[Man-of-the-Wold]

Those letters are darn intertesting. I will need to get a good edition of them and HoME, although my worruy has always been to get too enmeshed in the evolution of Mr. Tolkien's work, in which there are inevitable conflicts with the configuration that matches and makes his published tales what they are. True Genius.

The letter was clearly from some time ago, and may relate to early conceptions of Numenor and the Second Age. It is an attempt, soon after publication, to clarify LOTR, Appendix A,(I),(i), which is very cursory, and for which one may assume that Mr. Tolkien had only developed the historical outline of Second Age tales, which were sadly never really developed fully.

The Akallebeth and "Of the Rings or Power and the Third Age" provide quite a bit, and are found (I think) always in association with the Quenta Silmarillion, for which my first HMCo American Printing of the "The Silmarillion" is one of my last great Tolkien acquisitions, until about a year ago, when my daughter and I got into it in anticipation of today's long-awaited event.

(The Unfinished Tales though provide some excellent stuff too, for which I'd have urged C. Tolkien to have refined into the best possible complete stories.)

I think it is clear, as I and others have noted, that Tolkien was nevertheless very interested in the concept of Numenor. It expands on the Atlantis tales, by painting a picture of how enhanced grace can be more than Men can handle. Mr. Tolkien was at pains to show with the example Beor the Old that resistence to death was not a natural state but a manifestation of pride and fear. But that these arose from the free choices and attitudes that true Men have the choic and usually the power to reject.

Whether Sauron had the ring in "his pocketes" so-to-speak, while in Numenor, is not really critical. The story is pivotal to Tolkien's philosphy, and I suspect that he wanted to go beyond the conception that Sauron used the Ring to "dominate the will" of the King's Men, as indicated in that letter. If this were the case then they are not so culpable, and more akin to "victims."

So, I still prefer to think that Sauron left the Ring behind, and was merely a manipulative voice. [Also, Sauron likely would NOT have known whether the Elves had tried or been successful in keeping the Ring's existence secret from the Numenoreans, although Tolkien's letter suggests that he may have wanted that to be the Elves' objective]

If Sauron was supposed to have the Ring while in Numenor (and of course brought it back) then I believe that Tolkien would have us not think of it as an excuse for the Numenorean's Fall:

They had long started down the path of arrogance and faithfulness.

However much Sauron "bewitched" the King, his really effect was not through power, but rather mischievious lies that preyed on fears and greed, and that the King's Men chose to listen to, paralleling Melkor's plan with the Noldor, for which goodness was more of a predetermination.

They then descended into the type of horrible sin that Sauron promoted through ever increasing fears of death and hate of the Valar.