The White Council

more to it than that

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: I'm no expert but it seems to me that you're basing all your assumptions on the fact that Sauron would KNOW exactly what would become of him if the ring were destroyed. I don't necessarily think that Sauron would know that he would be utterly vanquished if the ring were destroyed. So the very fact that he found himself being able to rebody himself enough proof that he was able to do so w/o the help or existance of the ring. He simply assumed, based on his own knowledge, that his enemies would destroy the ring and his subsequent ability to reform would have fueled his belief that the ring had indeed been destroyed and he didn't NEED it to reform.

Well, this is the lord of the rings we're talking about here. One would presume that he would know these things, if they could be known. Various people responding to what I've said here suggest that (1) Gandalf knew that destroying the ring would destroy Sauron, and (2) Sauron did not. That just strikes me as untenable -- especially when you consider the fact that it was not until right before the war of the ring that Gandalf even knew that the One ring had an inscription. There is really no reason to believe that Gandalf could have known anything about the One ring that Sauron did not know. Is there?

Oh, and there's this too -- Michael suggested that Sauron thought the ring had been destroyed until he caught Gollum. That's a crucial part of the argument that he didn't think it was merely lost all along. But in "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" in _The Silmarillion_ pp. 300-1, Gandalf relates to Elrond (following his invasion of Dol Guldur):

"True, alas, is our guess...It is Sauron himself who has taken shape again and now grows apace; and he is gathering again all the Rings to his hand; and he seeks ever for news of the One, and of the Heirs of Isildur, if they live still on earth."

This occurs in the year 2063, nearly 1000 years before Gandalf tells Frodo,"He believed that the One had perished; that the Elves had destroyed it, as should have been done. But he knows now that it has not perished, that it has been found."

Sauron seems to have known as much by 2063, at the latest. By 2939 he had heard rumor that the ring had fallen into the Anduin near the Gladden Fields (Appendix B, the tale of years).

It's a minor inconsistency. No big deal. But definitely there.