I knew I should have quoted a longer part of that letter. The sentences after my previous quote are:
Quote:
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I do not think Ar-Pharazôn knew anything about the One Ring. The Elves kept the matter of the Rings very secret, as long as they could. In any case Ar-Pharazôn was not in communication with them...
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The letter was sent in 1958 in response to a reader who had asked several questions regarding the LotR and its appendices. One of them was simply "How could Ar-Pharazôn defeat Sauron when Sauron had the One Ring?", and Tolkien answered it with a short version of the Downfall-story.
I don't know when 'Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age' was written, and I don't think that its "original" version is included in the HoME series. Does anyone know the year?
About the moral of the story. I don't think that a Ring-wielding Sauron makes the Numenoreans any less guilty. The Numenoreans surely could have resisted unwanted influence from Sauron - they were the Kings of Men and all that. They were already quite evil when Sauron first got there, and it can't have been really difficult to make them worship Melkor, with or without the Ring.
[ December 19, 2001: Message edited by: Elenhin ]