53 Where was the Ring when Numenor was destroyed? (Tolkien)
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This article is from the Tolkien Newsgroups FAQ, by Steuard Jensen sbjensen@midway.uchicago.edu with numerous contributions by others.
53 Where was the Ring when Numenor was destroyed? (Tolkien)
[This supplements question V.E.3 of the Tolkien LessFAQ.]
This question is answered in detail in Letter #211. Tolkien says
that when Sauron was taken to Numenor as a prisoner, "he naturally had
the One Ring". He goes on to say that at the time of the Akallabeth,
"Though reduced to 'a spirit of hatred borne on a dark wind', I do not
think one need boggle at this spirit carrying off the One Ring, upon
which his power of dominating minds now largely depended."
A passage from "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" in _The
Silmarillion_ is sometimes cited as evidence that, contrary to the
statements above, Sauron left the Ring in Mordor before going to
Numenor. In that essay, after Sauron returned to Middle-earth and
rebuilt his body, "He took up again the great Ring". However, this is
not a contradiction: according to the Oxford English Dictionary, one
definition of "take up" is
c. With special obj., implying a purpose of using in some way: as,
to take up one's pen, to proceed or begin to write; to take up a
book (i.e. with the purpose to read); to take up the (or one's)
cross (see CROSS n. 4, 10): to take up ARMS, [etc.]
Some have also argued that Ar-Pharazon would have demanded that Sauron
give him the Ring, but (again in Letter #211) Tolkien says that "I do
not think Ar-Pharazon knew anything about the One Ring."
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