XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm   
      
   On Sat, 2 Mar 2013 14:15:08 +0000 (UTC), Julian Bradfield wrote:   
   >   
   > On 2013-03-02, Stan Brown  wrote:   
   > > 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.   
   >   
   > When talking to Frodo in Hobbiton, Gandalf says:   
   > He believed that the One had perished; that the Elves had destroyed   
   > it, as should have been  done. But he knows now that it has /not/   
   > perished, that it has been found. So he is seeking it, seeking it, and   
   > all his thought is bent on it. It is his great hope and our great fear.'   
      
   You're right, and I had forgotten that quote.  I was thinking of this   
   one from III 5 "The White Rider":   
      
   "Indeed he is in great fear, not knowing what mighty one may suddenly   
   appear, wielding the Ring, and assailing him with war, seeking to   
   cast him down and take his place. That we should wish to cast him   
   down and have no one in his place is not a thought that occurs to his   
   mind. That we should try to destroy the Ring itself has not yet   
   entered into his darkest dream."   
      
   "Go not to the text, for it will say both yea and nay."   
      
   --   
   Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA   
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