r/lotr • u/Downtown_Pea_4771 • 9h ago
Books Curiosity about the ring.
Why is it when Frodo/Bilbo/Gollum put on the one ring they turn invisible, however, when Sauron originally wielded the ring he doesn’t become invisible?
Is it to do with their Race? (I personally doubt it)
I know Tom Bombadil is unaffected by the rings power and it doesn’t turn him invisible either.
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u/Lamb_or_Beast 9h ago edited 9h ago
There is a Seen world and an Unseen world. Some beings exist in both worlds, such as Maia (what Sauron is), but mortals like Men and Hobbits do not; when they put the ring on it ‘pulls’ them into the Unseen world (not literally a separate dimension or something, they’re still physically there and can interact with stuff). Sauron would still see them if he was around, the Nazgûl still see the wearer (like when Frodo tried to hide at Weather Top)
I don’t know if it is ever confirmed, but I suspect that Elves would also not disappear — or maybe only those that beheld the Light of Valinor
Edit: so actually yeah, you’re close with it being because of their race. The ring was NOT created in order to turn people invisible. That is really just a side-effect if worn by a mortal
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u/eternalraziel Samwise Gamgee 9h ago
Isildur is actually a good place to start, because he rules out the idea that invisibility is something peculiar to Hobbits. When his company is overwhelmed by Orcs at the Gladden Fields, he puts on the Ring and disappears from sight. He manages to escape the battlefield, but when the Ring slips from his finger while he's struggling across the Anduin, he's visible again. Orcs on the bank spot him and shoot him. So Men and Hobbits both experience the effect. What matters is the nature of the person wearing the Ring, and what the Ring is doing to them. Tolkien's world has both a Seen and an Unseen aspect, occupying the same reality. Mortals experience the physical world, but there are beings who exist in, or can perceive, the Unseen as well. When Frodo puts on the Ring at Weathertop, he suddenly sees the Black Riders as they actually appear on that other side. Their dark cloaks give way to pale faces, white robes and terrible figures bearing swords. And while the Ring has concealed Frodo from ordinary eyes, the Nazgûl can now perceive him much more readily. Gandalf later explains that wearing it had brought Frodo halfway into the wraith-world, where the Riders could see and seize him. Invisibility is the consequence of that change. His body hasn't disappeared from existence, and he can still touch things, walk around and be injured. He's become hidden from people whose sight is confined to the ordinary world while exposing himself to beings whose perception extends beyond it.
Sauron is a very different sort of being. He was never a mortal creature to begin with. He's one of the Maiar, an immortal spirit who existed before the physical world was made and who assumed a bodily form to act within it. His existence isn't confined to the material body that people see standing before them. The Unseen is already part of his natural existence, and he possesses spiritual powers that Frodo or Bilbo could scarcely begin to comprehend. Putting on the Ring doesn't have to draw him across a boundary that he can already perceive and act across. Furthermore, Sauron made the Ring himself, investing a considerable portion of his own native power into it. Its main purpose was to give him mastery over the other Rings of Power and, through them, the people wearing them. Making somebody invisible was one of the powers associated with his ring-making, but it was hardly the reason he spent centuries engineering the domination of Middle-earth. The Ring was made to extend and concentrate his authority, not to conceal him from the people he intended to rule.
By the time Frodo reaches the Ford of Bruinen, the Morgul wound is dragging him dangerously close to becoming a wraith himself, and he sees Glorfindel shining with a brilliance that isn't apparent to ordinary sight. Gandalf later explains that the great Elves who have dwelt in the Blessed Realm live simultaneously in the Seen and Unseen worlds. Frodo is starting to perceive something about Glorfindel that was always there. It gives you an idea of why a being's spiritual nature matters so much more here than whether they're a Hobbit, a Man or an Elf. It's also worth remembering that the Three Elven Rings didn't confer invisibility at all. Tolkien specifically differentiates them from the powers of concealment associated with Sauron's ring-making. The Nazgûl show what happens when that influence works upon mortal Men for far too long.
They started as living rulers who received the Nine Rings, and their lives were stretched unnaturally until they gradually faded from the visible world. Eventually they became permanently invisible to ordinary eyes, even without having to put their Rings on. Their cloaks give them an appearance that living people can recognise, but underneath those garments there's no visible human body. It's the same process Gandalf warns Frodo about when he explains what prolonged use of the One Ring would eventually do to him. Bilbo thinks he's acquired an extraordinarily convenient way of avoiding unwanted visitors. He has no idea that the convenience comes from repeatedly exposing himself to a world inhabited by creatures who would be thrilled to find him there.
Tom Bombadil is the exception we have to be more careful with, because Tolkien leaves his nature unexplained. When Tom puts on the Ring, he doesn't disappear. He plays with it, makes it vanish briefly as a trick, and then gives it back. Frodo is so suspicious that he puts it on himself to check that it's the genuine Ring, only to discover that Tom can still see him perfectly well. At the Council of Elrond, Gandalf explains that the Ring has no power over Tom, who remains his own master. But that doesn't establish that Tom is a Maia like Sauron, or that he inhabits the Unseen in the same way. We don't know what Tom is, and Tolkien never gives a definitive explanation for why the Ring can't affect him. His immunity is genuine, but it doesn't mean he could command the Ring, destroy it or prevent Sauron from using it against everyone else. Gandalf says as much.
The difference is ultimately rooted in what kind of being someone is and how they exist within Tolkien's world. A mortal like Frodo, Bilbo, Gollum or Isildur is drawn towards the Unseen when wearing the Ring. Sauron is already a spiritual being whose visible body doesn't define the limits of his existence, and the Ring is an instrument of his own power. Tom remains a mystery, although we know the Ring can't exert its influence upon him. For the Hobbits, invisibility initially seems like one of the Ring's few uncomplicated benefits. Yet the very thing that allows them to hide from people is gradually bringing them closer to the condition of the Ringwraiths. Every time Frodo disappears from the world he knows, he becomes that much easier for the servants of Sauron to find.
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u/Haldir_13 4h ago
It isn’t only a matter of racial makeup. The Ringwraiths are bodily invisible even without their rings and wear clothes to give themselves a discernible appearance. When Isildur, Bilbo and Frodo wear the Ring they are not obliged to strip naked in order to be fully invisible.
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u/kreynlan 9h ago
It actually does have to do with their race, and it's because it's not making them invisible. That's just a neat side effect.
Putting on the ring shifts you into the unseen realm aka spirit world. Mortals live in the physical world, so shifting makes you "disappear"
Sauron is a Maia. He already exists in both the physical and spiritual world. He's not shifting.