[Gordis]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Did he know how Isildur fell? Sauron was already neutralized by then, and would have had no particular knowledge of a skirmish two years later- and certainly wouldn't have any idea that the Ring, specifically, caused Isildur's death by slipping off at the wrong moment. The attacking Orcs didn't know about the Ring, and in the west only three survivors brought the news of the disaster to Elrond (only one of whom, "Ohtar," actually knew about the Ring).

The quote I have given in the previous post proves that Sauron knew where Isildur fell and where Gollum found the Ring. Of course, he knew it by 3017-18, not when it actually happened: he had an Age to learn these facts. Sauron's agents were searching the Anduin even prior to Sauron's relocation to Mordor.

That the Ring caused Isildur's death by slipping off was a surmise made by the Wise - but Sauron could make the same surmise just as easily. After all, he knew his Ring better then the Wise did.

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

For that matter, did Sauron even know that Isildur took the Ring? He was already 'dead.' PJ notwithstanding, it was Elendil and Gil-galad who did him in: Isildur was just looting the corpse.

Yea, we better forget PJ, but in the "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age" Isildur says in front of Elrond and Cirdan (who had witnessed the whole scene, so he couldn't lie):

‘This I will have as were-gild for my father's death, and my brothers. Was it not I that dealt the Enemy his death-blow?

Here is how the sequence of events is described:

But Sauron also was thrown down, and with the hilt-shard of Narsil Isildur cut the Ruling Ring from the hand of Sauron and took it for his own. Then Sauron was for that time vanquished, and he forsook his body, and his spirit fled far away and hid in waste places- "Of the Rings of Power..."

I see it this way. Sure it were Elendil and Gil-Galad who had brought Sauron down. He lay there vanquished and unresisting, dieing. But I am almost sure that Isildur managed to cut Sauron's finger before his spirit had left the body.

in the letter 211 Tolkien writes:

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” back to Middle-earth after the drowning of Numenor.

So, if Isildur but waited a tad longer, the spirit of Sauron would have carried away the One Ring, leaving Isildur with no weregild!

As for Sauron's body, I guess it had decomposed as swiftly as Saruman's - weren't they both incarnate Maiar? Maybe faster, because it was indeed hot and burning. Natural combustion-and there is nothing to loot and nothing to dispose of.