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The One Ring and Precious

Hamfast Gamgee
Tol Eressea

Nov 18 2014, 12:19am

Post #1 of 9 (556 views)
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The One Ring and Precious Can't Post

One thing I have noticed about the bearers of the One Ring and are obsesed or at least influenced by it is the use of the word Precious. Gollum of course uses the word a lot and even at times refers to himself as Precious, but then Bilbo uses the word when the Ring has a hold upon him, and this is a warning sign to Gandalf that the Ring might be more powerful than he first thought. and all was not well with Bilbo. But then again, Isildur also uses the word saying that it was precious to him, though he bought it with much pain. I'm just wondering what the significance of that word is. Is it some kind of inbuilt warning that the Ring is taking hold or even a defence mechenism of the Ring? And why the word Precious? Did Sauron refer to it as such maybe?


squire
Half-elven


Nov 18 2014, 12:59am

Post #2 of 9 (386 views)
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It originated in mid-century nursery babble, but Tolkien put it to brilliant use. [In reply to] Can't Post

Gollum in the original Hobbit uses the term 'My precious' to refer to himself, not the Ring. I've suggested before that this is a spoof of the affectionate baby-talk one would hear in England and America in these years.
...a freshly laundered nurse leading a little girl came into the room.
“Bles-sed pre-cious,” [Daisy] crooned, holding out her arms. “Come to your own mother that loves you.”
The child, relinquished by the nurse, rushed across the room and rooted shyly into her mother’s dress.
“The bles-sed pre-cious! Did mother get powder on your old yellowy hair?"
(Fitzgerald (1925), The Great Gatsby, Ch. 7)
But when he revived the Ring, and Gollum's role in passing it on to Bilbo, Tolkien began playing with the term as a key signifier that the Ring takes possession of its possessor. 'Precious' comes from 'price', meaning measurable value; in common use it means monetarily valuable (precious stones are jewels), which is then transferred colloquially to mean emotional and personal value in an extreme degree. Thus one would not willingly part from something that is precious; it is too dear (which has a like meaning, by the way: "My dear" has kind of replaced "my precious" in our speech) to be given away or accepted in loss. As Tolkien often comments in his letters and throughout his fiction, one should beware of such an attachment, as it binds one in an unhealthy way. For the scriptural reference, so to speak, here's Tolkien giving it to us straight from the God's mouth:
...but the delight and pride of Aulë is in the deed of making, and in the thing made, and neither in possession nor in his own mastery; wherefore he gives and hoards not, and is free from care, passing ever on to some new work. (Sil, 'Ainulindale')
In LotR, along with Gandalf's various lectures about not possessing and so not being possessed, etc., we might remember Aragorn's comment to Pippin, in a different context but using the exact same vocabulary - which is not an accident, I should think:
‘And here also is your brooch, Pippin,’ said Aragorn. ‘I have kept it safe, for it is a very precious thing.’
‘I know,’ said Pippin. ‘It was a wrench to let it go; but what else could I do?’
‘Nothing else,’ answered Aragorn. ‘One who cannot cast away a treasure at need is in fetters. You did rightly.’
(LotR III.9)
So yes indeed, as you noticed the word becomes a connector between Gollum, Bilbo, Frodo, and even Isildur. I think the insertion of the term in Isildur's working memo as retold at the Council is a particularly brilliant bit on Tolkien's part. It jolts the reader, or at least I remember how it jolted me!



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SirDennisC
Half-elven


Nov 18 2014, 4:06am

Post #3 of 9 (345 views)
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Jolted captures it nicely [In reply to] Can't Post

precisely because in the context in which it's used, its meaning is obliterated. In naming the Ring in this manner the spectre of idolatry creeps... Idolatry according to some is the root of all sin/evil (i.e. "you shall have no other gods before me").

In the Aragorn quote he's describing an unhealthy or potentially self-destructive attachment to something of great value, though something not destructive in and of itself. In this sense the word's original connotation, while strained, remains intact. "Precious" applied to the Ring however is, as you infer, in line with ideas such as "the enemy would look fairer but feel fouler," or that devils often appear as angels of light.



squire
Half-elven


Nov 18 2014, 12:59pm

Post #4 of 9 (346 views)
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I think those who use the word for their Ring are quite unconscious of the irony. [In reply to] Can't Post

You go too far, I think, in projecting the book into the story. The usual meaning of 'precious' is not obliterated when Bilbo or Isildur use the word to describe their feeling for the Ring, or else they would not have chosen to use the word. With Bilbo, of course, we see his own self-recognition when he re-uses the term immediately but now in the context you noted: in Gollum's sense.

‘It is mine, I tell you. My own. My precious. Yes, my precious.’ (LotR I.1)

Tolkien's whole point, I believe, is that we (and Gandalf) hear what the speakers do not, the spectre of idolatry as you put it. The word would not be so ominous had it not be adopted unconsciously by Gollum, a being already ruined by the possession the Ring imposes.

To Isildur, calling the Ring precious is simply, as he thinks, realizing that it has a very high value to him and that he will not willingly part with it - no more than he would any other magnificent heirloom from his House.



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SirDennisC
Half-elven


Nov 18 2014, 5:52pm

Post #5 of 9 (338 views)
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It's true [In reply to] Can't Post

we can only speculate why Isildur chose to say "it is precious to me," instead of, say, "I greatly esteem the Ring," or something to that effect. I like to think that it is, as Hamfast implies, an effect of the Ring or device of Sauron. How could a possessor, the possessed of the Ring conceive of any harm toward that which is precious to them?

