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but i consider you as a loremaster so do not feel angry.
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No anger here,
rutslegolas! I'm flattered that you consider me so, because I do not consider myself to be so. I have only read the Hobbit, LOTR, Silmarillion, most of UT, a bunch of Tolkien's Letters, some of the Tolkien Reader, a whole lot of Arda-related websites and Quenya/Sindarin sites in my spare time, which hasn't been much lately since my network (ahem! Husband's computer! ahem!) decided it would try out every piece of adware ever invented and teach me how to edit the Windows Registry whether I wanted to learn or not...but... back to the point at hand...
I do not remember the exact year(s) in the Second Age when the Rings of Power were made, but it was well before the Third Age, and Sauron's power was not built up as it had become towards the end of the Second Age. He had to make approaches to the Elves in the Second Age in order to further his schemes for recovering and building up his power and strategies against them. At that point, the Elves left in Middle Earth would have been much stronger than Sauron, newly come from his penal servitude, such as it was, after the overthrow of Morgoth in the War of Wrath. This, I believe to be the atmosphere in which Sauron conceived the scheme of the Rings of Power. He would not have had much left to lose at that point, and much to gain. By the time the One Ring was lost, he had already made much use of it in order to enslave the cultures of Middle Earth, and he had destroyed the Elves of Eregion for their defiance of him in taking off their Three Rings. By the beginning of the Third Age, he had built much upon the foundation of his Rings of Power scheme, and by then, the One Ring was absolutely necessary to him.
Even after its loss, the power of Sauron lingered in his servants, and the orcs and other fell creatures were said to still be drawn toward the One Ring through its lingering connection with Sauron. (This is said to be one reason Isildur was found and slain at the Gladden Fields when he tried to escape with the One Ring. ) Even in its severed state, the One Ring had a powerful connection with Sauron, but this fades as the Ring is lost and legend becomes myth, etc. and Sauron has to resort to other means, all the while bemoaning the loss of his ultimate weapon, which brings up the memories of glorious victories of the Second Age and makes his slow buildup of power in the Third Age pale in his own estimation. Thus, even if he
did have sufficient power to best all the armies of Middle Earth by the end of the Third Age, he would risk all of them to regain the One Ring.
I hope that makes sense! I have been limiting myself to this one thread lately...all my other waking moments are taken up with the quest to eradicate adware! bleah!
Cheers!
Lyta