because humans are not the products of their own making but the offspring of the Divine, the
Children of Illuvatar.
Thus, whether we are talking of Elves or of Men, the capacity for corruption, for pride
and envy and all the remaining vices is present at the beginning. As Elves age, they grow into
wisdom and gain somewhat the power to see their sins coming (as Galadriel demonstrates). But
the cost of this age is a weariness with the world that prevents this wisdom coming to any fruit.
The passionate Noldor of the First Age are the benevolent-but-scattered Elves of the Third Age,
who cannot rebuild their great kingdoms of yore. It falls to men - sickly, corruptible, dying men -
to restore Lost Realms. Either way, there is a terrible cost to living in Middle Earth, and
contending with the shadow. This struggle mirrors the long history of the Jews of the Old
Testament, and their persistent failure to meet God's demands. No one - other than Melkor - is
quite a perfect analogue to a biblical character, but there is something of Solomon or Rehoboam
in Feanor, something of Job in Hurin, and a semblance of Samson to his son Turin Turambar.
More to the point, the broad pattern of hubris and collapse and lamentation that makes up
the Hebrew Scriptures finds an echo here. It's perhaps simplistic to say that the Davidic Kingdom
equates to Numenor, the northern Kingdom of the Ten Tribes to Arnor, and the Southern
Kingdom of Judah to Gondor, but it matches up too well to ignore it. Men (and Elves, and
Dwarves) are weak and full of error, so the wicked angelic being destroys their work and fills
their lives with sorrow and death. Feanor was the greatest of Elves, a king and a craftsman, and
his lust to retrieve his work from Morgoth's grasp not only causes him to kill other elves, but
leaves him dead, and lays a curse (in the form of an Oath) that warps the souls of his sons, and
wrecks the realms they and other Elves build in the land of Beleriand. Ar-Pharazon the Golden,
mighty King of Numenor, forces Sauron to submit to him without battle, but is corrupted by him,
and provoking divine wrath, brings about the utter destruction of his land. And so it goes with
every mighty hero, from Isildur to Earnur, each of them trapped by evil, and why?
Because they cannot undo the evil in their own hearts. They all crave to be master of the
World enough so that the darkness finds a place in them. And this is where the Rings come in.
Three rings for Elven-Kings under the sky
Seven for 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.
There is a host of lore attached to the Three Rings of the Elves, which have names and
known bearers. As the Three were made by Elves, for Elves, they resisted Sauron's attempt to