[Kransha]

Well, I have a theory, which would only be appropriate in a mirthful forum...

Sauron (read: Gorthaur) was, as is known, Maiar. When, beneath the flames of Orodruin, he was slain inadvertantly by Isildur, the son took the Ring, forgetting rather absent-mindedly to dump it in Mt. Doom's fires. The finger most likely lay where it fell, severed from Sauron along with the Ring. Sauron was forced, when he returned an age later, to re-use the same body, as his spirit had 'fled far away and hid in waste places,' since Gollum notes in The Two Towers that the body, new or old, of the Dark Lord had nine fingers, leading us to believe that the same bereft, semi-disintegrated cadaver of Sauron was used again. But, that corpse was, as I said, 'bereft of life' (pining for the fjords, really).

What was not so bereft, was the finger, leeching Sauron's essence. It survived, lived on, after Sauron's body was removed from its moved moveliness, so to speak (senseless, I know). Thus, the Finger of Sauron remained living and probably crawled off cautiously while Elrond and Isildur babbled on about rings and things and Balrog wings. Over the years, and with the return of Sauron, it obviously decided not to return to its master, for he remains minus a finger, and lived reclusively, much like Shelob in Cirith Ungol.

As far as I know it, one can deduce the whereabouts of the Finger from the more conjectural sections of The History of Middle-Earth. In the north, near the foundation of Angmar, west of Carn Dum, sits a small pass in the upermost Misty Mountains known as Cirith Knukol, or The Pass of the Finger. Why else would it be named thus unless something finger-like lurked there? The roaming Khazad who ventued there in search of petroleum nitrate where never heard from again, now were the elusive 'company of Halfling Archers' sent to the aid of Earnur to retake Arthedain from the Witch-King. The Elves and Men who fought the Witch-Kings orcs tell no tales of Hobbit bravery, and deny openly that the hobbits were present. We must conclude that the hapless perrianath went astray and were devoured by the Finger. What say ye all?