XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm   
      
   On Fri, 1 Mar 2013 19:09:01 +0100, Raven wrote:   
   >    *If* the destruction of the Ring would at any time have meant the   
   > immediate diminishment of Sauron into impotence, and *if* Sauron was for a   
   > while uncertain if the Ring had been destroyed, then it is clear that Sauron   
   > did not know everything about the Ring.   
      
   I don't think Sauron was _ever_ uncertain whether the Ring had been   
   destroyed.  Gandalf tells us (and Tolkien, too, in Letters IIRC) that   
   Sauron simply could not conceive that anyone coming into possession   
   of the Ring would do anything but claim it and try to become Lord.   
      
   It wasn't till the moment Frodo was standing at the brink of the   
   Sammath Naur that Sauron had any idea that the Ring-bearer was   
   heading n that direction.  And even then, it was when Frodo put on   
   the Ring, not when Gollum dropped into the file with it, that Sauron   
   knew he had a problem.  He sent the Nazgûl to cozen Frodo until   
   Sauron could come himself, not to stop the Ring's destruction.   
      
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