Seven Rings

Transcribed from:   Copy of Lost Lore: Abyss of Mordath

Seven Rings

Seven years... A mere seven years, and I heard the truth in Sauron's words. Gil-galad had left me to die, and Sauron in His kindness wrought for me a new form and granted me a place among His greatest servants. Seven years, and He was defeated... but He will return.

Long after Sauron's fall, the Lord of the Nazgûl decreed that it was His will to gather the Seven Rings to Mordor. Sindya and Taurya had been wrested from the unworthy fingers of Dwarf-kings in the East, but none in Mordor -- not even the Nazgûl -- dared to seek the Ring of Durin, Angya.

Four of the Seven remained lost and hidden in the Dwarf-kingdoms of Middle-earth, and so it was that the Lord of the Nazgûl ordered one of the Gúrzyul, the Weeping Warrior, to find them.

To the East, the Nazgûl had spied the Dwarf-kingdoms in possession of the Rings Tínya and Tulcya left in ruin, but they ventured no nearer for they sensed an ancient, terrible power lurking within each of the dwarves' broken halls.

Indeed, it was Dragons that had laid claim to Tínya and Tulcya. A fire-drake, Thostír the Rank, and a cold-drake, Hrímil Frost-heart, had destroyed the Dwarf-kingdoms of the eastern mountains, and knowingly or not, they swallowed the Rings of Power as well as the Dwarf-kings who wielded them.

As Sauron had willed it, the Rings could not be unmade by dragon-fire. Thostír and Hrímil were soon subdued, and the Weeping Warrior dragged them beyond the Lithannon into the deepest dungeons of the Mordath. Thus, Tínya and Tulcya were returned to Mordor.

With the Ring-drakes imprisoned, only Úrya and Vanya remained lost. The Lord of the Nazgûl soon revealed that a great Worm had survived the breaking of Thangorodrim. Desperate to escape the wrath of the Elves in the Elder Days, the Worm had sought shelter in the depths of the Ered Luin.

Long had the great Worm remained hidden in the Ered Luin, indeed long enough to be forgotten, but as the hoards of those wielding Úrya and Vanya grew, so too did his greed. Heedless of all peril, the Worm sacked the Dwarf-kingdoms and devoured the last of the Seven.

And so, the Lord of the Nazgûl granted the Weeping Warrior the Dwarf-ring, Sindya, to draw the Worm from the Ered Luin. Powerless to resist his greed, the great Worm followed the Weeping Warrior into the East. When at last the Worm tired in his pursuit, he fell broken before the Ephel Dúath.

Thus, the great Worm was cast into Glurnákh, the Pit of Greed. For countless years, the Weeping Warrior brought his greatest tortures upon each of the Ring-drakes, but none yielded the Rings. Neither death nor mercy shall be granted to them, not before they surrender the Rings of Power.

And thus it has been. The slaves of the Mordath mine the Ered Lithui, and stone by stone, Barad-dûr shall be rebuilt. When Sauron the Great at last returns, He shall know His servants did not forsake the Lord of the Rings!