Rachel Port
Well-Known Member
Forodan, that's brilliant. And the abstract thing the Ring represents may even be different for different people.
Thank you for this summary. Like LyndonLeaves, I always enjoy it when you do this (whether I agree or not).
I never thought of it as his being able to recover his powers from the Ring, but that, wearing the Ring again, his remaining power and the power he put into the Ring would work together so he would operate at full power.
Now, if Sauron was more powerful with the Ring, why on Earth would he have left it behind when he went to Numenor? I guess it might have been because he was no more powerful with the One Ring than without it, except when dealing with the other Rings. None of the other Rings were in Numenor. They were all back in Middle-earth. So, no point in taking the One Ring with him to Numenor. It gave him no advantage there.
Other than in dealings with the Three, is there any evidence anywhere that would support the supposition that Sauron would gain other powers if he recovered the One?
If it were simply a matter of the Ring not conferring advantages in the particular way he needed, it would still have made sense to bring it with him to keep it safe. It does contain a large proportion of his 'power' in some sense. But there is a very good 'positive' reason to leave the Ring behind when he goes to Numenor. He is pretending to be a captive. Now, if you are a captive how do you refuse to hand over some shining important looking Ring if the putative 'captor' wants to see it? Granted, it's unlikely the Ar-Pharazon could have comprehended what it was or how to use it, but nevertheless, the risk was there. He would then have to either refuse, and 'blow his cover' of pretending to submit, or hand it over. The possibility that the mark^H^H^H^H captor would want to get his grubby hands on it was a greater risk tnhan leaving it behind in a huge fortress full of loyal (well, if 'fearful' is the same as loyal) servants. Certainly he would have 'private chambers' where no fawning lackey would dare to snoop around, and he could lock it in some sort of box/chest/vault to be extra sure.
Hi Forodan,
You are right that one reason why Sauron might not have wanted to bring the Ring to Numenor, is that he wanted to keep it safe. All the more reason if it would give him no advantage in Numenor, but would back in Middle-earth, once he returned there. However, I would have thought that Sauron was perfectly capable of hiding the Ring from the Numenoreans if he wanted to, and, if it gave him an advantage in Numenor (by making him more powerful). Bilbo managed to hide the Ring from almost all and sundry for decades. If Bilbo could hide the Ring just by keeping it in his pocket, I see no reason why Sauron couldn't do the same, or better?
No, I do think Sauron thought the Ring was safer left in Middle-earth, but I don't think that would have convinced him to leave it there if he thought it would make him stronger in Numenor. I guess that the Ring did not add anything to Sauron's powers except in allowing him to dominate the other Rings. He traded part of his power to gain that advantage. Is there any evidence that he would gain any of those powers back if he regained the Ring?
Once he put those powers in the Ring, I think they were gone. Just like (as per 'Histories of Middle-earth'), Morgoth lost some of his own powers permanently from putting them into Orcs, dragons, Utumno, Thangorodrim, etc. etc. Of course, Morgoth got all those things in return for contributing some of his inherent power, and so did Sauron. He got the ability (more or less - since he seemed to mess up some of it) to dominate the other Rings.
Is there any evidence that Sauron would gain any other powers if he recovered the Ring?