit Khazad-dûm and to court the Dwarves. He may have an ulterior motive for that, but Celebrimbor is very much in support of working together … neither race would have produced the wonders that they had, that they created, without the aid of the other. So clearly, we’re in a time of peace, certainly in terms of working relationship, and [Celebrimbor] has a great respect for them. And Dwarves have a reputation as being fanatical workers, and jewelers and crafters, and Celebrimbor very much respects that.”
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In the Second Age, there are whispers and rumors of an evil growing. Many of the peoples of Middle-earth try to ignore the signs, still wanting to live in peace after the tumultuous First Age with Morgoth. But some still believe that the peace they have now is very threatened. And they are correct. Sauron, Morgoth’s servant has been plotting to take over Middle-earth for himself. He decides to disguise himself as Annatar, Lord of Gifts, and go to the elves to try to win them over. He first goes to Lindon to Gil-galad and Elrond, but they turn him away, suspecting that he is not who he says he is. So, Sauron goes to Eregion. Believing that everything is all right, Celebrimbor welcomes him in.
Taking advantage of the artisan craft works of Celebrimbor and the Dwarves, Sauron (Annatar) manipulates them to create the rings of power. They successfully make 16 of the 19 rings. Celebrimbor, not trusting Annatar at this point, decides to forge three rings for the Elves himself. However, because he uses the craft taught by Annatar, the three rings were still tied to the One Ring, although Celebrimbor is unaware of this.
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As we all know, Sauron then forges the One Ring in secret in the fires of Mount Doom. He successfully becomes the lord of the rings, able to manipulate the other rings and their bearers. Of course, at this point, Celebrimbor and the others realize that they have been deceived. They withhold the other rings from Sauron.
The three Elven rings were special in that Sauron never touched them since Celebrimbor forged them himself. So, while they could still answer the One Ring, they were not corrupted like the others, making them more powerful. These rings were named Vilya, Narya, and Nenya, which mean air, fire, and water. Celebrimbor hid the rings by sending them away. Two went to Gil-galad in Lindon (eventually ending up with Elrond and Gandalf) and one to Galadriel in Lórien (Nenya, which we saw in The Lord of the Rings). Celebrimbor also sent the greatest of the seven dwarven rings to Durin III of Khazad-dûm (the Ring of Thrór, which we saw in The Hobbit).
In Tolkien’s writings, he never wrote much about Celebrimbor, which means that Charles Edwards had a lot to figure out about the character himself as the series was shaped. It was challenging, but Edwards enjoyed it:
“He’s cautious, he can be quite gullible. He’s vain. He’s a brilliant craftsman. And he’s very meticulous. He can be a bit of a user. But he can also be used. He’s proud. He prefers seclusion; he’s not a people person. He is not terribly socially interested. He can be quite blunt. He’s very ambitious. Colossally ambitious…he invented the name ‘mithril’ for precious metal mined by the Dwarves.
He’s searching; he wants something which is as yet unknowable. We find him in quite a confused place. But this rocks his belief in himself and makes him vulnerable, and vulnerable to predators. He’s become very single-minded about wanting to conquer, creatively, and to come up with something that’s going to be the be-all and end-all.”
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Celebrimbor has a sad end to his hopeful and ambitious life. In retaliation for the hiding of the rings, Sauron attacks Eregion and ends up capturing and torturing Celebrimbor. Sauron forced Celebrimbor to disclose the location of the lesser rings of power. When he would not reveal where the three Elven rings were, he was killed with arrows and hung on a pole like a banner when Sauron attacked the Grey Havens.
Tolkien had always portrayed Celebrimbor as selfless and kind. He loved what he created, but unlike Fëanor, he wasn’t covetous of them. In Unfinished Tales, Tolkien describes him as having an “almost Dwarvish obsession with crafts.” In the end, despite being manipulated by Sauron to unwittingly create the rings of power, he tried to right his mistake by protecting his kinsman and being a heroic defender of Eregion.
Hopefully, we will get to see Celebrimbor’s story in detail in The Rings of Power which premieres on Amazon Prime Video on September 2.
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Source(s): Fandom, One Wiki to Rule Them All
