THe Rings of Power

 What were the rings of power and what were their powers? During the Second age Sauron, who was still able to disguise himself in a fair form, set about to ensnare the Elves. He shared parts of his great magical knowledge with them, and one that he shared was his ability to forge rings of power. The Elves using this knowledge created what were known as the lesser rings though they still possessed great magical powers,Sauron knew of their making and secretly forged the one great ring that would control all the others, into this ring he poured a greater part of his own powers but upon his forging of the great ring the Elves became aware of his treachery.Sauron then retrieved the lesser rings and gave them to others , nine he gave to the Dwarves, seven he gave to man, and the one ring he of course kept for himself. Unknown to Sauron, an Elf forgemaster had created three rings that Sauron knew nothing of and therefore could not pervert to his own purposes, these rings, which Sauron desired above all others they kept hidden from him. But what were there powers? The three that were forged secretly were used to heal the hurts of the world, they evidently had powers that could stop part of the evil that were Saurons but these powers were never adequstely explained by Professor Tolkien.The rings possessed by the Dwarves helped them to obtain great riches, hoe I am not sure. For men the rings granted unnaturally long lives,and the power of invisibility, it was men he found easiest to ensnare, but the great lengthening of years the rings boght proved to be a curse rather than a gift,As the years passed you would come more and more under the power of the great ring until in the end you fell into darkness and ceased to be a man and became instead a slave of the ring, a Ringwraith. So in the end the rings granted no truly great powers that you didn't in the end have to pay for most dearly.All the truly grat power was bound up in the Great Ring which was in effect Sauron itself.And old saying goes"you can't have your cake and eat it too." This was truly the case with the rings of power.