Help me better understand this part of 2nd age timeline:
In the 2nd age Sauron was living on Numenor after being taken prisioner by the Numenorians. And he slys his way into a position of favor with King Ar-pharazon and helps put in motion the attempted invasion on the undying lands. The coup doesn’t work and the Valar destroy Numenor. Now Sauron gets destroyed along with the island at this point, or perhaps he was with the contingent of Edain who sailed in force against the Undying Lands, either way he gets wasted. Now since Sauron’s soul is bound up in the One Ring he created some 1500 years before, his soul or spirit can live on, and he returns some time later to try and finish off the elves and what is left of the Edain.
OK, so here is my question: Where was the One Ring during all of this? Presumably Sauron was wearing the ring when Ar-pharazon took him prisoner. It seems that I have read that the power of the ring was one of the tools Sauron used to corrupt Ar-pharazon. So when Numenor is sunk and the shape of the world is altered and Sauron’s body gets destroyed wouldn’t the ring have been lost? Or did Sauron hide the ring for 60 or so years somewhere in Barad-dur, hoping that no one would take it? Would he have done this? Can some Tolkien expert help me figure out this conundrum?
I don’t have the books in front of me for a cite, unfortunately, but here goes:
Where was Sauron?
In Armenelos, the capital of Numenor, I believe. He was caught in the deluge when the island sank.
Where was the One Ring?
Sauron had it with him. The book isn’t crystal clear, but what happened is: Sauron lost his physical form, but his spirit had the force of will (or something) to carry the Ring over the sea back to Middle-Earth. Later, he must have gotten his physical form back because he had a finger for Isildur to chop off.
SAURON: Of course, it goes without saying that if you’re going to invest the lion’s share of your vital force into a crafted artifact, then you’re going to want to consider some extra security features. Now obviously I’d made the Ring itself indestructible to blunt physical damage, so the only real concern was the temperature problem. I mean, the only way you’d ever even risk a critical failure like that would be through prolonged immersion in asthenospheric-intensity heat levels. But you’d be surprised how often that happens in my line of work. (laughs) Murphy’s Law, and all that. Of course it doesn’t exactly help if you live next to an active volcano.
Anyway, I’d devised the original Ring casing to partially address this concern. When I wasn’t actually wearing the thing, I’d designed a special protective housing chamber for it, consisting of a central armature of heat-resistant galvorn-ceramic composite surrounded by eight ultraminiaturized, microvernier-controlled scramjets, insulated with thermal-ablative mithril silicate foam. The entire assembly was intended to lift the Ring out of harm’s way in the event of a sudden magma flow or something. Of course I never expected to have to use it to escape Numenor. * (laughs) *
Yeah, I never really solved the miniaturization issue completely. It was designed to be worn around the neck like jewelry, but it was still pretty bulky. (laughs) I told ar-Pharazon that it was an asthma inhaler. He was never the sharpest knife in the drawer.
–excerpted from *Pimped-out Relics! * Episode 203; Featured Guest: Sauron Annatar; Broadcast Date: 18 Jun 2002 (TechTV)
I believe he used the Ring’s innate powers to turn it invisible, or, alternately, to subtly influence Ar-Pharazon not to think of confiscating it. When Elenna was destroyed, Sauron’s physical body was killed but his spirit remained puissant enough to carry the ring back with it to Middle-Earth by means of sheer willpower.
One of the most distracting things about Ralph Bakshi’s **The Silmarillion ** was how the One Ring flying back to Middle-earth used the exact same sound effect as George Jetson’s car.
So after the seige of Barad-dur, when Sauron’s body was slain and the One Ring cut from his hand, what stopped Sauron from reclaiming the One Ring then?
Thanks for the factual answers everyone. Now on to speculation.
That is actually a good question. After Isildur is slain the ring sits at the bottom of a pond for 400 years. If Sauron had the power to carry the ring around after his first physical demise why couldn’t he have just floated over to that pond and picked up the ring?
Is it that he doesen’t know where it is? Is Sauron less powerful in the Third Age than he was in the Second Age? It’s so fuzzy. If Sauron floated the ring over an ocean and a continent after his body was destroyed at Armenelos, then why would he not have just floated the ring off the battlefield after Isildur cut it off?
Sauron was weaker in the third age. Additionally, I have seen no cites that say Sauron had the Ring in Numenor. Actually the first I have ever seen that was this thread.
So what’s the letter from JRRT then, chopped liver?
As for Sauron: He was not separated from the ring during the downfall of Numenor. His body just was destroyed, a minor inconvenience. But at the end of the Siege of Barad Dur, he was thrown down by the combined might of Gil-Galad and Elendil (tho they both perished in the throwing down) and then he was physically separated from the ring, source of most of his power, and hence tremendously diminished.
Thanks! For lo, such was indeed my plan. I crave attention, is all. Before I encountered the internet, there were exactly zero people in my circle of associates who actually understood things I said, about LOTR or anything else. Now there’s like three or four people who not only get my jokes but are even occasionally amused by them. I love you all.
I know what you mean. Only here could I post about Radagast being Eru’s chief agent in the defense against Melkor’s attack on the nitrogen fixation cycle in Ainulindalë and not get 100% blank looks.
That is an excellent point, I always felt that the ents underestimated the drive of the entwives to try an minimize soil erosion as per Yavanna’s & Eru’s wishes.
This group never minds a LOTR question.
If you have not read the Hobbit, that should be the next.
If you have, find Smith Wootton Major and Farmer Giles of Ham. Great pair of light hearted stories by the master of Fantasy.
When you are ready to undertake The Sil, make sure you have a copy of The Atlas of Middle-Earth alongside you. Only by following the thematic maps did I start making more rapid sense out of what the hell was going on.
Thanks! For lo, such was indeed my plan. I crave attention, is all. Before I encountered the internet, there were exactly zero people in my circle of associates who actually understood things I said, about LOTR or anything else. Now there’s like three or four people who not only get my jokes but are even occasionally amused by them. I love you all. 