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Numbers, rings and other Lord of the Rings references


Alyn Oakenfist

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So I was thinking about the little ring poem from LOTR, when something struck me:

3 rings for the slave cities

7 rings for the Westerosi kingdoms

9 rings for the free cities

and one master ring for the Iron Throne

Now obviously that is far from the only LOTR reference in the story, so I was curious, what other LOTR references do you know?

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Nice, I always have fun messing with that one too.  

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Three Eggs for the Valyrian-kings under the sky,  
Seven for the Ibbenese-lords in their halls of stone,  
Nine for Dawn Men doomed to die,  
One for the Kraken Lord on his dark throne  

In the Land of Shadow where the Nightingales lie  
One tree to rule them all, one tree to find them,  
One tree to bring them all and in the darkness bind them  
In the Land of Shadow where the Nightingales lie.  

My favorite would have to be that the 14 Flames and Doom may parallel the 14 Thrones of the Valar and the Ring of Doom in the Undying Lands. 

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1 hour ago, Narsil4 said:

4 Flames and Doom may parallel the 14 Thrones of the Valar and the Ring of Doom in the Undying Lands. 

Oh, that's a nice one.

1 hour ago, Narsil4 said:

Nice, I always have fun messing with that one too.  

Quote

Three Eggs for the Valyrian-kings under the sky,  
Seven for the Ibbenese-lords in their halls of stone,  
Nine for Dawn Men doomed to die,  
One for the Kraken Lord on his dark throne  

In the Land of Shadow where the Nightingales lie  
One tree to rule them all, one tree to find them,  
One tree to bring them all and in the darkness bind them  
In the Land of Shadow where the Nightingales lie.  

To be fair the cities/kingdoms/thrones approach fits a little better in my opinion as power in the story has some clear similarities with the Rings of Power. You may only take it to do good, but eventually even if you have the best intentions at heart you're still going to inflict a lot of suffering. 

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1 hour ago, Alyn Oakenfist said:

You may only take it to do good, but eventually even if you have the best intentions at heart you're still going to inflict a lot of suffering. 

I just think the same could be said for the eggs/dragons.   

Perhaps rings could also be exchanged for gods.  

Quote

Three Gods for the Valyrian-kings under the sky,  
Seven for the Ibbenese-lords in their halls of stone,  
Nine for Dawn Men doomed to die,  
One for the Kraken Lord on his dark throne  

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7 hours ago, Narsil4 said:

Three Gods for the Valyrian-kings under the sky

We don't actually know how many gods they worshiped

7 hours ago, Narsil4 said:

Seven for the Ibbenese-lords in their halls of stone,  
Nine for Dawn Men doomed to die,

Perhaps you might wanna reverse that

Like the numbers 3 and 7 are the most common in fantasy, however the part with 9 rings for mortal men/free cities is considerably rarer.

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1 hour ago, Alyn Oakenfist said:

We don't actually know how many gods they worshiped

Balerion/Vhagar/Meraxes?  

1 hour ago, Alyn Oakenfist said:

Perhaps you might wanna reverse that

The Ibbenese essentially seem to be Dwarves.   
With Hugor of the Hill being quite similar to Durin.   
And their axes.. ;)  

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As he argues, next to the carvings of sevenpointed stars, carvings of a doublebladed axe appeared to have been the next most favored symbol of the holy warriors who conquered the old Seven Kingdoms.

I'm thinking that the GEotD might fit as the Nine. 

God-on-Earth
Pearl Emperor
Jade Emperor
Tourmaline Emperor
Onyx Emperor
Topaz Emperor
Opal Emperor
Amethyst Empress
Bloodstone Emperor

2 hours ago, Alyn Oakenfist said:

Like the numbers 3 and 7 are the most common in fantasy, however the part with 9 rings for mortal men/free cities is considerably rarer.

Good point. I wonder if GRRM uses 9&1 like 3&7.  

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A woman's life is nine parts mess to one part magic, you'll learn that soon enough . . . and the parts that look like magic often turn out to be messiest of all.

Perhaps he does.. 

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10 minutes ago, Narsil4 said:

Good point. I wonder if GRRM uses 9&1 like 3&7.  

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A woman's life is nine parts mess to one part magic, you'll learn that soon enough . . . and the parts that look like magic often turn out to be messiest of all.

Perhaps he does.. 

To be honest when I was thinking about it the first time I was thinking about the whole shbam, with 1,3,7 and 9. Cause that seems to fit pretty well with the number of states in each important area. Fun fact, Tolkein died in 1973 which is the reverse of the numbers in the poem (1 ring to rule them all, 9 for humans, 7 for the dwarves and 3 for the elves).

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