It may be simply that Tolkien found the word convenient. In "The Riders of Rohan" (TTT) Eomer says that Shadofax is precious to Theoden. When reading Eomer's account, the word used in its native (non-ironic) sense isn't jarring at all.

Yet it is strange, and perhaps telling of Tolkien's intent, that even when Shadowfax is called precious, it's in the context of someone being overly possessive. "Overly" because, as the Aragorn quote you furnished suggests, it's a sort of madness to cling to something to ones own detriment; or in the case of Gandalf borrowing Shadowfax, to the point where you miss a chance to achieve some greater good.



(This post was edited by SirDennisC on Nov 18 2014, 5:55pm)


CuriousG
Half-elven


Nov 18 2014, 11:07pm

Post #6 of 9 (297 views)
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For me, at least [In reply to] Can't Post

Tolkien deliberately repeats the word "precious" with each ring owner to tie them altogether. I thought it was pretty cool on first read how even Isildur, so far separated in time, space, and race, used the same word to describe it as Gollum and Bilbo. It make me feel like they were all under the same spell, which I believe was the author's intent.


Plurmo
Rohan

Nov 18 2014, 11:39pm

Post #7 of 9 (295 views)
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The word precious would be indicative of someone who [In reply to] Can't Post

holds the Ring (or the Horse!) but does not master it.

Squire's account maybe reveal that in the "innocent" stage of rigbeardom the bond between the bearer and the Ring is similar to the one a mother develops towards the firstborn baby. Maybe it is a form of projection: it is the Ring that sees the bearer as an infant (Gollum, being the most underdeveloped ringbearer would be able to catch that idea, "bless us and splash us, my precioussss!")

"Did Sauron refer to it as such maybe?"

Continuing with the (very pertinent) analogy provided by SirDennisC, If Gandalf did not refer to Shadowfax in that way, then I would say Sauron wouldn't refer the Ring as such.


noWizardme
Half-elven


Nov 19 2014, 7:30pm

Post #8 of 9 (284 views)
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Brilliant indeed [In reply to] Can't Post

Unless I mis-remember, I think Gollum/Sméagol sometimes refers to himself as Precious, and sometimes uses that term (or "The Precious") for the Ring. I imagine it as breaking down his ego: he can't always any longer distinguish between the Ring and himself.

I agreed the used if the P word by other ring bearers is definitely meant to make us Sit up: here's the unwholesome power that gets to work on the Rings keeper at once. It seems that the Ring quickly inserts the idea that it is too precious to give up or harm. It's fun to imagine that it chooses the term "Precious" for this: maybe that's what the Ring calls itself?

~~~~~~

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squire
Half-elven


Nov 19 2014, 8:09pm

Post #9 of 9 (368 views)
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Tolkien snuck it in there, once, in the post-LotR revision. [In reply to] Can't Post

From The Hobbit, when Gollum is first introduced:
And when he said gollum he made a horrible swallowing noise in his throat. That is how he got his name, though he always called himself ‘my precious.’
The hobbit jumped nearly out of his skin when the hiss came in his ears, and he suddenly saw the pale eyes sticking out at him.
“Who are you?” he said, thrusting his dagger in front of him.
“What iss he, my preciouss?” whispered Gollum (who always spoke to himself through never having anyone else to speak to).
(Hobbit (1937), V)
Tolkien sticks to that device throughout the original version of The Hobbit: "my precious" is Gollum himself, with no implication whatever that he is addressing the Ring or himself in identity with the possessing Ring.

Only in the revised Hobbit, issued after the writing of The Lord of the Rings, does it get interesting. Tolkien keeps the self-naming device as originally written, but adds two or three moments where Gollum uses "precious" to refer to his Ring - which even in the revision he talks about most consistently as his "present". Here are the new bits, which are the basis for most people remembering that Gollum calls the Ring, or his Ring-self, "my precious":
...there in his hiding-place he kept a few wretched oddments, and one very beautiful thing, very beautiful, very wonderful. He had a ring, a golden ring, a precious ring.

“Where is it? Where iss it?” Bilbo heard him crying. “Losst it is, my precious, lost, lost! Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!”

"Yes, but if it’s [i.e., the hobbit] got the present, our precious present, then goblinses will get it, gollum!"
(ibid. (1951); bolds by squire when 'precious' refers to the Ring)
Interestingly, only in the middle quote does Gollum use the since-immortal phrase "my precious" in referring to the Ring; earlier in the same sentence, he is clearly talking to himself with the same words, as per the formula. One might guess that there, just there, is where Tolkien got the simple but brilliant idea that carries such a telling load in The Lord of the Rings. But in The Hobbit, even the revised edition, that one instance is almost lost amidst the far more common conventions of " he always called himself ‘my precious.’... through never having anyone else to speak to", and "the present... my Birthday-present".

And so in fact, if we think about it, it's far more likely that Tolkien actually invented the "My Precious=Ring=Me" identity while writing the later book, in particular the part where Gollum reappears as a major character. All of those chapters were already written when the professor finally got out The Hobbit, cast a nervous eye over what he'd written just a few years before, and realized that some changes were probably called for. But although he changed quite a lot regarding Gollum's evil treachery and Bilbo's not-so-naive strategems, he did very little with the "My precious" dialogue after all - fitting the new meaning in as inconspicuously as possible.



squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Footeramas: The 3rd & 4th TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion and NOW the 1st BotR Discussion too! and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary


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