: : : : Similarly, he did not die when the ring was destroyed. Unfortuantely, so much of his power was tied to the ring (unfortunate for him, not the good guys), that he couldn't take shape or wield power, and became a formless and weak spirit of hatred doomed to float around the ether.....

: : : Yes, but he did at one point have a boddy . . . the question, I believe, was "What happened to the [corporeal] body?" The more I think about it, I think I was wrong in my initial post.

: : : -RR
: : If we are talking about the end of the Second Age, he simply abandoned it/lost the power to hold it when the ring was cut off.
: : No spirit in Maiar 'body' = no body to dispose of - it disappeared (look at Sarumans 'demise') similar concept
: : Don Q

: This is an interesting point - was Sauron still inhabiting his body when Isildur amputated?

: If not then:
: I don't think (given the nature of Sauron's form - hot etc.) that a simple extrapolation from Saruman's dissolution can be made. Sauron's corpse could have been somewhat more durable.

The corporeal form is an irrelevance, a Maiar is spirit in essence, and the corporeal form it takes is not of the same intrinsic/essential quality as a Man or Dwarf or Hobbit (Elves are a little more complicated)
The point is, when the ring was cut from the hand, Saurons spirit which inhabited it (that part of his spirit anyway) was torn from him, and his essence fled in pain and fear. Whatever if anything was left behind is irrelevant - it was not Sauron anymore in any way shape or form.
Don Q