Posted: May 29, 2000 at 18:13:20: by David Freitag
: : (2) One other question about rings. I noticed an earlier set of postings that talked about the nine and how Sauron kept them. My question is this: How did he get them back from the nine in the first place? I mean, you don't normally want to give up something that has enslaved you and gives you all your power. Granted, they probably didn't know that Sauron could control them through the nine, but still, would they really just give them back? Or did he take them, and wouldn't that have broken them and made them useless?
: : Josh.: Your answer is actually in your statement. Sauron controlled the Nine through the One. Once they had become wraiths, he had them utterly in his power, and it would be a simple matter, from that, to order them to surrender their Rings. And thus he gained even more control over them. They really had no choice in the matter, or had as much choice as they did in becoming wraiths. : -RR
The timing is key here: Sauron had to have taken the Nine from the Nazgul (or pre-Nazgul kings, or kings-in-the-process-of-becoming-Nazgul) prior to Isildur taking the One at the end of the Second Age.
During the Second Age, Sauron's power over the Nazgul (or whatever) came from his possession of the One and its power over the Nine. After Isildur, he lost that Ring and its power. Had he not by then taken the Nine, the Nazgul would have retained them, and thus been independent powers, albeit independent evil powers (on the order of Saruman or maybe Super-Gollums).
How the post-Isildur, disembodied for close to a millenium Sauron retained the Nine is an open quetion I'm not touching today.
|
