Gwyneth Hood, writing in Mythlore, explores two Catholic elements of the story of the Three Rings: the angelic and sacrificial aspects of the elves in the War of the Ring. To the hobbits of the Fellowship of the Ring, the elven Ring-bearers appear as angelic messengers, offering wise counsel. To save Middle-earth, they have to accept the plan to destroy the One Ring, and with it, the power of the Three Rings, which embody much of their own power. Hood notes that while Gandalf as one of the supernatural Maiar sent from Valinor is remarkably unlike an elf, out of the wielders of the Three Rings he is the character who most closely combines the angelic and the sacrificial.