What happened to the Nine Rings?

[Slow_Moving_Vehicle]

@Chronos

None of the characters know for sure what ill will caused the storm-- Gandalf is just saying not to rule out Sauron as a possibility. Personally, I favor the spirit-of-the-mountain possibility, but that’s mostly because I think that Tolkien’s world is more interesting with more fey spirits in it (“fey” being a distinct category of being, that were much more prominent in the early drafts)

Yes. But that just goes to the point I was making - if Gandalf thought Sauron might be responsible for the snow on Caradhras, that suggests that Sauron’s will might be able to sustain and move his servants in some way, even when they’re far from Mordor.

That Sauron controls his slaves thusly is made clear at the Morannon, when Frodo claims the Ring and Sauron suddenly sees his danger:

@The Return of the King

From all his policies and webs of fear and treachery, from all his stratagems and wars his mind shook free; and throughout his realm a tremor ran, his slaves quailed, and his armies halted, and his captains suddenly steerless, bereft of will, wavered and despaired. For they were forgotten. The whole mind and purpose of the Power that wielded them was now bent with overwhelming force upon the Mountain.