The White Council

Re: true enough...but

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

First, when the Ring was cut from Sauron's finger he fell, heavily and mightily.

Gandalf knew this.

Gandalf also knew that Sauron had placed the greater body of his amassed power into the Ring. It is a simple leap (more of a skip really) to put the destruction of the Ring and the destruction (for all intents and purposes) of Sauron together. If just being parted from the Ring had caused such massive harm to Sauron, then surely the Ring's own destruction would render Sauron impotent.

Secondly, Sauron had no idea that Isuldur had not destroyed the Ring. Again, as above, he most likely felt that his impressive fall had been caused by the Ring's destruction itself. Sauron is a very "kill or be killed" oriented guy. If he had the ability to destroy the power base of any of the Wise, why wouldn't he? Certainly, he would have counted on the Ring being destroyed.

Third, no entity before or since had ever placed so much power with an article. No one could know, initially, what would happen if that article was destroyed. Certainly, Sauron, after having the Ring cut from his hand, and regaining some semblance of cognant thought, would have most likely felt that the Ring was destroyed and that it was his own superiority that had saved him.

If he did not think this, then he would have begun immediately to discover where the Ring had ended up, knowing that just being parted from it had reduced him to his present form. He would have also realized that he could be destroyed with the Ring's own destruction. Without much effort he could have found out that Isuldur had taken the Ring as a trophy, and that Isuldur had been slain. Not much effort to figure where the Ring was from there. But, he did not do these things. So, he did not believe the Ring had suvived the storming by the Last Alliance, and he did not believe that the Ring's destruction would be tied to his own.

Only after realizing that the Ring still existed, did he attempt to discover it. But, by this time, he had regained much of his lost power, and he was in a position to begin the conquest of ME again. Why seal up Mordor when you can release a flood, crush the world and hunt the Ring down at your lesuire? With his re-established power, he would have assumed the same arrogance that had brought about his previous fall. Though he realized that it would be easier to seize victory, he felt that his enemies would not seek to destroy the Ring, as they had not done so in the past. Thus, even if he did feel any danger, this would assuage those feelings, and so he while he did send his Nazgul out on this important errand, he obviously felt that his other plans should not be put off just for the Ring.

Gandalf knew this, through a simple method of deductions and profiling, and was also able to establish (as stated above) that the destruction of the Ring would be the fall of Sauron again.

-RobRoy