system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[LOTR] Were the population of Middle Earth aware of the rings?

Did your average hobbit or human know about the rings and their power? Do the orcs realise that they are enslaved by the ring?
gpt
No. Remember, it had been gone for 2500 years when Gollum found it, and he had it for something like 400 years before he lost it. 

There was lore about it, but after that long the information on such a thing is sparse and not much more than legend at best.

Even Gandalf had to do a great deal of work to figure out if the ring Bilbo had was THE ring.