Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age is the fifth and last part of The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien. It is relatively short, consisting of about 20 pages. Tolkien's first draft of this was written before June 1948 as he refers to it in a letter then.

The work is a fictional historical essay dealing with the preamble to the events described in Tolkien's epic novel The Lord of the Rings, and the events themselves, in the style of The Silmarillion. As the name implies, the events of the essay are focused around magical artefacts: the Rings of Power, and also the history of the Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth.

After Tolkien's death in 1973, his son Christopher completed this part, assisted by Guy Gavriel Kay. Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age bears some similarities to Elrond's narrative in The Fellowship of the Ring during the chapter "The Council of Elrond"; both do not divulge any details about how Arnor was destroyed and how Gondor became kingless.

Information on the background and development of this essay can be found in The Treason of Isengard.

In the First Age, the cunning and malevolent being Sauron had been the chief servant of the evil fallen Vala Melkor (later called Morgoth) and he was instrumental in Morgoth's many attempts to become ruler of Middle-earth. At the end of the First Age, the Valar (whose power governs the world) unite with Men and Elves to defeat Morgoth, who is captured and cast into the Void. But Sauron (along with other servants of Morgoth, including Balrogs and dragons) manages to escape his master's downfall. Those men who fought on the side of the Valar are allowed to live on the island of Númenor close to Aman where the Valar live, while Middle-earth itself is largely abandoned to Sauron and his minions at the beginning of the Second Age.

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