Had each their proper gem

Icarian quality'.

   In a now long archived series of threads (five in all) dealing with the Rings of Power, we discussed , on the Plaza, a series of detailed questions about the Great Rings of Power, in what still remains the most comprehensive and thorough discussion about them  on the Plaza. One of the truly exciting things about that discussion was that we allowed ourselves to speculate in order to get nearer to the 'truth' surrounding the Rings, and that speculation (particularly mine) at times took on an 'Icarian quality'. However, by the end of the series we had produced some of the finest analysis and constructive debate about the Rings that the Plaza has seen.

My purpose in this thread is to invite that same degree of constructive speculation with regard to the Gemstones of the 16. 

In the aforementioned series 

The Rings of Power -4

http://www.lotrplaza.com/archive/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=46&TopicID=18673&PagePosition=9

I said:

It would be interesting to know what these were, as gemstones have their own 'lore'. We know of those in the Three, but our sources are silent as to those in the sixteen, other than telling us that each ring, other than the One, had its own stone: "The Nine, the Seven, and the Three, had each their proper gem. Not so the One."  (Gandalf- FOTR - The Council of Elrond). (My bold emphasis).

The use of the word 'proper' is interesting. Why not just,  "each their own gem"?Remember Tolkien was very particular about the words and phrases he used in LOTR -he is on record as saying he weighed and balanced each of the 600,000 words he used before actually using them! Now 'proper' might just mean distinctive, but it also might mean 'appropriate to the particular function of that specific Ring' - thus linking back to the gem-lore referred to earlier. We will never know for sure, but how do others gloss this phrase?

In answer, my good friend Parmardil- one of the Plaza's truly great Loremasters, wrote as follows:

The Gems of the Rings

As has already been said, the Rings have a deep symbolic meaning as a metaphor, an "objectivization" of Power, that is to say the capacity to make the will quickly and completely effective. Considered in this light, the Ring-gems, along with the gold of which the Rings were made, symbolize riches; and riches are the most common and readiest mean to fulfill one's desires, to realize one's will. So riches are a symbol of and at the same time a means to Power. Furthermore, in fables and tales they often have magical powers, and/r constitute part of enchanted objects: they have, as halfir puts it, "their own lore".

We know that the Dwarves used the Seven "only for the getting of wealth" (Silmarillion)), that the Rings were the foundation of the Seven Dwarven Hoards and that they, or at least Durin's Ring, could "breed gold", though needing gold for the process to begin. But on this Halfir will soon enter into deeper detail. The Nine gave their bearers "glory and great wealth" (again, see Silmarillion).

Thus, it seems that, though "the chief power (of all the rings alike) was the preservation or slowing of decay", among their "other powers, more directly derived from Sauron" there was that of increasing the wealth of their owner, indirectly rending him more capable of enriching himself or actually "breeding" gold for him.

Finally, we must remember that the Elven-smiths of Eregion were Noldor Elves: and it was Noldor Elves that frst discovered and carved and shaped the earth-gems: "They hoarded them not, but gave them freely, and by their labour enriched all Valinor." (cfr. Silmarillion, chapt. 5 Of the Rings of Power)

So, since the Gwaith-i-Mirdàin devised the Rings in an attempt to render Middle-earth the equal or at least a reflection of Valinor, we can infer that the Ring-gems were, in a way, connected to this "beautifying" process and more specifically with the finding and accumulation of other gems and precious metals. (This is perhaps going too far, since Tolkien never said anything explicit about it, but I deem, from what precedes, I am not too off the mark).

Of the Three Rings we know the stones: sapphire for the Vilya, the Ring of Air; diamond for Nenya, the Ring of Water and ruby for Narya, the Ring of Fire. Air is the element of Manwë, the lord of the Valar and probably for this motive Vilya is the mightiest of the Rings. We do not hear anything of its powers: the only (very thin) reference, perhaps, to its action is that in Imladris, where Elrond, its keeper, dwelt, "the stars of heaven most brightly shone." (Silmarillion, chapt. 5)

Concerning the Ring of Water, I have already made in a previous post a connection between it and the Mirror of Galadriel; also, water is an important element in definig the boundaries and "nature" of Lòrien (think of the refreshing power of the waters of the Nimrodel). Narya, the Ring of Fire, is held by Gandalf, and we know his fondness for fire and his role as a "rekindler" of hope and valour in the Free Peoples.

But the Three Rings were different from the rest, in that they were the most powerful and conceived by the Elves alone, and directed to "preserve beauty and heal the real damages of malice, as well as the mere arrest of change" (letter n. 181).

So, from the scanty information we have, we can perhaps conclude that the gems of the Three were the "proper" gem for their respective Ring in that they symbolized or actually determined the peculiar manifestation of its preserving and healing power, something the gems set in the Seven and the Nine seem to lack; being "just" capable of bringing riches and slowing change all in the same way. 

The Seven and Nine, moreover, are represented as displaying their action on their bearers only and not on Nature itself: they kindle and satisfy the greed for wealth, they enhance the natural power of the possessor (this also the Three do), they confer invisibility to and prolong the life of Men, finally enslaving their will and changing their biological nature.

We must not forget that the Seven and the Nine were stepping stones towards the masterpieces of the Elven-smiths: the Three. In the same way we can infer that the gems that adorned the Nine and Seven were less powerful, less peculiar than that of the Three (at least, they were seen by Tolkien of being all much of the same kind, not requiring the articulate description afforded to the stones of the Three).

The One Ring does not possess a gem, for various reasons: to distinguish it from the others starting with the exterior aspect, to create a sharp contrast between his less adorned, simple, almost shabby look and its overmighty power and because to adorn it would have, in a sense, meant to "limit" its role, to connect it too closely to the particular aspect symbolized by it adornment, as it happens with the Seven and Nine, whose gems hint at the riches obtainable by their use or the stones of the Three, each pointing to one of the Elements. The Ruling Ring could only have the purest and most perfect (and therefore the most powerfully symbolic) of the forms: a circle. 

(As an aside, I think the look of the One in the movie is quite wrong: I think, judging also from the description of the Ring in LotR, that the One had curved sides and not flat sides; that is to say, it had a perfectly circular section besides being, obviously, round-shaped, and that the Ring Inscription was continuous, i.e. it was a unique verse running inside and outside and not the same verse written outside and repeated inside).

While everyone is, of course, permitted to comment at will on any of the points made or suggested in the quotes, my real purpose in this thread is to ask- against the scantiest of textual backgrounds, that you speculate what gemstones the Nine and the Seven might have carried and why. 

I will award tribute for what I deem to me to be the most satisfying and cogent suggestions.