: : I cannot agree with this. Once Sauron took back the Nine Rings he should have been free to do with them as he pleased. There is no indication, however, that he tried to create new Nazgul with them. But Tolkien says the Nine were enslaved to him through their Rings, and their wills were totally subservient to his own.

: Perhaps in "making" a second set of Nazgul he would have freed the first from his power. Or, since the Nazgul existed though their master, as such, it may have drained Sauron more extensively to control more then just the original nine.

: -RobRoy

No, I don't agree with RobRoy here. The Nazgul were enslaved because of the promise that they would one day regain their rings. That is, they were so enslaved to their own rings that they would even give up the possibility of having the One, in order to regain their own.

The nazgul are not mere "robots" or somesuch doing and behaving exactly as extensions of Sauron's will at all times. They were humans imprisoned in incorporeal form. They had their own motives and desires; they were cunning, ruthless, but savagely intelligent (c.f., the volley of heads into Gondor). But they were enslaved.

Enslaved. The word connotes a tension. One would not say that Sauron was "enslaved" by Morgoth in the First Age. Sauron was a wholehearted and willing participant in Melkor's evil. But the ringwraiths were slaves. Imprisoned and captured by Sauron's malice and deceit (though of course their own complicity and wickedness is not to be ignored either).

So they were enslaved by their lust for their own rings. And most importantly, they were aware of this. If Sauron were to turn around and betray them openly, what would happen? I don't believe that this would "break" the "spell" that Sauron had over the wraiths. But their loyalty would be in question, at the very least.

Maybe I overstated the above when I said there would be open rebellion by the wraiths if there were others waiting in the wings for *their* rings. But there would definitely be tension on his side. And doubt. Doubt as to whether the nazgul were plotting, individually or collectively, to turn on him or on the new nazgul. Now if Sauron had the One, I don't think it would be a problem for him at all to handle any such tension. But then again, maybe it would have been his ultimate downfall. In any case, it was mere prudence on Sauron's part not to disrupt his own plans unduly while he held the upperhand and his enemies slept.

Cheers.

Dave C-Q