In The Lord of the Rings, Sauron's The One Ring has an inscription in it. It's revealed by exposing the ring to fire. The inscription describes the ring's purpose and power. However, this was not the only Ring of Power that was forged. The Elves made 3, 9 were made for humans, and 7 were made for Dwarves. Did these rings also have inscriptions?
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14The rings were manufactured before labeling regulations required poetic, riddle-like warnings.– John OOct 12, 2012 at 16:00
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@JohnO "Made in Eregion" ;)– Canadian Girl ScoutOct 12, 2012 at 16:23
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1I've never read anything indicating they did or didn't, and the brief descriptions in the book did not mention them. However, they of course were not exposed to fire and so that is inconclusive. One major difference was that the elven rings at least had jewels set in them, so they were different in some way than the one ring– The FallenOct 12, 2012 at 17:15
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1Gandalf was hoping it was a cheap knock-off power ring, which would've had an inscription like the one in Bored of the Rings.– Ward - Reinstate MonicaOct 12, 2012 at 19:39
2 Answers
As far as we know, no other ring was inscribed
Note that all rings were made by the Elves for their own usage, it is Sauron who gave them to the other races to corrupt them.
The Elves' ones, the only which were saved from Sauron, were the more powerful ones and the only adorned with jewels. The others were mere prototypes and the fact that they had different effects on Man or on Dwarves is due to each race particular nature rather than to any deliberated design.
Taking other forms of fantasy and spellmaking, Inscriptions are commonly used to bind a spell to an item (considered an incantation that, by being written, persists).
Since the other rings were rings of power in their own right, it stands to reason that those rings would have inscriptions as well to designate and bind their powers to them.
I, of course, have not found any canonical explanation for this, but it would make sense given the generally accepted notion of magical inscriptions.